Gov't to protest tourists' visit to disputed isle with Russian visas+

TOKYO, Aug. 24 Kyodo -
Cabinet ministers on Tuesday showed irritation at a group of Japanese tourists
for visiting one of the four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan using
Russian visas on Monday, and a travel agency for organizing the tour.
''If it is true that they visited the island, it goes against the Cabinet
decision and is extremely regrettable,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito
Sengoku told a press conference. ''We will protest strongly against the travel
agency and the tourists.''
The Japanese government has been urging its citizens to refrain from obtaining
Russian visas to visit the disputed four islands, called the Northern
Territories in Japan, as it effectively recognizes Russia's sovereignty over
the islands.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada echoed Sengoku in expressing regret over the
tourists' reported behavior and said the government will publicize its policy
of urging citizens not to visit the disputed islands with Russian visas based
on a 1989 Cabinet agreement.
The trip is believed to be the first sightseeing tour of any of the four
islands by a group of Japanese nationals. But there have been known cases of
people visiting the territory, including a case last month in which two
Japanese businessmen made a trip to Kunashiri, as the Cabinet decision is not
legally binding.
''The government will urge the travel agency to refrain from organizing such
tours and the tourists to not take part in the future,'' Sengoku added.
Okada pointed out that in many cases in the past, Japanese nationals visited
the islands without knowing the circumstances based on the Cabinet agreement.
The trip to Kunashiri Island was organized by a travel agency in the city of
Fukuoka, involving eight tourists in their 70s and 80s from Tokyo and Chiba,
Kanagawa, Toyama, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures, as well as an attendant from the
company.
The group went to Kunashiri by taking a flight from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Monday
and later plan to visit Etorofu Island, also one of the four disputed islands.
The bilateral row over the islands, also including Shikotan and the Habomai
islet group off Japan's northern island prefecture of Hokkaido, has prevented
the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.
==Kyodo
2010-08-24 23:22:24