Japanese Prime Minister urged to resume exchanges in the Kuriles

TOKYO, January 25 – RIA Novosti. The resumption of humanitarian exchanges with Russia and the possibility of visiting the graves of ancestors by former residents of Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai is the main priority in relations with Moscow, said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Also, Kishida, answering a question from the leader of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, Kenta Izumi, about the policy of the Japanese government, stressed that Tokyo plans to resume dialogue with Russia on fisheries.

At the same time, the prime minister ignored the criticism of the oppositionist about the inaction of the Japanese side at a time when other states, despite the Ukrainian conflict, are trying to establish a dialogue with Moscow. As an example, he cited high-level contacts between France and Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said last spring that Moscow, in response to Tokyo’s unfriendly steps, was refusing to negotiate a peace treaty, halting visa-free travel for the Japanese to the southern Kuril Islands, and withdrawing from dialogue on establishing joint economic activities in the southern Kuriles.

The visa-free regime began in 1992 on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement to improve mutual understanding between the peoples of the two countries and to resolve the issue of concluding a peace treaty. The trips took place on a national passport with a special insert, without visas.

Japan claims the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and Habomai, referring to the bilateral Treatise on Trade and Frontiers of 1855. Tokyo set the return of the islands as a condition for concluding a peace treaty with Moscow. However, after the end of World War II, the document was never signed.

In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a joint declaration. In it, Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring the two islands in the event of a peace treaty. The Soviet Union hoped to put an end to this, while the Japanese side considered the deal only part of the solution to the problem, without renouncing claims to all the islands.

Subsequent negotiations came to nothing. Moscow‘s position is that the islands became part of the USSR following World War II, and Russia’s sovereignty over them is beyond doubt.