‘Absolutely Unacceptable’: Japan Slams Putin’s First Visit to Disputed Kuril Island

One island. Two names. Two countries that still haven't formally made peace after World War II. And now, Vladimir Putin has stepped straight into the middle of their 80-year-old territorial dispute.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has sharply condemned Putin's visit to Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, calling the Russian President's trip “absolutely unacceptable” and warning that it could inflict lasting damage on already strained relations between Tokyo and Moscow.

Putin visited Iturup on Thursday, according to Russia's state-run TASS news agency, marking his first trip to one of the four Russian-controlled islands claimed by Japan.

Tokyo's response was immediate.

“I strongly protest today's visit to Iturup Island by President Putin,” Takaichi said, insisting that the Northern Territories are “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law”.

The visit, she added, “wounds the feelings of the Japanese people”.

Why Putin's visit is so provocative

Iturup sits at the heart of one of Asia's longest-running territorial disputes. Russia controls Iturup/Etorofu, Kunashir/Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islets, which Moscow calls part of the Southern Kurils and Japan calls its Northern Territories.

Soviet troops seized the islands in the final days of World War II in 1945, and thousands of Japanese residents were subsequently expelled. Moscow considers Russian sovereignty over the islands a consequence of the post-war settlement. Tokyo rejects that position and maintains that the four islands are inherently Japanese territory.

The disagreement has endured for eight decades. Its most extraordinary consequence: Japan and Russia have still never signed a formal peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.

Ukraine has made the divide even deeper

Relations were already in deep freeze.

Japan joined the US and other allies in imposing sanctions on Russia following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, further diminishing hopes of reviving negotiations over the islands and a peace treaty. Takaichi said Japan had repeatedly urged Moscow to avoid a presidential visit after Putin first indicated in 2024 that he wanted to travel to the disputed territory.

He went anyway. The Japanese Prime Minister warned that the visit would further fuel anti-Russian sentiment in Japan and make any eventual recovery in bilateral relations even harder.

Putin, meanwhile, was shown by the Kremlin visiting the Yasny fish-processing plant on Iturup, according to TASS. But the political symbolism of the trip stretches considerably beyond a fish-processing facility. Putin didn't merely visit an island. He walked onto a territorial fault line that has kept Russia and Japan from formally closing the book on World War II for more than 80 years.

(With inputs from ANI)