"Tracing Japanese-Owned Properties from the Japanese Colonial Period to the End"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The Public Procurement Service has identified Japanese-owned properties from the Japanese colonial period worth approximately 140 billion won and reverted them to state property.

Since 2012, the Public Procurement Service has been investigating about 52,000 parcels of land suspected to be properties under Japanese names, and is currently conducting a nationalization project on about 10,000 of these parcels.

As of July, based on various supporting documents from related agencies, they have succeeded in reverting 4.9 million square meters (6,162 parcels), which is 1.7 times the area of Yeouido, to the state.

In terms of property value, this amounts to over 139 billion won based on the official land price.

The Public Procurement Service is also promoting a "Project to Erase Japanese Names from Official Registers" for real estate still recorded under Japanese-style names in official records.

Last year, a joint government-level maintenance project began for about 104,000 parcels of land still bearing Japanese names, and a basic survey was completed under the leadership of local governments.

Among these, about 34,000 cases suspected to be reverted properties are undergoing in-depth investigations including field surveys by the Public Procurement Service starting this year, proceeding with nationalization procedures, while the remaining 70,000 parcels are being maintained in official registers by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and local governments.

The Public Procurement Service has nationalized one parcel this year after in-depth investigation of suspected properties, is currently processing nationalization for 70 parcels, and plans to complete the nationalization procedures without delay by 2023.

Kim Jung-woo, Administrator of the Public Procurement Service, stated, "It is our generation's rightful duty to find even the smallest pieces of land left as remnants of Japanese colonial rule and restore ownership of the land to our country," adding, "We will continue to devote all efforts to nationalizing Japanese-named reverted properties and maintaining official registers free of Japanese names, so that we can fully restore cadastral sovereignty and pass on a correct history to future generations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.