Japan declares territorial claims to Russia: it’s about southern Kurils

Speaking in the parliament on March 7, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the southern part of the Kuril Islands Japan's original territories.

This was reported by the Japanese publications JIJI and Yomiuri, which quoted Kishida.

For Tokyo, these islands are the Northern Territories, which are the subject of a long-standing dispute with Moscow. Russia occupied these Japanese lands in 1945 after World War II and keeps them under control.

In recent years, the Japanese government has refrained from formulating "native territories" when talking about the Kurils, but on March 7, the 12th day of Russia's war with Ukraine, the rhetoric changed.

"The northern territories are the territory of Japan, the territory over which Japan has sovereignty," said the Prime Minister of Japan.