Russia not closing Japan Center offices – experts

RT

Tokyo earlier said that Moscow’s decision to end memorandums on the operations of the facilities was “unacceptable”

Moscow’s withdrawal from bilateral memorandums with Tokyo on the operations of Japan Center offices in Russia does not mean that these facilities will be shut down, experts have told RIA Novosti.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the order to stop the execution of the memorandums last week. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi claimed on Monday that the move by Moscow was “unacceptable,” adding that Tokyo will “respond appropriately.”

Media reports that Russia is closing the Japan Center offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, and Sakhalin are incorrect, RIA Novosti said in an article on Monday. The facilities are used to hold lectures and to help organize internships in Japan for Russian workers.

“It is not about ending the activities of the Japan Center offices, which are Russian legal entities, but are financed by the Japanese government, but about ending the application of Russian-Japanese intergovernmental memorandums on the creation and operations… of the Japanese centers for technical assistance to reforms being carried out in Russia,” experts told the agency.

The sanctions imposed by Tokyo on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict and other “unfriendly measures” implemented by Japan since February 2022 “go against the spirit and letter of the memorandums,” they said, explaining the decision by Moscow.

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January 20, 2025 at 11:08PM
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