THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 23, 2024 at 17:46 JST
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a July 22 news conference in Tokyo (Takeshi Iwashita)
A Japanese man in his 20s who joined Russian forces fighting in Ukraine died last month in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, sources said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a July 23 news conference the man was a former member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
Hayashi, however, did not give the man’s name or say whether he died in battle.
Sources close to the Foreign Ministry said it was the first reported death of a Japanese national in the conflict.
The sources said the man died on June 3. Russian authorities notified the Japanese Embassy in Moscow of the fatality on June 5, and the embassy confirmed his identity by July 15.
The Foreign Ministry knows of several Japanese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces, the sources said.
Hayashi made no mention of other Japanese volunteers joining the fighting, saying, “It is a delicate matter.”
“We don’t have any information on injuries of Japanese nationals, other than this man,” he added.
(This article was written by Nen Satomi and Shohei Sasagawa.)
Hayashi visit shows uncertain future for Japan-China relations
April 3, 2023
U.S. airman charged over sex crime with minor in Okinawa
June 25, 2024
Foreign Minister Hayashi lodges protest to Russia ambassador
February 25, 2022
Russia, Japan still working on return of bodies from Kazu I
August 23, 2022
Body with ‘Kazu’ life jacket found along southern coast of Sakhalin
June 29, 2022
Former Johnny’s idol stresses need for celebrities to reveal abuse
June 13, 2023
Stories about memories of cherry blossoms solicited from readers
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series on the death of a Japanese woman that sparked a debate about criminal justice policy in the United States
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
