Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday that Japan's relations with Russia are currently "difficult" due to Moscow's war in Ukraine, but he pledged to continue working to resolve the territorial dispute and sign a peace treaty.
At an annual rally in Tokyo calling for the return of Moscow-controlled islands outside Hokkaido that Tokyo claims, Kishida also urged Russia to restart visa-free exchange programs, including allowing former Japanese residents of the islands to visit their family's graves.
It is regrettable that the issue of the Northern Territories has not yet been resolved, and a peace treaty has not yet been concluded," Fumio Kishida said at the event. The Northern Territories is the Japanese name for the disputed islands, which in Russia are called the South Kuril Islands.
The resumption of exchange activities is one of the top priorities of Japan-Russia relations," he added.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, relations between Tokyo and Moscow have deteriorated, and negotiations over exchange programs, such as those that allow former residents to visit, have stalled.
Japan has always maintained its position that shortly after Japan's surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945, the Soviet Union illegally occupied the four islands — the Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai Islands. Russia considers the annexation of these regions legitimate.
A long-standing territorial dispute has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a post-war peace treaty, while negotiations on the islands have been suspended since Japan imposed economic sanctions on Russia following its war in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, former islanders and civil society groups who attended the rally adopted a statement calling Russia's management of the four islands "illegal occupation," as was the case with last year's rally.
Compared to the "occupation without legal basis" in 2021 and 2022, the rally was harsher.
In 2019 and 2020, the statement did not at all describe Moscow's control over the islands as illegal, as the then Prime Minister Shinzo sought to secure the return of the islands through friendly negotiations with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The event takes place on Northern Territories Day on 7 February every year. On that day in 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Commerce, Navigation, and Delimitation, which demarcated the national borders and incorporated the four islands into Japanese territory.