Vladimir Putin visited Iturup in the Kuril Islands on Thursday, the first time the Russian president has gone to the disputed chain. Japan responded with a strong protest after the trip, which put the long-running territorial dispute back at the center of Russia and Japan ties.
Toshimitsu Motegi on Japan
Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands were “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law, and the Government of Japan strongly protests this visit.” That position leaves no room for ambiguity: Japan still rejects Russia's administration of the islands and treats the visit as a direct challenge to its claim.
Iturup and the Northern Territories
Russian state media reported that Putin visited Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, and sampled fish roe while speaking to island locals. Iturup is one of four islands in the Kuril chain claimed by Russia and Japan, and Japan calls the four southernmost islands the Northern Territories.
The islands sit between Hokkaido in northern Japan and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Russia administers the islands, while Japan says the dispute over the Kurils has continued for decades and is the main reason Moscow and Tokyo never signed a peace treaty after World War Two.
Russia and Japan dispute
At the end of World War Two, the Soviet Union annexed the island chain and deported around 17,000 Japanese residents. Japan has protested previous visits by Russian officials, including Mikhail Mishustin and Dmitry Medvedev, and Russia has beefed up its military presence on the islands over the past decade.
For readers tracking the dispute, the key point is simple: the visit did not change control on the ground, but it did sharpen the diplomatic divide. Putin's stop on Iturup turned a standing territorial dispute into a fresh formal protest, with Japan still pressing its sovereignty claim and Russia still holding the islands.
