Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his first visit to one of the four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, travelling to Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, on August 13 and triggering an unusually sharp diplomatic confrontation with Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit “absolutely unacceptable” and said it hurt the feelings of the Japanese people. Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev to lodge a formal protest, while Moscow rejected Tokyo’s complaint and reiterated that the island is Russian territory.
The timing gives the visit significance beyond a presidential tour of Russia’s Far East. Putin travelled to Etorofu only two days before Japan marks 81 years since its surrender in World War Two, the conflict whose final weeks created the territorial dispute that still prevents Russia and Japan from signing a formal postwar peace treaty.
Putin visited a school, hospital and fish-processing plant on the island. Russia’s TASS news agency described it as his first visit to the disputed island chain, although former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit one of the islands when he travelled there in 2010.
The visit also came during a period of heightened military signalling around Japan. Putin had been observing Pacific Fleet exercises in Russia’s Far East, North Korea had launched another ballistic missile towards waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan a day earlier, and Moscow and Beijing have increasingly criticised what they describe as Japanese remilitarisation.
Why did Vladimir Putin’s first visit to Iturup and Etorofu provoke such a strong reaction from Japan?
Etorofu is not viewed by Tokyo as simply another disputed island. It is the largest of four territories Japan collectively calls the Northern Territories and regards as sovereign Japanese land currently under Russian control.
The other three are Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands. Russia administers them as part of its Southern Kuril Islands, while Japan maintains that the four territories should not be treated as part of the Kuril chain it renounced after World War Two.
For that reason, a Russian presidential visit carries considerable symbolic importance. Tokyo considers it an assertion of Russian sovereignty over territory whose ultimate status Japan believes remains unresolved, while Moscow regards objections to such visits as interference in Russian domestic affairs.
Takaichi responded personally rather than leaving the protest entirely to the Foreign Ministry. She said Putin’s visit damaged Japanese public sentiment and urged Russia to recognise the seriousness of Tokyo’s objection. Japan then summoned Nozdrev, escalating its response through formal diplomatic channels.
Russia answered almost immediately. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described Japan’s protest as unacceptable and said Iturup, like the rest of the Kurils, was legally an integral part of Russia. The Russian embassy in Tokyo separately said presidential travel inside Russian territory was entirely a matter for Moscow.
The disagreement therefore concerns something more fundamental than whether Putin should have visited. Japan and Russia do not agree on the sovereignty underlying the visit in the first place.
Why have Russia and Japan still not signed a formal World War Two peace treaty after more than eight decades?
Japan and the Soviet Union restored diplomatic relations through the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, formally ending the state of war between them, but they did not conclude the comprehensive peace treaty that both governments had been negotiating. The unresolved territorial question remained the principal obstacle.
The 1956 declaration contained a potential compromise. The Soviet Union agreed that the Habomai Islands and Shikotan would be transferred to Japan after a peace treaty was concluded. Etorofu and Kunashiri were not covered by that proposed transfer, leaving the most difficult part of the dispute unresolved.
Successive Japanese governments continued seeking a settlement involving all four territories. During former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s period in office, negotiations intensified considerably, and Abe met Putin 27 times as both leaders explored whether the 1956 framework could provide a foundation for a broader agreement. No settlement was reached.
The relationship deteriorated dramatically after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Japan joined Western sanctions against Moscow, and Russia responded in March 2022 by halting peace treaty negotiations, suspending visa-free visits and exchanges involving the disputed islands and withdrawing from talks on proposed joint economic activities there.
By February 2026, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said bilateral relations had effectively been reduced to zero and that no peace treaty dialogue was taking place. Takaichi nevertheless reiterated that Japan’s policy remained to resolve the territorial issue and conclude a treaty.
Putin’s August visit makes an already remote diplomatic settlement even harder to imagine in the near term.
What happened to Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai at the end of World War Two?
The historical disagreement surrounding the islands reaches back well before 1945.
Japan and Russia formally established their 19th-century boundary through the 1855 Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation. Under Article 2, the boundary ran between Etorofu and Uruppu, with Etorofu on the Japanese side and Uruppu and islands further north on the Russian side.
The territorial arrangements changed subsequently as Japan and Russia negotiated control over Sakhalin and the wider Kuril chain, but Japan argues that the four Northern Territories were historically distinct and never became Russian territory through those agreements.
The decisive military change came in August 1945. The Soviet Union entered the war against Japan during its final days and occupied Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai between late August and early September. Soviet control was subsequently incorporated into the Russian Soviet republic, and the islands have remained under Moscow’s administration ever since.
Japan maintains that the occupation did not lawfully transfer sovereignty over the four territories. Russia takes the opposite position, regarding the outcome as part of the internationally recognised territorial settlement following World War Two.
