Japan PM Condemns Putin Visit to Kurils as Unacceptable

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril islands was “absolutely unacceptable”, after Russian state media reported that the Kremlin leader had toured the territory on Thursday.

Putin visits Iturup amid long-running dispute

Russian media said Putin travelled to Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, one of four islands in the Kuril chain claimed by both Russia and Japan. Takaichi told reporters that the trip “has worsened Japanese sentiment towards Russia”, and argued that the island chain remains “a unique territory of [Japan] historically and under international law”.

The islands are at the centre of a decades-old standoff between Moscow and Tokyo. The dispute has been the main barrier to signing a peace treaty after the Second World War, with Japan maintaining that the southern islands should be returned.

Japan calls the islands inherently Japanese

Japan says the four southernmost islands are the Northern Territories. They lie between Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Russia administers the islands.

At the end of the war, the Soviet Union annexed the island chain and deported around 17,000 Japanese residents. Japan has continued to dispute Russia’s control of the territory and has protested official visits by Russian figures over the years.

Calls the visit incompatible with Tokyo’s position

During his trip, Putin sampled fish roe and met residents on the islands, Russian state media reported.

Takaichi said from the prime minister’s office on Thursday that Putin’s visit “wounds the feelings of the Japanese people” and is “incompatible with Japan’s consistent position on the Northern Territories”. She added: “I hope that the Russian side will take the gravity of this matter very seriously.”

Earlier on Thursday, Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands were “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law”, and that the government strongly protested the visit.

Sanctions and military activity add to tensions

Attempts to resolve the territorial dispute have made little progress, and relations between the two countries remain strained. Japan has imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, contributing to a wider freeze in ties.

Japan has also criticised previous trips by Russian officials to the disputed islands, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev.

The Kurils are strategically important for Russia, which has expanded its military presence there over the past decade. Iturup is used as Russia’s primary military air base in the region. Russia has also run regular drills near the islands, drawing condemnation from Japan.

In a separate development, Chinese and Russian naval warships sailed through a strait in the Kuril islands during a joint patrol last month, underscoring the growing focus on the region.

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13 August 2026