The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is planning to propose new legislation to speed up the retrieval of remains of Japanese soldiers and civilians who died at home and abroad during the war, party sources said Saturday.
The LDP aims to submit a bill to an extraordinary Diet session in the autumn to accelerate the recovery of the remains of some 600,000 Japanese war dead from battlefields on Iwojima, in Okinawa Prefecture and in the Philippines, among other sites, the sources said.
The bill will call for the appointment of a state minister to oversee the retrieval process in a bid to reduce red tape, and for the designation of a special period of intensive collection efforts with an increased budget and personnel.