Japan lodges ‘strong protest’ over Putin’s visit to disputed islands

Japan lodged a “strong protest” on Thursday against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the disputed Kuril Islands.

Part of the island chain – referred to by Japan as the Northern Territories – is “inherently Japanese territory,” the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said.

The Foreign Ministry statement came after Russian state media reported that Putin had visited the island of Iturup – known in Japan as Etorofu – on Thursday, his first visit there.

According to the Kremlin, he visited a fish-processing plant, a hospital and a school on the island.

Iturup is one of the four southernmost Kuril Islands claimed by both Russia and Japan. They are currently under Russian administration.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, writing on X, said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi “can prattle on all she likes about the Kuril Islands being ‘historically Japanese,” but this chatter won’t change a thing.

“They were, are, and will remain Russian land. Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion,” wrote Medvedev, who is the deputy head of Russia’s National Security Council. He and other Russian officials have been to the island.

Russia’s embassy in Japan said on Telegram that the ambassador had been “invited” to talks at Japan’s Foreign Ministry, where Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi protested the Russian visit.

The Russian ambassador then said the southern Kurils were an inseparable part of Russia, it said. Trips by the Russian president within his own country were solely sovereign decisions by Moscow’s leadership, it said.

The territorial dispute over the islands has strained relations between Tokyo and Moscow for decades.

The Kuril Islands are a fish-rich archipelago in the Pacific that the Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II.

Both sides have since disputed the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands, and no peace treaty has been signed to this day.

Some parts of the strategically located Kurils are just a few kilometres away from the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The island group is of military significance to Russia.