The government plans to introduce a new device for defusing bombs that remain unexploded 78 years after the Battle of Okinawa.
The explosion-proof container, made by Kobe Steel, will be introduced on a trial basis within this year at the earliest. Its use is expected to reduce the evacuation area in a residential district during bomb disposal work to one third of the present size.
On Friday, Okinawa Prefecture marked the 78th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa in the final phase of World War II. Organized fighting in the bloody ground battle is said to have ended on June 23, 1945. About 1,900 tons of dud shells are thought to remain in the prefecture.