Russian tourists traveling to Japan and the Japanese interested in Russia will soon track the talks between consular officials from Russia and Japan.
      
      The two agencies have agreed to establish a joint working committee to draw up a policy to relax visa and foreign travelers' registration regulations, reports Itar-Tass news agency.
      
      This was the outcome of a round of consultations held on Tuesday between Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, the head of the Consular Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and Yasuaki Tanizaki, his Japanese counterpart.
      
      Russia-IC already had an article on 24.09.2005 illustrating a positive trend in Russia-Japanese relations. The number of people going to both countries is ever increasing. In 2004, round 100,000 Japanese visited Russia with 60,000 holidaymakers among them. About 170,000 Russians, with approximately 25,000 tourists, traveled to Japan.
      
      However, we also reported on the tough path tourists have to take to get to the destination. In first place, it is exorbitant plane ticket prices, lengthy procedures to get a visa, lack of translators and not that many beaten tracks to go in Japan. At least, Russians are not aware of many opportunities awaiting them in the land of the rising sun.
      
      Charter programmes are expected to be introduced to promote competition and cut the ticket prices.