Japan has strongly protested Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, saying the territory is Japanese under both historical claims and international law.
Russian state media reported that Putin visited Iturup, known as Etorofu in Japan, on Thursday. It is one of four southern islands in the Kuril chain claimed by both Russia and Japan.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tokyo had formally objected to the visit. “The Government of Japan strongly protests this visit,” Motegi said, describing the islands as “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law”.
Long-running Territorial Dispute
The dispute over the islands has persisted for decades and remains one of the main obstacles to a formal peace treaty between Russia and Japan following World War Two.
The Kuril Islands stretch between Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Japan claims the four southernmost islands and refers to them as the Northern Territories. Russia currently administers the disputed islands. The Soviet Union annexed the chain at the end of World War Two and deported about 17,000 Japanese residents from the islands.
During his visit, Putin reportedly met local residents and sampled fish roe, according to Russian state media.
Military Importance of the Islands
Efforts to resolve the territorial dispute have made little progress over the years. Relations between Moscow and Tokyo have also deteriorated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which Japan imposed sanctions on Russia.
Japan has previously protested visits to the disputed islands by senior Russian officials. Those visits included trips by former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
The Kuril Islands are strategically important to Russia. Moscow has significantly strengthened its military presence there over the past decade.
Iturup is home to Russia’s primary military air base in the region, further increasing the island’s importance to Moscow’s defence strategy. The military activity has continued to draw concern from Japan. Russia regularly conducts military exercises around the islands, while Moscow and Beijing have also increased naval cooperation in the area.
Last month, Chinese and Russian naval warships sailed through a strait in the Kuril Islands during a joint patrol. Putin’s visit is therefore likely to further strain already tense relations between Russia and Japan, while highlighting the unresolved territorial dispute that has prevented the two countries from formally ending their World War II-era hostilities.
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