Japan held a memorial service for Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor at the UNESCO-listed Sado mines in Niigata Prefecture, in the absence of representatives from the South Korean government.

According to the memorial event execution committee, the ceremony began at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Aikawa Development Center on the western part of Sado Island.

The ceremony failed yet again to note that the workers were forced to work there during the Japanese colonial era.

The South Korean government earlier decided not to attend the ceremony for the second straight year since the 2024 inaugural event, after concluding that the forcible mobilization of Korean laborers was not sufficiently reflected in Tokyo's memorial address.

Similar to last year, Seoul plans to hold its own event in Japan sometime in the fall.

During UNESCO's review of the mines' World Heritage listing last year, Tokyo promised to hold an annual memorial ceremony in honor of the Korean and Japanese laborers.

Seoul gave its consent to the listing on the condition that Tokyo take steps to inform international visitors about the full history of the site, including the annual memorial and an exhibit describing the harsh working conditions under which Koreans were forced to toil.