The remains of some 15,000 Japanese soldiers who died in the Philippines during World War II continue to lie in undignified government storage after the media raised suspicions five years ago that the bones include those of local residents obtained by profiteering grave robbers.
The remains were repatriated to Japan from fiscal 2008 and 2010, and were temporarily placed in a room in a government high-rise in Tokyo's Kazumigaseki district.
In 2010, media reports said handsome commissions offered to Filipino villagers may have enticed some people to raid local graves and pass off the remains as those of Japanese who died there in World War II. The collection effort began in 1952.