A DNA test has confirmed that a Japanese man who had stayed on on Sakhalin after the Soviet Union took control of the island at the end of World War II is the elder brother of a Hokkaido woman, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Yoshiteru Nakagawa, 78, who lives in the Republic of Kalmykiya in southern Russia, was confirmed as the brother of Toyoko Chiba, 74, a resident in Bibai, Hokkaido, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
Nakagawa became the first Japanese who stayed on in Russia after the war to have his identity confirmed via DNA tests. Earlier, DNA tests confirmed the identities of two war-displaced Japanese in China.