The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force defused this U.S.-made 5-inch shell after removing it from a construction site in Tomigusuku city, Okinawa, Oct. 14, 2025. (Tomigusuku city, Okinawa)

Japan’s military disposed of nearly 13 tons of unexploded ordnance on Okinawa between April 2024 and March — a little more than half the amount handled the previous fiscal year, according to government records.

The Unexploded Ordnance Countermeasures Council held its first meeting of fiscal 2025 on Wednesday, according to documents posted to the Okinawa General Bureau’s website.

During fiscal 2024, the Japan Self-Defense Force disposed of 33,527 pieces of ordnance, weighing 12.9 tons, found throughout the prefecture in 432 cases. Japan’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.

Of those, the Ground Self-Defense Force handled 33,003 pieces in 427 cases, while the Maritime Self-Defense Force took care of 524 pieces in five cases, according to the documents.

Unexploded ordnance from the 1945 Battle of Okinawa continues to turn up across the island prefecture, including at former battlefields and construction sites. Nearly 22 tons of World War II-era ordnance was disposed of between April 2023 and March 2024, according to the general bureau.

When discovered, ordnance is typically defused, removed and stored for detonation at a later date.

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force defused this U.S.-made 5-inch shell after removing it from a construction site in Tomigusuku city, Okinawa, Oct. 14, 2025. (Tomigusuku city, Okinawa)

On Thursday, 18 pieces of ordnance believed to date to WWII were detonated on land at Kubasu Beach on Miyakojima, an island about 190 miles southwest of Okinawa, said a spokeswoman with Miyakojima city’s Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division.

Seven members of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s 101st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit carried out the controlled detonation over 2½ hours beginning at 5:39 a.m. Traffic was restricted within a quarter-mile radius, but no homes were evacuated, the spokeswoman said by phone Friday.

The ordnance included two British-made 60-pound rocket bombs; seven U.S.-made 5-inch rockets; one Japanese imperial army 47 mm artillery shell; one U.S. made 20 mm artillery shell; and seven fuses, she said.

On Sept. 27 and 28, 10 members of the same unit detonated another 24 U.S.-made 5-inch rocket bombs and 50 fuses on land in the Miyara district of Ishigaki city, a spokesman with that city’s Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division said by phone Friday.

The operations began at 9:10 p.m. each night and lasted about 2 ½ hours. Traffic was restricted roughly 980 feet, but no evacuations were ordered, he said.

On Sept. 22, construction workers unearthed a U.S.-made 5-inch shell while using heavy equipment at a site in Tomigusuku city, a spokesman with that city’s Disaster Prevention Division said by phone Friday.

Some Japanese government officials can speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.