I’m not talking accidental deaths in training, or other freak accidents.
Though not particularly well known, Japan provided minesweepers during the Korean War. At least one Japanese sailor died as a result of an exploding mine. While I can’t say for sure how the Japanese would have classified that, the US military would have (rightly) defined that as a combat death.
Depending on what you consider military deaths - 35 members of the SDF died while deployed to Iraq for “reconstruction and support,” comprising 16 suicides, 7 illnesses and 12 unknown/accidental. (Japanese language cite)
The Wikipedia entry on the Korean War lists 79 dead for Japan (in the summary table on the right hand side of the page), but I don’t know specifics on those.
This article notes that a number of Japanese fought in Korea, apparently under U.S. command, though they also apparently did so without the approval of the Japanese military or government.
A few of the infamous ‘holdouts’ were killed, usually by local authorities, but a handful by Allied hands in the years immediately following the surrender. Not sure if that is what the OP was talking about.
Wow, that is a high percentage of suicides.