The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is planning legislation to designate retrieval of the remains of Japanese who died in the war as "a state responsibility" and accelerate the work toward the 75th anniversary in 2020 of Japan's World War II surrender, party lawmakers said Wednesday.
Under the legislation the party is set to propose, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP aims to increase the number of specialized staff at Japanese diplomatic missions abroad to beef up information-gathering and allocate more funds for the project.
It comes as the lack of close coordination among relevant ministries and insufficient funding have been blamed for hampering efforts to retrieve remains, even as the aging of informants about burial sites has made it more difficult to gather relevant information.