Local police on Thursday said that they had found what appeared to be a burned human bone in a vehicle buried in a landslide that occurred on Saturday in the village of Shimokitayama, Nara Prefecture.
Nara Prefectural Police are trying to identify the bone, believing that it belonged to a man in his 70s who could not be reached.
On Tuesday, the Nara Prefectural Government and fire department found part of a vehicle matching descriptions of the man's car and its vehicle registration. The vehicle had been completely burned.
The search resumed on Thursday morning after measures were taken to prevent a secondary disaster.
According to the prefectural government, a 5-meter-high slope stretching around 30 meters along a national road collapsed on Saturday night, blocking the road.
A man in his 50s who was driving a minivehicle was also buried in the landslide but was safely rescued about seven hours later.