A Japanese man who returned from Sierra Leone earlier this month has tested negative for Ebola virus, the health ministry said.
"I had no direct contact with Ebola patients but I touched, with my bare hands, a bag containing a body during a burial Dec 17 in the epidemic-hit west African country," the Japan Times quoted the man as saying Monday.
He stayed there for eight days till Dec 21.
The man, whose name was not released, returned to Japan Dec 23 and has since stayed at his residence at the request of authorities.
Finding that his temperature had risen to 38.2 degrees Celsius Monday, the man reported his condition to a health centre.
A ministry official declined to clarify why the man travelled to Sierra Leone.
