TOKYO, May 30. /TASS/. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov will visit Japan in the second half of 2019, which will be the first visit in 18 years, Japanese Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya said on Thursday at a joint news conference after Russian-Japanese negotiations in the "2 + 2" format.

"We agreed that the Russian Navy’s commander-in-chief will visit Japan in the second half of the year. It will be the first such visit in 18 years," he said.

Tokyo and Moscow also intend to improve contacts further between the defense ministries and the militaries of the two countries, he said. Tokyo highly values the recent meeting between Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov and Chief of Staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Goro Yuasa in Moscow, Iwaya said.