Overview

• A citizen diving group recovered bone-like items from the submerged Chosei coal mine and handed them to Yamaguchi Prefectural Police for testing.
• Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government will watch the prefectural inspection and continue gathering information through relevant ministries.
• The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry began interviewing diving and related experts in May and reports no new findings that would support a government-led on-site investigation.
• Divers found a femur-like object on August 25 in the main tunnel and reported seeing what looked like a lying body in the same area.
• The site is tied to a 1942 inundation that killed 183 people, including 136 from the Korean Peninsula, and relatives visiting the area expressed hopes for recovery of remains.