On the Discovery of a Japanese Citizen in the Waters off Kunashir Island and His Return to Japan

PRESS RELEASE

On August 21, a Federal Security Service Coast Guard ship found a drifting inflatable boat with a man on board in Russia's territorial sea near Kunashir Island, Sakhalin Region. He was lifted on to the vessel, and given the necessary assistance.

The man was carrying a Japanese passport, issued in the name of Keiseki Kuriyama, born 1974, a resident of Okinawa prefecture. He found himself in the Russian territorial sea due to the fact that while sailing for tourist purposes in Japanese waters his boat was swept in a strong current toward the Russian coast.

The Japanese national was taken to Yuzhno-Kurilsk without being detained by border authorities.

Today, after completing all the procedures stipulated by Russian law, necessary for the legal assessment of what happened, and agreeing with the Japanese side on the way of returning Kuriyama home, he was handed over to officials of the Japanese Office of Safety at Sea on the edge of the territorial waters of the Russian Federation in the Kunashir Island area.

Incidentally we cannot help but express perplexity as to the fact that the people in Tokyo tried to use the current strictly humanitarian topic related to the saving by Russian border guards of a Japanese citizen who found himself in trouble, for political purposes, hastening to publicly voice a "demand for prompt release" of Keiseki Kuriyama with reference to the unsubstantiated Japanese claims to the South Kuril Islands.

While we do not consider it necessary to delve into public polemics here, we would only like to recall that Russia's sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands is absolutely legitimate and cannot be questioned.

August 25, 2011