Disembarkation card submission requested to enter Kunashiri

MOSCOW, Jan. 27 Kyodo - The Russian authorities requested that Japanese government officials on a humanitarian mission Tuesday submit disembarkation cards before arriving on disputed Kunashiri Island, bilateral sources said.
As such submission would mean that the Japanese side accepts the Russian claim
that the island belongs to Russia, the officials rejected the request,
according to the sources.
Concerns are now growing that the visa-free exchange visit program among
Japanese and Russian residents will be suspended if the Russian side does not
withdraw the request.
The Japanese officials left Nemuro, Hokkaido, on a chartered vessel with aid
materials early Tuesday, and were asked to submit the disembarkation cards by
the Russian authorities off Kunashiri Island.
The vessel anchored there, and negotiations will be held again on Wednesday,
according to the sources.
The mutual visit program was launched in 1992 between Japanese citizens and
current Russian residents of the Russian-administered and Japan-claimed islands
known in Russia as the Southern Kurils and in Japan as the Northern
Territories, under the names Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai islet
group.
The program aims to deepen mutual understanding between the two countries
toward a solution of the long-standing territorial dispute which has kept them
from concluding a World War II peace treaty.
==Kyodo