Flashpoints | Security | East Asia

Putin’s Visit to Disputed Island Exacerbates Japan-Russia Tensions

The Kuril Islands/Northern Territories have been a constant thorn in Japan-Russia relations. Putin just made it worse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin views a display honoring “Hero of Russia E.D. Norpolov” during a visit to a secondary school of the same name on Iturup Island on Aug. 13, 2026. Norpolov was killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iturup Island (known in Japan as Etorofu) on August 13. It’s the largest of the disputed Southern Kurils, which are known as the Northern Territories in Japan. The islands have been occupied by Russia since the end of World War II but are also claimed by Japan. 

The Kuril Islands have been a constant thorn in Japan-Russia relations. The disputed islands are one of the reasons that Japan and Russia have yet to sign a peace treaty concluding World War II.

Japan has long sought to foster economic cooperation with Russia as part of a broader push to normalize relations – and finally resolve the dispute. The Kuril Islands/Northern Territories issue was especially close to the heart of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, given its importance to his father, Abe Shintaro, during the elder Abe’s tenure as Japan’s foreign minister. 

However, the circumstances for Japan-Russia rapprochement are unfavorable. Since 2022, Japan has joined the United States and European states in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. After Japan imposed sanctions, Russia formally suspended peace treaty negotiations and canceled visa-free travel for Japanese nationals to visit ancestral graves on the disputed islands. 

Now Putin’s visit to one of the disputed islands has enflamed tensions still further. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev visited in 2010; however, this is the first time Putin has done so. 

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae responded in a televised statement on the same day as Putin’s visit, saying that his trip “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people and is absolutely unacceptable.” She added, “We hope that the Russian side will take the seriousness of the matter fully to heart.”  

She told reporters, “I must say [his visit] has further hardened public sentiment toward Russia in Japan, making it difficult to restore relations over the medium to long term.” 

Though Japan’s response could have been limited to the Foreign Ministry, Takaichi chose to make a statement herself, given her belief that the prime minister must take a strong stance on territorial issues, according to reporting in The Japan News. Now that the issue has been escalated to the prime ministerial level, it will also make quiet de-escalation more difficult. 

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin summoned Japan’s ambassador in Moscow, Muto Akira, to lodge a formal protest over Takaichi’s “anti-Russia” statements. “The Russian side stated that Russia’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are inviolable,” Galuzin told Muto, according to a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry. “…Any attempts by the Japanese side to directly or indirectly call this obvious reality into question are categorically unacceptable and........

© The Diplomat