Officials of the land ministry on Saturday found a bottle containing an unknown liquid, possibly left behind by the Imperial Japanese Army, at a road construction site in Kanagawa Prefecture where bottles of mustard gas were found in September last year.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry's Yokohama National Highway Work Office said it found the 360-ml bottle, containing about 3 ml of yellowish liquid, during operations to separate hazardous materials from soil at the site in Samukawa, Kanagawa Prefecture.
In September last year, officials found about 10 old beer bottles containing liquid mustard gas and chloroacetophenone crystals, a major tear gas ingredient, at the site, which used to house a factory where the army manufactured toxic gas during the war.
The bottle found Saturday was taken to a secure storage unit. No hazardous substances were detected in the surrounding atmosphere, officials said.
The bottle was the first found since the office began operations at the site Oct. 23.