A group of people of Japanese descent living in Russia's Far East is visiting Japan in a government program that has been resumed for the first time in five years.

The 12-member group paid a visit to a cemetery in Sapporo, Hokkaido, on Saturday. The cemetery has a collective grave for people of Japanese descent who lived in Sakhalin and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.

Some of the visitors touched the names of their relatives inscribed on the gravestone.

Japan ruled southern Sakhalin until the end of World War Two.

The welfare ministry has been supporting visits by people of Japanese descent still living there.
But the program was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

One of the visitors, Sato Shizuko is 78 years old. Her mother was in southern Sakhalin and pregnant with her when the war ended.

Sato says the suspension of the program was hard on her. She says she promised her late mother that she would come again.

The group will stay in Japan until next Tuesday.