Princess Kako Attends Ceremony to Commemorate Unidentified Soldiers

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:20 JST, May 30, 2023

Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, attended a ceremony at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery to commemorate unidentified soldiers who died in action during World War II or in detention in Siberia after the war.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and representatives of bereaved families were also among the about 240 people at the ceremony on Monday in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Out of remains gathered by the government’s bone collection team in Russia and on Iwoto Island in Ogasawara, Tokyo, 235 sets that could not be handed over to bereaved families were newly presented to the cemetery.

Far fewer remains were presented to the cemetery than in average years due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, which prevented the collection of remains outside of Japan from fiscal 2020 through fiscal 2022. In total, 370,485 sets of remains have been delivered to the cemetery.