![\"Japanese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c1_6193294.jpg\")
<\/p>\nStrained relations worsen after Putin\u2019s trip to Kuril islands<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJapanese ambassador Akira Muto arrives at the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow after being summoned over Japanese officials\u2019 criticism of a visit by President Vladimir Putin to the disputed Kuril islands. (Photo: AFP)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
MOSCOW – Russia on Tuesday rebuked Japan\u2019s ambassador to Moscow over the disputed Kuril islands, which President Vladimir Putin visited for the first time last week.<\/p>\n
Bilateral relations have long been strained over the Kurils, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.<\/p>\n
The Soviet Union seized the islands in 1945, near the end of World War II, then expelled the Japanese population.<\/p>\n
Putin visited the islands last Thursday, prompting Japan to summon the Russian ambassador in protest \u2014 and Russia to follow suit.<\/p>\n
After being summoned to Russia\u2019s foreign ministry, Japanese ambassador Akira Muto was told that \u201cRussia\u2019s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are unshakable,\u201d according to Moscow\u2019s readout.<\/p>\n
It added that, in light of Japan\u2019s support for Ukraine, Moscow would reserve the right to \u201ctake appropriate counter-measures\u201d.<\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s visit was the first trip to the islands by a Russian president since Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.<\/p>\n
After Putin\u2019s stop, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the islands \u201care an inherent part of Japan\u2019s territory, both historically and under international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Russian foreign ministry on Tuesday called those statements \u201canti-Russian\u201d and expressed a \u201cstrong protest\u201d.<\/p>\n
Muto was initially summoned on Monday, but he did not immediately accede.<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov then said Tokyo had \u201ccrossed the line of decency\u201d.<\/p>\n
Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that Muto did not initially respond out of concern that Russia would dominate the talks.<\/p>\n
Tokyo decided to accept the summons after internal deliberations, NHK said, citing unnamed sources.<\/p>\n
Ties between Japan and Russia have worsened since the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began in 2022.<\/p>\n
Japan has joined other G7 countries in sanctioning Russia and aiding Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Ukraine, like Washington, recognises Japanese sovereignty over the disputed islands.<\/p>\n
Analysts said Putin\u2019s visit to the Kurils could have been aimed at warning Japan against deepening its support for Ukraine \u2014 potentially including the direct supply of Patriot missiles \u2014 and against closer cooperation with NATO.<\/p>\n
Japan currently provides only non-lethal defence aid to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
While Japan has eased restrictions on defence exports in recent years, it is still barred from supplying lethal military equipment directly to a country at war, including Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strained relations worsen after Putin\u2019s trip to Kuril islands Japanese ambassador Akira Muto arrives at the Russian foreign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48958,16925,8,18414,47240,10505,48967,6174,17578],"class_list":["post-76167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-akira-muto","tag-geopolitical-tensions","tag-japan","tag-japan-foreign-policy","tag-kuril-islands-dispute","tag-northern-territories","tag-russia-ukraine-conflict","tag-russia-japan-relations","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}