Putin visits disputed Kuril island, Japan calls trip unacceptable

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Thursday, 13 August 2026, for a visit to a disputed island chain in the Pacific administered by Moscow but claimed by Tokyo. The trip marked the first time a Russian president has visited the territory in 16 years, drawing swift condemnation from the Japanese government.

The journey centred on the island known in Russia as Iturup and in Japan as Etorofu. It forms the southernmost part of the volcanic Kuril archipelago, running in a broad arc from Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula down to Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido. Japan asserts territorial rights to the four southernmost islands of the chain, referring to them as the Northern Territories. Moscow calls them the Southern Kurils.

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The isles were seized by the Soviet Union during the final days of the Second World War. Following the occupation, Moscow deported a population of about 17,000 Japanese residents. Because the territorial dispute was never settled, Russia and Japan never signed a formal peace treaty to end the war between them. About 20,000 Russian citizens currently live across the islands, which feature mineral deposits including gold and silver alongside rich fishing grounds. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union established air and sea bases on the islands, and Russia has maintained a military presence there ever since, using Iturup as a primary military air base in the region.

Before traveling to Iturup, Putin spent Wednesday on the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin. There, he held a meeting on ensuring the security of Russia’s eastern borders, according to Russian state media, and observed military drills of Russia’s Pacific Fleet on board a missile cruiser named Varyag.

Upon arriving on Iturup, Putin met with the regional governor and toured local facilities, including a school, a hospital, and the Yasny fish-processing plant. State-run Vesti television footage showed the Russian president in a dark suit standing beside a table displaying two large tuna and a halibut while officials discussed fish migration. Putin also stopped to taste local fish roe and interacted with residents.

"What lovely weather you have there, just like a resort!"

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, via Yahoo News (Reuters)

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reacted immediately from the prime minister's office in Tokyo, stating that the visit offended the sentiments of the Japanese people and was absolutely unacceptable. Takaichi told reporters that the trip went against Japan’s consistent position on the Northern Territories and had worsened Japanese sentiment towards Russia.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi echoed those objections. Motegi stated that the disputed islands are an inherent part of Japan’s territory both historically and under international law. According to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Motegi subsequently summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a strong protest against the visit.

Bilateral ties between Moscow and Tokyo have remained frosty, deteriorating further after the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began in 2022. Japan joined other G7 nations in imposing sanctions on Russia and providing financial and non-lethal defence aid to Kyiv. Defending his actions, Putin remarked that while Japan has identified Russia as a main source of threats, Russia is not threatening Japan, but rather facing territorial claims from Tokyo.

The diplomatic friction unfolded against a wider geopolitical backdrop. On the same day as Putin’s visit, the Russian and Chinese ambassadors to Japan—Nikolai Nozdrev and Wu Jianghao—issued a joint statement opposing any attempts to revise the results of the Second World War and warning against the re-militarisation of the Asia-Pacific region. The diplomatic move mirrored Moscow's long-standing rejection of Japanese claims. Additionally, the visit coincided with regional security events, following a ballistic missile launch by North Korea into the sea off the Korean peninsula ahead of joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington.

Previous visits by high-ranking Russian officials, including former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, have similarly drawn sharp protests from Tokyo. The Japanese government maintains that the return of the islands remains a prerequisite for concluding a formal peace treaty with Moscow.