A small wooden boat found off the western island of Sado in Japan contained decomposing bodies , according to local police . The boat was badly damaged and contained faint markings on the side that appeared to be Korean characters , according to the Sado West Police . But the characters were so faint that they could not read it clearly , said Toshiyuki Kojima , deputy chief of Sado Nishi Police Station . The boat was discovered early morning Wednesday , drifting into a rocky part of the coast at Mano Bay in Sado City . Authorities did not know how long the boat had been there . Police would not say exactly how many bodies were found on the boat , but said that some bodies had decomposed to the point where only skeletons remained . Local Japanese media reported five bodies were found . Last September , a group of nine North Koreans sailed to Japan and was discovered drifting about 15 miles off the coast of Noto peninsula . They resettled in South Korea . While it 's rare for North Korean defectors to sail to Japan , in 2006 , four North Koreans floated to northern Japan . In 1987 , a family of 11 drifted from North Korea to west Japan .
Wooden boat found drifting off western side of Japan . Police found decomposing bodies inside boat . Ship could 've come from Korea as it had faint markings .