Japan will start digging up and disposing of abandoned wartime chemical weapons buried in Dunhua, Jilin Province, in northeastern China next Wednesday in cooperation with the Chinese government, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
Takeshi Erikawa, vice minister for the Cabinet Office, will visit China for five days from Tuesday to discuss the disposal of weapons abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war, government officials said. The disposal project will end Nov. 23.
He will also visit the sites where Japan plans to build two chemical weapons-disposal facilities. The bulk of the estimated 700,000 artillery shells left by Japan during the war are believed to be buried in the province.