Japan says it remains committed to reaching treaty with Russia over Kuril Islands

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said in its 2024 annual report that despite strained relations with Russia, it remains committed to signing a peace treaty in hopes of reclaiming the southern Kuril Islands.

“Japan-Russia relations remain to be in a difficult situation due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but Japan will firmly maintain its policy of concluding a peace treaty,” the report reads.

Japan refers to the four southernmost Kuril Islands — Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, and the Habomai islets — as its “Northern Territories” and continues to dispute Russia’s sovereignty over them.

The Soviet Union annexed the Southern Kuril Islands at the end of World War II. In 1956, the USSR signed a peace declaration with Japan, promising to return the islands of Shikotan and Habomai once a peace treaty was concluded. However, Japan insisted on the return of all the islands, and the treaty was never signed.

In March 2022, following Western sanctions, Russia announced it was pulling out of peace talks with Japan. That same year, for the first time since 2003, Japan’s Foreign Ministry described the Kuril Islands as “illegally occupied” territory.