A Japanese relief team in Thailand has found the bodies of two Japanese killed on Phi Phi Island by Sunday's quake-triggered tsunamis, officials said Friday.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Relatives identified the victims as Takayuki Sugimoto, 41, from Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, and his 8-year-old son, Tomoki, they said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>That put the number of Japanese citizens confirmed dead in the disaster at 17 -- eight in Sri Lanka and nine in Thailand -- while many others remain missing.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Sugimoto and his son had been listed as missing after Sunday's tsunamis struck. Sugimoto was vacationing there with his wife, Masami, 41, Tomoki and son Ryohei, 12.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Ryohei was rescued, but Masami is still unaccounted for. The bodies believed to be Sugimoto and Tomoki were found under the debris of a hotel shown to the rescue team by Ryohei, according to the officials.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Meanwhile, the body of the Filipino spouse of a Japanese businessman was identified Thursday. She was apparently washed away along with her family on the Thai resort island of Phuket, her husband's company said the same day.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The body of Ivy Catherine Terasaka, 32, was identified by her older sister and officials of Sumitomo Forestry Co. Her husband, Masahiro Terasaka, 39, was stationed at the company's representative office in Singapore. He and their three children are still missing, the company said. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The family had been vacationing on the Thai island since Dec. 24 and were believed to have been heading for Khao Lak beach in a rental car when the tsunamis hit, the company said. A car with some of their belongings inside was found on a roadside Tuesday, it said.</PARAGRAPH> <SUBHEAD> Forensic experts sent</SUBHEAD> <PARAGRAPH> NARITA, Chiba Pref. –

The Foreign Ministry on Friday dispatched two forensic experts to Thailand to help identify the Japanese victims of quake-triggered tsunamis.

The bodies are rapidly decomposing, making identification increasingly difficult. The disaster struck last Sunday.

Masatsugu Hashimoto, an assistant professor at Tokyo Dental College, and Hideki Saka, a lecturer at the college, left for Thailand from Narita International Airport.