Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. News18
In a protest demanding the return of disputed islands off of Hokkaido, the Japanese government and civil groups denounced Russia for its “illegal occupation,” using the expression for the first time in five years following a worsening of bilateral ties over Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine.
“It is completely unacceptable that the Northern Territories have yet to be returned since the Soviet Union’s illegal occupation of them 77 years ago,” a statement adopted during the annual event in Tokyo said in reference to the islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils.
This geopolitical dispute has kept Tokyo and Moscow from reaching an agreement on a postwar peace treaty.
The protest was staged for the first time since Russia commenced its war against its western neighbour on 24 February 2022.
Japan has placed severe penalties on Russia for the aggression, causing Moscow to stop decades-old peace treaty discussions and bilateral visa-free exchange programmes, including one that allows Japanese former inhabitants to visit their relatives’ graves on the islands, since March last year.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida voiced optimism for the revival of such exchange programmes between the two nations, calling it “one of the top priorities” in Japan-Russia relations.
He also said the government maintains its stance that it will seek to “resolve the territorial issue with Russia and sign a postwar peace treaty despite the current severe state of bilateral ties.”
Every year on 7 February, “Northern Territories Day,” the ceremony is held. On the same day in 1855, Japan and Russia signed a Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation, establishing a national border that included the four islands.
To avoid raising tensions with Moscow, the rally’s declaration did not include the words “illegal occupation” in 2019 and 2020. The resolution of the disagreement was one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s top priorities at the time.
However, once Abe left office two years later, the statement’s phrasing was changed to refer to Russia’s position on the islands as an “occupation without legal basis.”
Japan claims that the Soviet Union illegally acquired the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai islet group shortly after Japan’s surrender on 15 August 1945. Russia argues that the action was legal.
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