Southern Kuril Islands will be officially called “Russian-occupied territories” in Japan

Tokyo will officially call the southern Kuril Islands "the original territory of Japan under illegal occupation."

This was reported by the agency Kyodo Tsusin.

Japan claims four southern islands of the Kuril ridge: Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir, and Habomai. At the end of World War II, they were annexed by the Soviet Union, and the Japanese were expelled from them. In 1956, Moscow and Tokyo signed a declaration of an end to hostilities, but no peace treaty was concluded.

"Until 2003, Japanese diplomacy officially called the islands 'illegally occupied' and until 2012 'primal lands.' Since 2012, the government has avoided such wording, hoping to reach a compromise with Russia," said the statement.

Japan was ready to return to the 1956 Declaration on the Islands. In it, the Soviet Union agreed to transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan after the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.

Kyodo Tsushin adds that in early March 2022, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in parliament called these territories "originally Japanese." He later said at a separate press conference that they were "illegally occupied." After that, Moscow effectively stopped the peace talks.