As the press service of the international, foreign economic and interregional relations committee of the Sakhalin Region said, head the delegation of the Department of Social Welfare and War Victims' Relief Bureau of Japan's Health Ministry Hirabayashi Yoshiaki stated this during his visit to Sakhalin.
"The government of Japan is ready to help the Japanese' return to the Japanese islands for permanent residence," Yoshiaki said.
According to him, if necessary, Japan is ready to help the Japanese living on Sakhalin receive visas, and also to give financial resources to pay the transport expenses.
"As many as 380 Japanese are living on Sakhalin. Within the visit the members of the delegation intended to find out their compatriots' living conditions and also to ask them about their desire to return to their historical homeland.
A society of the Japanese who remained after WWII was set up in the Sakhalin Region, the press service officials noted. But many mixed marriages emerged in the past years, and many Japanese now have Russian citizenship. In this connection, if the question of movement of the Japanese citizens and their families to the homeland arises it will be decided according to the procedure laid down in Russian and Japanese legislations, the agency's interlocutor specified.
After Russia's defeat in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 South Sakhalin was put under Tokyo's rule. As a result of WWII, it was returned to the Soviet Union.
