40 young victims of Chernobyl accident to
visit Japan
TOKYO, Aug. 3 Kyodo - Japan will host 40
children beginning Monday from Russia and
Ukraine who suffer from radiation poisoning
caused by the 1986 meltdown at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant, a Foreign Ministry spokesman
said Thursday.
he children, aged 10-16, will be given medical
checkups at the medical department of Hokkaido
University and stay at hot-spring resorts
throughout Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost
main island, said Ryuichiro Yamazaki, director
general for press and public relations at
the ministry.
he youths will also participate in cultural
exchanges with local junior high school students,
Yamazaki said.
he children will be accompanied by 10 doctors
and instructors, and will return home Aug.
22.
It is the second time the Japanese government
has invited victims of the accident at the
Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, near the border
of Belarus, to visit Japan. Thirty Russian
children visited Japan in August last year.
Last year's visit was a fulfillment of a
request made by Valentin Kuptsov, first deputy
chairman of the Russian Communist Party,
to then Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
Muneo Suzuki during a visit to Japan in March
last year.
The Japanese government included Ukrainian
children in their invitation this year after
receiving a request from the Ukrainian government,
Yamazaki said.
==Kyodo
