Foreign Minister Yohei Kono visited an apartment complex outside Seoul on Sunday built especially for South Koreans repatriated from Sakhalin who were left behind on the Russian island at the end of World War II.
Kono, who is in Seoul for a two-day visit, told residents of the complex, located some 60 km south of Seoul, that Japan will donate 150 million yen to help them visit Sakhalin to see their children and grandchildren still living there.
"We want to respond to their hardships (by continuing to assist their visits to Sakhalin)," Kono said.
About 1,000 people live in the apartment complex, which was completed late last year on land donated by the South Korean government. Japan shouldered the 2.7 billion yen construction cost.
The South Koreans returned as part of a homecoming program initiated jointly by Japan and South Korea in 1997.
At present, more than 40,000 Koreans and their families remain in Sakhalin.
Only Koreans born before August 1945 and holding South Korean citizenship are eligible to relocate permanently to South Korea.
The southern half of Sakhalin was Japanese territory until the end of World War II.