Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday he has read a letter from the family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in Japan in March while being detained for overstaying her student visa, and that he had “taken the bereaved family’s feelings to heart.”

In the letter, the family of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, 33, sought to clarify what led to her death, as they remain unconvinced by a probe conducted by Japan's immigration authorities that failed to determine why she died.

"I will urge the Justice Ministry to take necessary steps to ensure that an incident like this will never happen again," Kishida said during a House of Representatives session as he offered his condolences.