A DNA test has identified the remains of a former Japanese serviceman who died in detention in a Siberian labor camp after the end of World War II, the Health and Welfare Ministry said Saturday.
Doctors at Teikyo University in Tokyo identified the man as Kenichi Mimura, the first case in which a Japanese soldier who died abroad has been identified through a DNA test, according to the ministry.
The ministry collected the remains from Siberia last summer. After examining Russian documents, the ministry believed the remains to be those of Mimura and submitted a sample to be tested in early October, ministry officials said.
Mimura's daughter, Keiko Fujita, 69, from Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, said she was relieved to learn of the positive identification.
Since last year, the ministry has accepted seven other requests from relatives of military personnel thought to have died abroad to carry out DNA tests on the soldiers' remains. Each test costs about 50,000 yen.