Yukiko Okano, director-general for cultural affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, delivers remarks at a memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of a World War II mine complex in Sado, Japan, on Saturday. (Yonhap)
Yukiko Okano, director-general for cultural affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, delivers remarks at a memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of a World War II mine complex in Sado, Japan, on Saturday. (Yonhap)

Japan again made no mention of Koreans' forced labor during a ceremony Saturday commemorating victims of a World War II mine complex in the country.

The annual ceremony began last year as a fulfillment of Japan's pledge when the Sado mine in Niigata Prefecture was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2024.

"Among the mine workers were many people who had come from the Korean Peninsula," Yukiko Okano, director-general for cultural affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, said in her capacity as a government representative.

"The workers from the Korean Peninsula, though under the unique circumstances of war, carried out difficult work in the mines' dangerous and harsh conditions in a faraway land while thinking of their loving families," she said, adding some died in Japan before they were able to return home.

Like last year, South Korea boycotted the event, saying no agreement was reached with Japan on Seoul's demands to include in the ceremony an acknowledgement that the workers were mobilized against their will.

Korea plans to hold its own ceremony with the victims' family members. (Yonhap)