All annual visa-free visits to Russian-held isles off Hokkaido that are claimed by Japan have been canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a group of Japanese former residents of the isles said Monday.
The group had already canceled its six visa-free travel programs scheduled for this year that would have allowed them to visit their former places of residence under one category of the program, and it has now decided to abort the last one to Etorofu, one of the four disputed islands, slated for Sept. 25 to 28.
The visa-free programs allow groups of Japanese nationals to travel to the disputed islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, without passports or visas.