Japan wants to conclude a peace treaty with Russia, despite the sanctions

The Japanese authorities are still focused on resolving the territorial issue with Russia, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said at the “National Rally for the Return of the Northern Territories” (the Japanese name for the southern part of the Russian Kuril Islands).

“Our country, in close cooperation with the international community, starting with the members of the Group of Seven, is taking serious sanctions measures,” the Foreign Minister stressed. “Meanwhile, although relations between Japan and Russia are in a difficult state, we firmly adhere to the course of resolving the territorial issue and concluding a peace treaty.”

At the same time, as TASS explains, for the first time since 2018, wording about “illegal occupation” appeared in the text of the final statement of the rally. “It is unacceptable that the four northern islands were illegally occupied by the Soviet Union 77 years ago and remain so today,” the agency quoted the document as saying.

Such rallies are held annually on February 7 – in memory of the first Russian-Japanese treaty signed on this day in 1855. Negotiations on a peace agreement following the results of the Second World War have been ongoing between the two countries since the middle of the last century. The main obstacle is the fate of the southern part of the Kuriles. Japan disputes the ownership of Shikotan, Iturup, Kunashir and several uninhabited islands that were included in the USSR. Moscow emphasizes that sovereignty over these territories has an international legal basis. In March 2022, after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions by Tokyo, the negotiations were interrupted.