Japan protests to Russia after man held on disputed island

TOKYO – Japan has protested to Moscow over the detention of a Japanese man visiting one of the disputed islands between the two countries.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday, however, the man's situation would not affect a planned meeting in September between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The man was a translator for a Japanese group on a visa-free visit to Kunashiri, or Kunashir, island — part of the Kuril island group controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan. The man was stopped Sunday for undisclosed reasons after a baggage check, while his tour companions had returned to Nemuro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.

The territorial dispute has kept Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostility.