Nippon Foundation’s Sasakawa Visits Moscow

Tokyo, Sept. 22 (Jiji Press)–Yohei Sasakawa, honorary chair of Japan’s Nippon Foundation, visited Moscow and met with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, according to Sasakawa. During the meeting, held on Saturday, Kirill told Sasakawa that the Russian church is seeking dialogue with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Russian invasion, Sasakawa told a press conference at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Moscow on Sunday. Kirill is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sasakawa also said that even as Japan-Russia relations deteriorate between governments, it is important to properly pursue future-oriented people-to-people exchanges. Earlier this month, the Japanese government partially changed its travel advisory for Russia. While maintaining its travel alert for the country at Level 3, advising against all travel, it now permits travel and stays for “truly unavoidable circumstances” such as business, study or research. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]