Those competing interpretations remain irreconcilable. Tokyo’s official policy says the islands are inherent Japanese territory, while Moscow says Russian sovereignty is beyond question.
Why is Putin’s Etorofu visit especially sensitive just before Japan’s August 15 war anniversary?
August 15 has profound historical significance in Japan because it marks Emperor Hirohito’s 1945 broadcast announcing acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and the end of Japan’s participation in World War Two.
Putin arrived on Etorofu on August 13, only two days before the 81st anniversary. Reuters noted that the timing added another layer of sensitivity to a visit already guaranteed to provoke Tokyo.
The historical narrative around the war has also returned prominently to Russian and Chinese diplomacy.
On the same day as Putin’s visit, Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev and Chinese Ambassador Wu Jianghao issued a joint statement opposing attempts to revise what they described as the outcomes of World War Two and warning against renewed militarisation in the Asia-Pacific region.
For Moscow, control of the Kuril Islands forms part of the territorial outcome of Soviet victory in 1945. Russia therefore presents Japanese claims as attempts to revisit a postwar settlement that it considers final.
Japan rejects that interpretation and continues formally to seek resolution of sovereignty over the four Northern Territories. Its Foreign Ministry says concluding a peace treaty requires settlement of their attribution.
Putin’s visit therefore touched simultaneously on contemporary sovereignty, unresolved diplomatic negotiations and conflicting interpretations of the end of World War Two.
Why do the Kuril Islands matter strategically to Russia beyond the territorial dispute with Japan?
The island chain occupies a strategically important position between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, separating parts of the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean.
For Russia, the wider Kuril chain helps protect maritime access into the Sea of Okhotsk, an area of major importance to the Pacific Fleet and Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Moscow has consequently increased military infrastructure on the islands over the past decade.
Russia previously deployed Bastion coastal defence missile systems on islands in the Kuril chain as part of a broader reinforcement programme. Moscow has also conducted military exercises on the disputed southern islands, including drills shortly after it suspended peace treaty talks with Japan in 2022.
That strategic dimension makes territorial compromise more complicated than the historic sovereignty debate alone might suggest. Any future settlement would raise questions about military deployment, maritime access and whether Japanese territory returned by Russia could eventually host infrastructure associated with the United States-Japan security alliance.
The Kremlin has previously said the presence of US military forces in Japan complicates peace treaty negotiations. Moscow has argued that any territorial arrangement must consider the possibility that American military capabilities could move closer to Russian territory.
Japan, meanwhile, has been significantly strengthening its own defence posture as concerns grow over China, North Korea and Russia. Those wider security changes reduce the political space for either side to treat the island dispute purely as a bilateral diplomatic issue.
How does the Putin visit fit into rising Russia-China-Japan tensions across the western Pacific?
The immediate territorial dispute is bilateral, but the security environment surrounding it increasingly involves China, North Korea and the United States.
Russia and China have expanded naval cooperation in recent years, including joint exercises and patrols across the western Pacific. In July 2026, Japan protested after a Chinese destroyer conducted live-fire activity in waters Tokyo considers part of its exclusive economic zone during operations involving Chinese and Russian vessels. Beijing rejected the Japanese protest.
China and Russia had also conducted joint naval exercises near Qingdao earlier in July, followed by plans for participating vessels to conduct patrols in the Pacific.
North Korea is creating pressure from another direction. Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile from Wonsan this week that travelled about 700 kilometres towards waters east of the Korean Peninsula. The launch came shortly before major US-South Korean exercises scheduled for August 17 to August 27.
North Korea has simultaneously attacked Japan’s expanding defence capabilities, including Tokyo’s development of longer-range strike options and testing of US-made Tomahawk missiles. Kim Yo Jong warned earlier in August that Pyongyang could adopt additional military options in response.
Putin’s visit therefore lands in an environment where territorial disputes, missile deployments, naval exercises and competing military alliances are increasingly intersecting.
Could Japan realistically recover Etorofu or the other Northern Territories through negotiations with Russia?
Under current conditions, the possibility appears extremely remote.
Japan continues officially to seek a peace treaty through resolution of the territorial dispute. That policy has survived changes of prime minister and the collapse of practical negotiations after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s position has hardened considerably. Moscow has repeatedly described all four islands as sovereign Russian territory, and Medvedev responded to Putin’s visit by saying they “were, are, and will remain Russian land.”
The territorial dispute has also become linked to wider geopolitical grievances. Russia cites Japanese sanctions and the US military presence in Japan, while Tokyo argues that Moscow itself destroyed the negotiating environment by invading Ukraine and terminating dialogue.
The practical mechanisms that once maintained limited engagement have also deteriorated. Visa-free exchanges and visits by former Japanese island residents were suspended after 2022, while joint economic initiatives intended to build confidence have effectively stalled.
Putin’s physical presence on Etorofu strengthens the symbolic message that Russia intends to administer and develop the islands as ordinary parts of the federation rather than territory awaiting negotiation.
Why did Putin visit a school, hospital and fish-processing plant rather than a military installation?
The itinerary appears designed to emphasise civilian administration and normal economic life rather than presenting the trip solely as a military demonstration.
The Kremlin said Putin toured a school museum, visited a hospital and inspected a fish-processing facility during the trip. The Russian president also spoke with residents, joking about the island’s pleasant weather.
That framing matters politically. Visiting civilian institutions allows Moscow to portray the disputed island not as an occupied military outpost but as an established Russian community receiving federal attention and investment.
Fishing has particular economic and historical importance around the islands. Japan’s Foreign Ministry itself notes that the waters surrounding the four disputed territories are exceptionally productive, supporting fisheries including salmon, trout, cod, pollock, crab and kelp.
The economic dimension has previously offered one of the few areas where Russia and Japan attempted cooperation despite disagreement over sovereignty. Joint economic projects were discussed as a way to create shared interests without forcing either side immediately to abandon its legal position, but Moscow withdrew from that dialogue after Japan imposed Ukraine-related sanctions in 2022.
Putin’s visit to a fish plant can therefore also be read as part of Russia’s broader effort to demonstrate that development of the islands will proceed without Japanese participation.
What are the key takeaways from Vladimir Putin’s first visit to disputed Etorofu and Iturup?
- Vladimir Putin visited Iturup, known to Japan as Etorofu, on August 13 in what Russian state media described as his first trip to the disputed Southern Kuril Islands. He toured civilian facilities including a school, hospital and fish-processing plant.
- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit absolutely unacceptable, while Japan summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev and lodged a formal diplomatic protest.
- Russia rejected Tokyo’s protest and reiterated that Iturup and the wider Kuril chain are sovereign Russian territory, while Japan continues to claim Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai as its Northern Territories.
- The four islands were occupied by Soviet forces during the closing weeks of World War Two and have remained under Moscow’s administration since 1945, while Japan disputes the legality of Russian sovereignty over them.
- The territorial dispute remains the principal reason Russia and Japan have never signed a comprehensive postwar peace treaty, although the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration restored diplomatic relations and provided for transfer of Habomai and Shikotan after a treaty.
- Russia halted peace treaty negotiations and island-related exchanges in 2022 after Japan joined sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving formal diplomacy over the territories largely frozen.
- Putin’s visit came two days before Japan marks the 81st anniversary of its World War Two surrender and during increased military activity involving Russia, China and North Korea near Japan.
- The trip reinforces the widening gap between Moscow and Tokyo: Japan continues formally to seek resolution of the territorial dispute, while Russia increasingly treats the islands as permanently integrated parts of the Russian Federation.
Why Putin’s Etorofu visit may matter more than another diplomatic protest between Russia and Japan
Putin’s first visit does not alter who physically controls Etorofu. Russia administered the island before the president arrived and will continue administering it after he leaves. Its importance lies in what the visit communicates about Moscow’s willingness to keep the islands available for negotiation.
During the Shinzo Abe era, even unsuccessful diplomacy rested on the idea that a political arrangement might eventually be possible. Putin and Abe held dozens of meetings, explored the 1956 declaration and discussed joint economic activity intended to create conditions for a settlement. That process never produced a treaty, but it kept the territorial question inside an active diplomatic framework.
That framework has largely disappeared since 2022. Peace treaty talks are suspended, exchanges involving former Japanese residents have stopped, economic cooperation projects have stalled and Russia increasingly links Japan to what Moscow considers a hostile Western security bloc.
Putin travelling personally to Etorofu pushes the political symbolism further. Instead of preserving ambiguity around territory Japan hopes eventually to recover, the Russian president toured its civilian infrastructure as though visiting any other Russian region. Moscow then responded to Japan’s protest not with diplomatic restraint but with another emphatic declaration that Tokyo has no standing to question the president’s movements.
The regional environment makes reversal even harder. Japan is expanding its defence capabilities, Russia is strengthening military ties with China, North Korea is accelerating missile development and the United States-Japan alliance remains central to Tokyo’s security strategy. Each development gives Moscow additional strategic reasons to retain control of territory close to Hokkaido and gives Japan additional reasons to resist recognising that control as permanent.
The territorial dispute has survived for more than eight decades because neither side has been prepared to abandon its fundamental claim. Putin’s August 13 visit suggests that the gap is no longer merely unresolved but may be widening.
For Japan, the immediate response is another diplomatic protest. The deeper consequence is that the peace treaty strategy pursued for decades now faces a Russia that appears increasingly determined to demonstrate through presidential visits, economic development and military activity that the Southern Kurils are not bargaining territory.
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