TOKYO, Aug. 1 Japanese Prime Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was unable to immediately respond to a question regarding the government's position on the issue of resuming visits to ancestral graves by former residents of the Kuril Islands and was forced to wait about a minute for printed materials before giving a comment.
During a press conference on Thursday, a journalist from the Asahi newspaper recalled that a member of the country's upper house of parliament, Muneo Suzuki, who traveled to Russia, called on the Russian side to resume visits to the graves of ancestors by former residents of the Kuril Islands, and asked to comment on the government's position. After the question was asked, there was a pause in the hall, since the Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers, who usually immediately begins to read out the answer to the question posed from the materials available to him, this time was silent for about a minute and looked to the side, waiting for someone one of the employees will bring him a printout.
«First of all, I will refrain from commenting on each of Mr. Suzuki's statements. As for visiting graves in the Northern Territories (as the southern islands of the Kuril chain are called in Japan — ed.), the government attaches priority importance to this issue within the framework of Russian-Japanese relations. The elderly people, former residents of the islands, sincerely wish for a resumption,» Hayashi commented.
According to the Secretary General, the Japanese government «continues to make efforts at various levels, including communication between the Japanese Ambassador to Russia and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, to convince the Russian side.»
After Japan adopted several packages of sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on March 21, 2022 that Moscow, in response to Tokyo's unfriendly steps, was refusing to negotiate a peace treaty with Japan, was ending visa-free travel for Japanese citizens to the southern Kuril Islands, and was withdrawing from dialogue with Japan on establishing joint economic activities in the southern Kuril Islands.