Three Japanese passengers are believed to have been aboard the China Northern Airlines MD-82 jet that crashed Tuesday night into waters off northeastern China.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said Wednesday three Japanese were on the passenger list of the plane that crashed into the sea off the coastal city of Dalian, claiming 112 lives.
Embassy officials identified the three as 23-year-old female Chiyori Yonemaru; Kosuke Imoto, a 29-year-old male employee of Kitakyushu Transportation Co., a harbor docking company in Kitakyushu; and Joji Nagai, a 52-year-old male employee of Toshiba Corp.
Imoto and Nagai were both traveling to Dalian for extended business trips, according to officials of their firms. Yonemaru is from Yokohama, where she lived with her parents.
Yonemaru's family said she was on the way to attend a Chinese friend's wedding ceremony.
The families of the three passengers were to leave for Dalian between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Yonemaru's father told reporters Wednesday evening that he still hopes his daughter is safe.
"We received the information that our daughter's name is on the passengers list," he said. "But we have no further information."
Airline officials said another passenger, Wang Sihang, could be a Chinese-Japanese living in China.