TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has cancelled a planned visit to Russia next month due to a "health issue" affecting President Vladimir Putin, media reports and a government source said on Friday.
The mayor of a northern Japanese city said Noda had explained the reasons for the cancellation to him during a meeting in Tokyo Friday, Jiji Press and Kyodo news agencies reported.
Kyodo said the mayor quoted Noda as saying "President Putin's health condition is bad".
Noda, who is facing a December election widely expected to see him lose his job, met with Nemuro City mayor Shunsuke Hasegawa to talk about the Russian-controlled Kuril islands, the source of a long-standing territorial dispute between Moscow and Tokyo.
A Japanese government source told AFP that Russian officials had informed their Japanese counterparts the leaders' planned meeting would have to be cancelled due to Putin's unspecified health problem.
A spokesman for Noda on Friday declined to confirm the prime minister's reported remarks to the mayor or that health reasons were behind the cancelled trip, which had been scheduled in September.
According to Russian media reports, Putin has recently postponed a number of foreign trips and largely stayed at his suburban Moscow government retreat after aggravating a sports injury.
The Kremlin had insisted there had been no change to his schedule.
Russia said Wednesday Putin would visit Turkey next week after postponing the trip last month.
- AFP/ir
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Putin's "health issue" sees Japan PM cancel visit
