DNA testing has failed to identify bones found at an undersea coal mine in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where 183 people died during the war, including people from the Korean Peninsula, the government said.
The Japanese and South Korean governments each carried out DNA analysis on the remains, and neither matched them to a named individual, according to the announcement. The government did not say how many bones were tested or when the analyses were completed.
The Chosei coal mine lay under the sea off Ube. Those who died there included laborers brought from the Korean Peninsula during Japan's colonial rule of Korea, a period that ended in 1945.
The announcement gives no timeline for further identification work and does not say whether additional testing is planned.