Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the disputed Kuril islands, calling it “absolutely unacceptable”.
Russian state media reported that Putin visited Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, on Thursday. It is one of four islands in the Kuril chain claimed by both Russia and Japan.
Putin’s trip “has worsened Japanese sentiment towards Russia,” Takaichi told reporters, maintaining that the island chain was “a unique territory of [Japan] historically and under international law”.
Speaking from the prime minister’s office on Thursday, Takaichi said Putin’s visit “wounds the feelings of the Japanese people” and is “incompatible with Japan’s consistent position on the Northern Territories”.
“I hope that the Russian side will take the gravity of this matter very seriously,” she said.
Earlier on Thursday, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands were “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law, and the Government of Japan strongly protests this visit”.
The countries have been locked in a territorial dispute over the Kuril islands for decades. The dispute is the main reason Moscow and Tokyo did not sign a peace treaty after World War Two.
The Kuril islands lie between Hokkaido in northern Japan and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, which it calls the Northern Territories. Russia administers them.
At the end of World War Two, the Soviet Union annexed the island chain and deported about 17,000 Japanese residents.
During his visit, Putin sampled fish roe and spoke to island residents, Russian state media reported.
Attempts to resolve the territorial dispute have made little progress over the years. Relations have also remained strained, with Japan imposing sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Japan has protested previous visits by senior Russian officials to the disputed islands, including former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
The Kuril islands are strategically important to Russia, which has strengthened its military presence there over the past decade. Iturup is used as Russia’s main military air base in the region.
Last month, Chinese and Russian naval warships sailed through a strait in the Kuril islands during a joint patrol.
Russia also holds regular military exercises near the islands, prompting protests from Japan.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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