The government has not dismissed the possibility that two former Imperial Japanese Army soldiers are hiding out in the Philippines, officials said Wednesday, despite mounting suspicions the story is a hoax.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesday the Japanese mediator who tried to arrange a meeting between the two reported soldiers on Mindanao and Japanese officials had confirmed they were not Japanese. But Japanese officials said they hoped to have more contact with the unidentified mediator and had not given up on the possibility that the accounts are true.
"We are still waiting for information," said Akira Chiba, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The mediator, a 58-year-old Japanese trader who first reported the men's existence, told the Yomiuri he had met the two soldiers in the mountains on Mindanao Island and found they were not Japanese.
Neither of the men could answer when asked where they were born and to which military unit they belonged, the mediator was quoted as saying in the Yomiuri.