More bodies wash up on Japan coast

Three bodies have washed up on the coast in northern Japan.

The remnants of a wooden boat, believed to be from North Korea, washed ashore in Tsuruoka in Japan's Yamagata Prefecture. Source: AAP

Three more bodies and a dilapidated wooden boat have washed ashore in northern Japan in a seasonal influx that has sharply increased this year.

The Coast Guard said a Japanese fishing boat picked up a male body floating off the coast of Sakata in Yamagata prefecture on Monday, and two more bodies washed up on the nearby beach an hour-and-a-half later.

Officials are investigating if the bodies were from a boat that washed ashore on Saturday.

Twenty-eight similar boat arrivals were detected in November, up from four last year.

Authorities are investigating 18 survivors from those boats who say they are North Korean.