TOKYO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Around 60 Russian residents from disputed islands off Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido arrived in Japan on Thursday on this year's first visa-free trip.
Under the bilateral exchange program that saw the visitors arrive in Hokkaido's Nemuro City from islands that are claimed by Japan, the Russians, comprising students and teachers, will also visit Hiroshima Prefecture and meet Japanese students there.
On their visit to Hiroshima through Monday, the tour operator said the group will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Peace Memorial Park and Miyajima Island, a small island in Hiroshima Bay, famous for its "floating" Itsukushima Shrine, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
"I hope our students will learn in Hiroshima about what the war brought about and how we should secure peace," Tatiana Pavlukevich, the group's leader, was quoted by local media as saying.
Beginning in 1992, the visa-free program has been aimed at enhancing relations and people-to-people exchanges between past and present residents of the islands under dispute.
Japan and Russia both claim a group of islands off Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
