Photo/Illutration A burial site for Japanese soldiers whose remains have yet to be recovered in Russia’s Siberia is seen in 2012. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The welfare ministry admitted on Sept. 19 that the remains of 597 purported World War II Japanese prisoners it had recovered from Russia’s Siberia over the past 20 years are likely not Japanese.

Despite being informed by experts about the possibility in 2005, the ministry has neglected the issue and kept it from the public until now.

“We cannot deny the charge of lacking in prompt action,” a ministry official said during a news conference on Sept. 19. “I don’t think the ministry ignored the issue, but we will reflect on our past conduct."

The ministry plans to conduct DNA testing on the remains again.

Regarding why the mix-ups occurred, the official said, “We will check the facts.”

In June 2018, experts who carried out DNA testing informed ministry officials that it is likely that the remains of 16 individuals that were retrieved in 2014 from Siberia were not of Japanese origin.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare kept the information from the public until the news media reported it in July this year.

After news of the revelation surfaced, the ministry promised to verify the findings and release a report in a month or so.

The ministry said it has checked all the minutes of meetings held since a committee of DNA testing experts was formed in 2004.

The records showed that the experts pointed out the possibility that, of the 126 burial sites for Japanese soldiers in the former Soviet Union and Mongolia where the ministry retrieved remains in and after fiscal 1999, the remains of 597 individuals recovered from nine burial sites in Siberia were not of Japanese origin.

The experts pointed out the same possibility regarding the remains of 43 individuals that were retrieved in 2002, as of May 2005.

However, ministry officials didn’t report these findings to the welfare minister. They also did not start discussions with Russia on the return of the remains.

An estimated 55,000 former Japanese soldiers died while in detention in Siberia after they were taken there by Soviet troops after the end of World War II. Expedition teams of the ministry and other groups have brought back the remains of 21,900 individuals to date.