The new Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Isiba, in his keynote speech in the parliament, promised to maintain the policy of sanctions against Russia and aid to Ukraine, and also declared that he would not change the course of "solving the territorial problem and concluding a peace treaty with Russia". The meeting is broadcast on the website of the lower house .
"We will continue to strongly promote sanctions against Russia, help Ukraine. Relations with Russia are in a difficult state, but our country will continue its course on the solution of the territorial problem and the conclusion of a peace treaty," Isiba said.
The absence of a peace treaty has darkened the relations between Russia and Japan for many years. In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a joint declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring Khabomai and Shikotan to Japan after the conclusion of the peace treaty, and the fate of Kunashira and Iturupa was not affected. The USSR expected that the Joint Declaration would put an end to the dispute, while Japan considered the document only part of the solution to the problem, not renouncing its claims to all the islands.
The subsequent negotiations did not lead to anything, the peace treaty at the end of the Second World War was never signed. There is an opinion that serious opposition arose from the USA, which threatened that if Japan agrees to transfer only two of the four islands to it, it will affect the process of returning Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty (the Agreement on the return of Okinawa to Japan entered into force in 1972. Moscow's position is that the islands became part of the USSR as a result of the Second World War, and the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over them is unquestionable.
After Japan adopted several packages of sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced on March 21, 2022 that Moscow, as a response to unfriendly steps by Tokyo, refuses to negotiate with Japan on a peace treaty, stops visa-free travel of citizens Japan on the southern Kuril islands, exits the dialogue with Japan on the establishment of joint economic activity on the southern Kuril Islands.
