Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting in Singapore next week, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported Wednesday. The meeting will take place during Putin's three-day visit to Singapore from Tuesday, on the fringe of gatherings related to the Association ...
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Japan's sanctions on Russia are undermining confidence between the two countries. Speaking at a forum in the southern Russian city of Sochi, Putin said he does not believe that the sanctions are a step that enhances confidence. In 2014, ...
Russian residents of disputed islands make first visa-free trip to Japan this year
Around 60 Russian residents of disputed islands off Hokkaido arrived Thursday in Nemuro on the first visa-free tour of 2018 under a bilateral exchange program. According to the tour organizer, participants — including teenage students and teachers from the islands, which are claimed by Japan ...
Komeito chief Yamaguchi says Abe's idea to amend Constitution 'difficult' without public support
The leader of Komeito, the junior coalition partner to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, expressed pessimism Wednesday about the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambition to amend the Constitution, including its war-renouncing Article 9, by 2020. "It would be difficult without significant public support," Natsuo Yamaguchi ...
Japan-Russia security talks seen symbolic, may only benefit Moscow
Japan and Russia resumed on Monday a ministerial security dialogue for the first time in over three years. But the talks are seen as a symbolic development rather than substantial, and may have only served Moscow's interest in showing its improved ties with a ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering making informal contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Milan, Italy, on Oct. 16 and 17, according to government sources. Abe hopes that staying in touch with the Russian leader will help make progress ...
The government will set up a database to track Japanese who visit the Russian-held islands off Hokkaido via the visa waiver program in an effort to attract new visitors and widen public understanding of the situation, a government source said Sunday. Without data on the ...
Tokyo on horns of dilemma responding to Ukraine crisis
Japan faces a dilemma over how to respond to the crisis in Ukraine following the vote Sunday by residents of Crimea, a majority of whom are ethnic Russians, in favor of seceding and joining Russia. While Japan has been urging Russia to respect the sovereignty ...
Abe between rock and hard place after Putin nabs Crimea
Russia's deployment of troops on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine put Japan in a difficult position Monday, as Tokyo, which has tried to build closer ties with Moscow, joined its Group of Seven counterparts to issue a statement strongly condemning Russia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ...
Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Tuesday prior to his official appointment as chairman of the 2020 Olympics organizing committee that he will strive to make the event appropriate for "a new age." "I wasn't thinking of chairing the committee, but once I agreed to ...
Restaurateur illuminates thanks for Sakhalin locals
Yutaka Miyanishi felt a strong sense of gratitude when he discovered, during a visit to the former Soviet Union, that local people were tending the graves and looking after a cemetery where Japanese soldiers who died in labor camps after World War II are ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Monday that Moscow would dispatch its top diplomat to Japan this fall to boost political dialogue, a Japanese official said. The leaders also confirmed that talks on an island dispute that has prevented the two ...
