-- A group of 36 Japanese left Nemuro port in Hokkaido on Saturday for a visa-free trip to Shikotan Island, one of four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.
According to organizers, the group, traveling aboard the Japanese passenger ship Rosa Rugosa, will make a three-day visit to their former residences in Notoro on Shikotan. At night the group will stay on the ship.
The group is expected to return Monday.
The trip is being conducted under a new system that began in June 1999, under which former residents of the islands, as well as spouses and children, can travel directly to one of the four islands without a visa. Identity cards issued by the Foreign Ministry are required, however.
Saturday's trip is the third under the new system this year.
Japan and Russian agreed to allow visa-free trips to the islands in 1992. Under that system, however, government officials and journalists are also permitted to join, and they must go through entry procedures on Kunashiri Island before traveling on to their destinations.
The islands -- Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets -- are known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
They were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.