Hokkaido delegation comes to Kuriles on visa-free basis

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7/7 Tass 82

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 7 (Itar-Tass) - A delegation from the Japanese
island of Hokkaido arrives on Tuesday in the South Kuriles under a
visa-free exchanges system. The group of 65 aboard the M/S Roza Rugoza
will visit the islands of Kunashir and Iturup.
The delegation includes former residents of the Kurile Islands,
scholars, students of Japanese higher schools, businessmen and officials,
representing various departments. Member of the Japanese parliament Muneo
Suzuki who occupied earlier the post of Japanese state minister, will also
visit Kunashir and Iturup. He was in charge of relations with Russia and
visited Moscow several times.
Prior to 1945, the Kurile Islands with a population of 16,500 people
(Japanese and indigenous Kurile residents - Aini) were under the Japanese
rule. A Japanese military garrison with a numerical strength of 60,000 was
deployed in the islands. During the Soviet period, the greatest number of
people living in the islands, was in 1989 - 30,500. Around 20,000
residents live in the Kuriles now.
The delegation's visit to the South Kuriles will last three days. A
packed excursion programme is provided for the guests. For instance the
Japanese will visit projects, being built under a federal target
programme. Besides, the guests will participate in an ecological action on
Kunashir.
Japanese scholars and students along with Kurile schoolchildren will
collect garbage along the coastal line in the area of Cape Stolbchaty. The
delegation includes a Buddhist priest. He will perform a service for the
dead at Japanese cemeteries.
Visa-free exchanges between Russian citizens, living in the Kurile and
South-Kurile districts of the Sakhalin Region and Japanese citizens have
been in force since 1992 on the basis of an intergovernmental
understanding. More than 8,000 Japanese came to the Kuriles in the
meantime, and around 7,000 Russians visited the neighbouring country.
A new area in border trips opened in the Kuriles - the so-called
family tourism to Japan. Residents of the Kunashir and Shikotan islands
are invited to Hokkaido on a visa-free basis. Excursions, rest and
treatment are organised for them. The programme of medical check-up for
juveniles living in the South Kuriles started in 1994, and in 2008 the
Japanese side began conducting medical check-ups for adult Kurile
residents - in the city of Nemuro at the start of their tour of Hokkaido.
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