The Japanese government is outraged after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a tiny island north of Hokkaido, a territory that Tokyo has insisted was illegitimately stolen from the country in the final days of World War II.
Putin toured the island, known in Russia as Iturup and in Japan as Etorofu, on Thursday. It is part of an archipelago with three other islands known in Japanese as the “Northern Territories” and in Russian as the “Kuril Islands.” It was a politically charged visit, as Putin asserted just the day before that Russian ownership of the region is “reality” that is “enshrined in international documents.”
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“The Northern Territories are historically and legally an inherent part of our country’s territory. This visit to Etorofu by the sitting president of Russia is incompatible with Japan’s consistent position on the Northern Territories,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters.
“Japan-Russia relations are currently in a very difficult situation. However, Japan’s policy of resolving the issue of the sovereignty of the Northern Territories and concluding a peace treaty remains unchanged,” she added.
Japan claimed ownership over the islands in the 19th century and maintained control in the region until the end of World War II, when the Soviet Union violated the Neutrality Agreement and declared war on the Japanese Empire in 1945.
Approximately 17,500 Japanese nationals were living on the islands when Soviet forces captured the region. Those inhabitants were forced out. Of them, about 5,000 Japanese are still alive, though they are rapidly dying off from old age. Now, the islands are home to 20,000 Russian citizens.
The Japanese government maintains that “the Northern Territories have been under illegal occupation by the Soviet Union, and then Russia” since 1945.
“The Government of Japan has energetically been continuing negotiations with Russia based on its basic policy of resolving the issue of the attribution of the Four Northern Islands and concluding a peace treaty with Russia,” the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs says of the issue.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russian Ambassador to Japan Nikolay Nozdrev on Thursday and “lodged a strong protest against this visit,” calling the situation “extremely regrettable.”
“Although Japan has continued to convey its position on the Northern Territories to the Russian side at every opportunity, the fact that this visit was carried out unilaterally not only has an extremely negative impact on Japan-Russia relations, which are already in a difficult situation due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but also offends the sentiments of the Japanese people and is utterly unacceptable,” Motegi said in a statement.
It was Putin’s first official visit to the island since becoming president in 2000. Russian state media highlighted the visit with video of the president visiting a fish-processing facility and eating locally sourced caviar.
Japan-Russia relations have been deteriorating for years, exacerbated by the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Tokyo aligned with other Group of Seven nations by sanctioning Moscow and providing aid to Ukraine.
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“Japan has identified Russia as a main source of threats. I would like to point out that we are not threatening Japan,” Putin said. “On the contrary, it has territorial claims against our country.”
Putin held a meeting on “ensuring the security of Russia’s eastern borders” on Wednesday.
