Russia Eager To Ease Visa Regime With Japan While Tokyo More Cautious - Deputy Minister

Russia constantly calls for simplifying as much as possible the visa regime with Japan, while Tokyo approaches the issue much more cautiously, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov told Sputnik on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) Russia constantly calls for simplifying as much as possible the visa regime with Japan, while Tokyo approaches the issue much more cautiously, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov told Sputnik on Monday.

"We consistently call for a maximum mutual facilitation of the travel regime until the total abolition of visas. This topic is regularly discussed, including at consular consultations with the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The schedule for such consultations for 2019 is being coordinated ... We are waiting for a response from Japan, but so far we feel that the Japanese side is behaving very carefully in this matter," Ivanov said.

Ivanov stressed that Moscow had made several proposals to facilitate the visa regime in the past two years. Russia had offered to sign an agreement on a visa-free regime for holders of all types of passports, but "the Japanese partners were not ready for it," he added.

Besides that, Moscow offered Tokyo to start working to abolish visa formalities for holders of diplomatic passports, and the next possible step could be an agreement on a visa-free regime for all types of passports or agreement on visa-free group tourism similar that Russia has with China or Iran.

On January 2017, the Japanese authorities eased visa requirements for Russian citizens. The visa facilitation regime primarily affected entrepreneurs, artists and scientists.

From October 1, Japan simplified the visa regime for Russian tourist groups. The changes affected the number of documents that was needed to be submitted for obtaining permission to enter the country.