Two bodies recently found in southern Afghanistan were confirmed Saturday to be those of a missing Japanese man and woman, the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said the dental records of Jun Fukusho, 44, and Shinobu Hasegawa, 30, matched those of the two bodies. Officials have notified their families, the ministry said.

The two teachers at a municipal junior high school in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, went missing after entering Afghanistan from Pakistan in early August, according to Japanese officials.