A man recently recognized by the government as having been one of the Japanese left behind in China as a child in the aftermath of the war arrived Tuesday in Tokyo for a temporary visit to search for relatives.
Du Chunquan, estimated to be 67 or 68 years old, was recognized as a war-displaced Japanese in September.
He is the first to visit Japan since 2009.
The government did not identify any war-displaced Japanese last year for the first time since it launched a program in 1981 under which they can visit Japan to locate surviving relatives.
Du, who will stay in Japan through Dec. 10, has yet to schedule any face-to-face interviews with possible relatives.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Du came under the care of his first adoptive father, Wang Naisheng, in a refugee camp in the former Manchurian city of Mukden, now Shenyang, at the end of 1945. Wang died two months later and Du was put in the care of a new foster father, Du Yonglong.
Du Chunquan was estimated to have been 1 to 2 years old at the end of the war. Details including the circumstances in which he was separated from his biological parents and his Japanese name are not known.
Du, whose blood type is O, has a small mark on the back of his neck.
The ministry has received three inquiries since it published information about Du last month, but the place of separation, dates and other items of information did not match.
During his stay, Du will visit a center to support resettled war-displaced Japanese in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, and other sites.
Anyone with information should call a temporary ministry number at (03) 3593-7890 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. through the morning of Dec. 9.
