JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER UNLIKELY TO ATTEND YELTSIN INAUGURATION.

Tentative plans for Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to attend Boris Yeltsin’s upcoming inauguration (see Monitor, July 11) seem likely to be scuttled because the date of the ceremony — August 9 — falls on the 51st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s 1945 attack on Japan. The Soviet action came despite a non-aggression pact between the two countries. Among the territories invaded by the Soviet army were the Kuril Islands, whose disputed ownership is today the major source of friction between Moscow and Tokyo. Hashimoto had not yet received an invitation to the inauguration, but the Japanese prime minister indicated to reporters yesterday that he was unlikely to visit Moscow on that particular date. (Reuter, UPI, July 11)

Estonia Renews Soviet Passports for Ethnic Russians.