Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a disputed island close to Japan on Thursday, drawing strong condemnation from Tokyo.
The island, known in Russia as Iturup and in Japan as Etorofu, is one of four in the Kuril chain – close to Japan’s main islands – that were seized by Moscow in the days after Japan’s surrender in World War Two. Tokyo has maintained its claim to them, making their return a condition for concluding a formal peace treaty that would unlock closer economic ties.
The visit “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people and is absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a televised statement. “We hope that the Russian side will take the seriousness of this matter fully to heart,” she added.
Within hours, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the prime minister’s comments, saying they “cause extreme outrage and are absolutely unacceptable”.
Zakharova, quoted by Russian news agencies, said Iturup was “legally, like all the Kurils, an integral part of our country” and Japanese officials had “gone so far as to brazenly dictate to Moscow which regions of a country its leader can or cannot visit”.
Ties between Moscow and Tokyo soured after Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Japan joined other nations in condemning the attack and imposing sanctions on Russia.
Putin’s visit to the island comes two days before Japan marks 81 years since its surrender ended World War Two, and a day after North Korea fired a missile into the sea separating it from Japan ahead of major joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington.
Putin visited a school, a hospital and a fish-processing plant on what state news agency TASS said was his first trip to the disputed island chain. Former President Dmitry Medvedev was the first Russian leader to go there, in 2010.
“What lovely weather you have there, just like a resort!” Putin told residents in a video clip published by the Kremlin.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russian ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev to lodge a formal protest over the visit.
In response, the Russian embassy in Tokyo said the islands were an integral part of Russia and had become Russian territory on “legitimate international grounds”.
“The President’s travels within our country are entirely a matter for the Russian leadership to decide and cannot be the subject of discussion with foreign states,” the embassy said.
Earlier on Thursday, Nozdrev and Chinese ambassador Wu Jianghao issued a joint statement pledging to oppose attempts to revise the results of World War Two. They also warned against re-militarisation in the Asia-Pacific, language that echoes Moscow’s rejection of Japan’s claim to the islands.
Medvedev posted on X that the islands “were, are, and will remain Russian land”.
He added: “Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion.”
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kantaro Komiya and Tim Kelly )
