 RUSSIA IN FACTS |
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Japan resumes aid to Russian-held disputed islands
Tokyo, 20 January: Japan resumed providing humanitarian aid to the residents of disputed Russian-held islands off
Hokkaido on Tuesday [20 January] after it had been halted in January 2001 due to its link to a scandal involving
lawmaker Muneo Suzuki.
A ship carrying 9.4m yen worth of supplies prepared by an association of former Japanese residents of the islands
departed from Hanasaki port in Nemuro, Hokkaido, early Tuesday.
The dispute over the islands, Shikota, Etorofu, Kunashiri and the Habomai islets, which were seized by the Soviet
Union at the end of World War II, has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty.
The aid includes 140 kg of pharmaceuticals, 600 kg of medical supplies and 17 tons of food supplies, according to the
association.
Japan had sent aid through a government-funded committee from 1993 to January 2001. The project was halted due to the
scandal and the committee was abolished in April 2003.
The Cooperation Committee was shut down because its activities were said to have been secretive and influenced by
Suzuki, who had been a Liberal Democratic Party member in the House of Representatives at the time.
He is now being tried on bribery charges, including those related to the bidding for some of Japan's
humanitarian aid projects on the islands.
Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has said that it was necessary to do away with the committee to increase the
transparency of Japan's aid activities involving Russia, but that the aid for residents of the islands will be
extended in a different form.
The association of former residents took over the aid project after the committee was abolished.
The Cooperation Committee, based in Tokyo, was set up in 1993 under an agreement Japan signed with 12 former Soviet
republics. It provided 44.4bn yen in assistance for the countries as of the end of fiscal 2001.
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