Japanese experts will survey the disputed Russian-held islands claimed by Japan in late June to assess the potential for setting up joint economic ventures with Russia, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday.
The dispatch of the public- and private -sector experts in fisheries management, tourism and health care stems from the bilateral agreement reached last month aimed at paving the way for the two countries to conclude a peace treaty to end World War II.
The experts are expected to draw up a priority list of potential ventures on the four isles off Hokkaido, such as cultivation projects involving fish and sea urchins.
Before that, a group led by Eiichi Hasegawa, a special adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is scheduled to visit Sakhalin, which effectively administers the isles, from Tuesday through Thursday to discuss how to proceed with the survey, Kishida said.
Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in December to start the joint ventures on the isles. Kishida told a news conference that Tokyo and Moscow are arranging for former Japanese residents of the isles to visit two of them by air in mid-June.
The territorial row concerns Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group. They were seized by the Soviet Union in the days soon after Japan's surrender in World War II.
The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a treaty to end World War II, meaning they technically remain at war.