Japan wants to achieve the resumption of visa-free travel of its citizens to the Kuril Islands

Japan expects to resume a special procedure for visiting its citizens of the southern Kuril Islands, said the Japanese Embassy. We are talking about visa-free travel for humanitarian trips to visit the graves of relatives in these territories.

"We intend to ..." Persistently continue efforts to press the Russian side to resume visits to the graves on these islands as soon as possible from a purely humanitarian point of view, the embassy said.

In 2022, Japan joined the anti-Russian sanctions and since then has repeatedly expanded the sanctions list. In response, Russia canceled the visa-free regime for Japanese visiting the Kuril Islands and refused to negotiate the status of the islands and sign a peace treaty.