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Japanese delegation visiting Kuril Islands leaves for home from Kunashir

On Saturday, a group, which visited Iturup, could not take a part of the delegation to Kunashir, and due to the weather conditions the plane had to land in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 24. /TASS/. A delegation of Japanese tourists, visiting the Iturup and Kunashir Islands under the visa-free exchange program left for Japan, representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Vladimir Nosov told TASS on Sunday.

"The Japanese group of tourists leaving Iturup spent the night in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk because of bad weather on Kunashir; at first it landed on Kunashir, and as all the 68 tourists passed the border and customs control, left for Japan," he said.

On Saturday, a group, which visited Iturup today, could not take a part of the delegation to Kunashir, and due to the weather conditions the plane had to land in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the diplomat said, adding due to the weather conditions the flight between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Yuzhno-Kurilsk also was cancelled. "Tomorrow, if the weather allows, the plane will leave for Kunashir, there the delegation from Iturup with the group from Kunashir will take customs formalities to head for Japan."

"According to the initial plan, the flight was scheduled for September 23, and September 24 was a reserve day," he continued. "So, as yet, we fit the schedule."

Under the initial plans, the trip was to take place in June but it was moved to September because of bad weather in the Southern Kuril Islands area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reached an agreement on this trip at the talks in Moscow on April 27. At a G20 conference in July in Hamburg, the two leaders agreed the trip in September.

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