{"id":76951,"date":"2026-08-19T20:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/76951\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:20:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:20:06","slug":"putins-visit-to-disputed-island-exacerbates-japan-russia-tensions-the-diplomat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/76951\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin\u2019s Visit to Disputed Island Exacerbates Japan-Russia Tensions \u2013 The Diplomat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> visited Iturup Island (known in Japan as Etorofu)<\/a> on August 13. It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

Japan has long sought to foster economic cooperation with Russia as part of a broader push to normalize relations \u2013 and finally resolve the dispute. The Kuril Islands\/Northern Territories issue was especially close to the heart of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo<\/a>, given its importance to his father, Abe Shintaro, during the elder Abe\u2019s tenure as Japan\u2019s foreign minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the circumstances for Japan-Russia rapprochement are unfavorable. Since 2022, Japan has joined the United States and European states in condemning Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. After Japan imposed sanctions, Russia formally suspended peace treaty negotiations<\/a> and canceled visa-free travel for Japanese nationals to visit ancestral graves on the disputed islands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now Putin\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae responded in a televised statement on the same day as Putin\u2019s visit, saying that his trip \u201churts the feelings of the Japanese people and is absolutely unacceptable.\u201d She added, \u201cWe hope that the Russian side will take the seriousness of the matter fully to heart.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told reporters, \u201cI 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Japan\u2019s response could have been limited to the Foreign Ministry<\/a>, 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<\/a>. Now that the issue has been escalated to the prime ministerial level, it will also make quiet de-escalation more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin summoned Japan\u2019s ambassador in Moscow, Muto Akira, to lodge a formal protest<\/a> over Takaichi\u2019s \u201canti-Russia\u201d statements. \u201cThe Russian side stated that Russia\u2019s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are inviolable,\u201d Galuzin told Muto, according to a press release from the Russian Foreign Ministry. \u201c\u2026Any attempts by the Japanese side to directly or indirectly call this obvious reality into question are categorically unacceptable and illegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why would Putin choose this moment to visit the Northern Territories? There are long-, medium-, and short-term considerations. In the long term, Japan\u2019s predictable protest to Putin\u2019s visit would give Russia, China, and North Korean an opportunity to rally together against Japan\u2019s \u201caggressive\u201d response \u2013 which Russia itself provoked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the medium term, Japan\u2019s heightened energy vulnerability due to the ongoing Iran war will limit any real, substantive response by Tokyo. The Middle East is an unreliable source of energy amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and Japan is already doing the most it can to carve out exemptions for its Russian energy imports. Japan imported 9 percent of its total LNG imports from Russia<\/a> and received an extension from the United States for its continued exemption<\/a> to import LNG from Sakhalin-2 from June to December 2026. In May, Japan began importing Russian petroleum<\/a> as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

90 percent of Japan\u2019s petroleum imports<\/a> and 6 percent of Japan\u2019s LNG imports<\/a> transit the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, Japanese leverage over Russia is limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the short term, Putin\u2019s choice to visit the island two days before the 81st anniversary of Japan announcing its intent to surrender in World War II would ensure plenty of coverage in all domestic media at a time when there is heightened sensitivity to war, territorial conquest, and historical injustices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, on the same day as Putin\u2019s visit, the Chinese and Russian ambassadors to Japan<\/a> issued a joint statement that \u201cthe contribution of our people to the victory [in World War II] laid a solid foundation for the postwar world order.\u201d They also pledged to oppose attempts to revise the results of World War II and warned against remilitarization in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There will also be a lower house election in Russia this September, for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were always political and diplomatic benefits<\/a> to visiting the Kuril Islands, and Putin chose a moment when the benefits would be maximized and the costs minimized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notably, Putin\u2019s visit came amid ongoing naval drills by Russia\u2019s Pacific Fleet near the disputed islands, which also earned a sharp protest from Japan<\/a>. The live-fire exercises around two of the four Kuril Islands are scheduled to last until August 29, according to Russia\u2019s notice of a designated maritime exclusion zone. Putin traveled to oversee the military exercise in person before stopping at Iturup Island.<\/p>\n

How should Japan respond? In the short term, Japan\u2019s response will be calibrated to what steps Russia takes next, and it is impossible to predict. In the medium term, Japan should further strengthen ties with European countries also dealing with the Russian threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the long term, Japan needs to bring more renewable energy online. If it is difficult to cut off Russian LNG at this time, as Takaichi has argued to the United States in the recent past, then let this moment be a wakeup call to start treating Japan\u2019s energy security with the seriousness that it deserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iturup Island (known in Japan as Etorofu) on August 13. It\u2019s the largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[374,8,47110,47224,47240,49314,33,49315,636,5892,1441,17578],"class_list":["post-76951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-east-asia","tag-japan","tag-japan-russia-dispute","tag-japan-russia-relations","tag-kuril-islands-dispute","tag-kuril-islands-northern-territories","tag-nihon","tag-putin-visit-to-kuril-islands","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-takaichi-sanae","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76951","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=76951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}