80 Years On: Overseas Memorial Services for Japanese Families to End

   Tokyo, Aug. 13 (Jiji Press)--A program that allows families of Japanese nationals who died in overseas battlefields during World War II to visit memorial sites and hold commemorative ceremonies abroad will end this fiscal year due to the aging of participants.
   With this year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, Nippon Izokukai, a bereaved families organization for the war dead and the program's organizer, decided that it would be difficult to maintain the initiative with the average age of participants exceeding 80.
   The program was launched in fiscal 1991 with the help of state subsidies. Many people have participated in memorial services to remember the war dead and in interactions with local residents in the Pacific islands, China, the Philippines and other locations that were once fierce battlegrounds.
   As of April 1, 2025, some 16,000 people had taken part in about 450 trips through the program.
   The number of participants has been declining recently, however, with many bereaved families growing older. After the number of participants peaked at 911 in fiscal 2005, the figure dwindled to 248 in fiscal 2023 following a brief program suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(2025/08/13-16:52)

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