Along with Abkhazia, Crimea, the Donbass, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria and in future Kaliningrad and East Karelia if needed

Also see: Two-front offensive: U.S. ambassador Emanuel insists Russian islands belong to Japan

Kyodo News
March 31, 2022

Japan to again designate Russian-held isles as illegally occupied

Japan will once again describe Russia’s decades-long hold over a string of disputed northern islands as an “illegal occupation” in an annual foreign policy report, a draft showed Thursday, as bilateral ties sour following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The classification will appear for the first time since 2003, reflecting Tokyo’s shift away from a conciliatory policy stance towards Moscow….

The draft of the Diplomatic Bluebook for 2022 was obtained by Kyodo News.

The ownership dispute over the islands – Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group – stems from their seizure by the Soviet Union, Russia’s predecessor state, in the weeks following Japan’s World War II surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. It has prevented the two nations from signing a peace treaty.

The draft paper also said the islands, called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, are “inherent” part of the territory of Japan, the words that had been absent since the 2011 edition.

“We are not under circumstances in which we can talk” about the issue with Russia, the draft bluebook says, while demanding strongly that Moscow heed criticism from the international community, withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and comply with international law.

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Japan has condemned Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine which began on Feb. 24 as “a serious violation of international law,” and has joined other Western nations in imposing economic sanctions such as freezing assets belonging to its leaders and central bank, and excluding several Russian banks from a major international payment system.