Japan confirms bid to work with Russia to boost travel flow, says ambassador

MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Japan wants to team up with Russia to give a boost to travel flow between the countries, Japan’s Ambassador in Moscow Toyohisa Kozuki said in an interview with TASS on Tuesday. "A record number of Russian nationals, 94,800, visited Japan in 2018, which is 22.7% more than in the previous year. In 2017, the growth made up 40.8%, so high figures have persisted for already two consecutive years," the diplomat said. "The number of Japanese nationals visiting Russia is also growing. In 2017, their number was about 100,000 people," he added. The Japanese diplomat stressed that at their summit in January, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set a goal to increase the number of bilateral visits to 200,000 people on each side. "We expect to seek this aim together with Russia through strengthening economic relations, trying to bolster different contacts, not only in tourism, but also in such sectors as exchanges between regions and higher educational establishments," Toyohisa Kozuki said. In January 2017, the Japanese government made up the decision to relax visa requirements for Russian nationals by canceling the demand for a letter of guaranty from the receiving side and expanding the circle of people entitled to the multi-entry visa. "Besides, the list of documents required for issuing visas for the Russian tourists going to Japan in a group of three people and more was sizably shortened in October last year," the diplomat noted, saying that these moves were efficient, giving a boost to mutual visits. Read more