TOKYO: Two men claiming to be World War II Japanese soldiers have been found hiding on a Philippine island.
Japan is sending embassy officials to Mindanao to meet them.
"Embassy officials will check whether they were truly former soldiers" of the now defunct army, Japan foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.
Japanese media said the two men had been living in guerilla-controlled mountains until late this month.
It is not known if they knew of Japan's surrender in August 1945 to Allied forces.
The two men contacted a Japanese national who was on the island collecting the remains of dead Japanese soldiers.
They said they wanted to return to Japan.
But Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily said the men were afraid of facing a court martial for deserting the front lines.
Japan was stunned in 1974 when former imperial army intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda was found in the jungle on the Philippine island of Lubang. He did not know of Japan's surrender 29 years earlier.
After being repatriated, Mr Onoda emigrated to Brazil.
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