Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may make his first official visit to Moscow by the end of this year to rekindle negotiations on a long-standing territorial dispute between Japan and Russia.
The government is considering having Koizumi make the trip late this year or early next year for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although official diplomatic discussions on the meeting have not yet begun, government sources said Monday. Koizumi's predecessor, Yoshiro Mori, visited the east Siberian city of Irkutsk in late March just a month before stepping down as prime minister, but his visit was termed an "extra event," demoting its status from that of a regular official visit, the sources said.
Since Putin made an official visit to Tokyo in early September, it is now Japan's turn to respond in kind, according to diplomatic custom, the sources said.