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44°6′N 146°42′E / 44.100°N 146.700°E / 44.100; 146.700

The Kuril Island dispute is a dispute between Japan and Russia over sovereignty over the southernmost Kuril Islands. The disputed islands are currently under Russian administration as part of the Sakhalin Oblast, but are also claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern Territories (北方領土 Hoppō Ryōdo) or Southern Chishima (南千島 Minami Chishima). The disputed islands are:

• Kunashir in Russian (Кунашир) or Kunashiri in Japanese (国後島)
• Iturup in Russian (Итуруп), or Etorofu in Japanese (択捉島)
• Shikotan in both Russian (Шикотан) and Japanese (色丹島)
• the Habomai rocks in both Russian (Хабомай) and Japanese (歯舞諸島)

Background

The dispute results from an ambiguity over the Treaty of San Francisco (1951). Under Article 2c, Japan renounces all right, title, and claim to the Kuril Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth signed on 5 September 1905. It was in accord with earlier agreements between Allied powers and one of the conditions of the USSR to enter in war with Japan.

However, the Soviet Union chose not to be a signatory to the San Francisco Treaty. And Article 2 of an earlier (1855) Russo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce, Navigation and Delimitation (the Treaty of Shimoda), which provided for an agreement on borders, states "Henceforth the boundary between the two nations shall lie between the islands of Etorofu and Uruppu. The whole of Etorofu shall belong to Japan; and the Kurile Islands, lying to the north of and including Uruppu, shall belong to Russia." Note that Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai Islands are not explicitly mentioned in the treaty.

Since the Soviet era, the occupation has been justified as "punishment of Japan." There was practically no hostile activity between the USSR and Japan before the USSR, with the encouragement of the US, renounced the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and declared war on Japan (Operation August Storm) on August 8, 1945.

Recent Developements

On July 7, 2005, the European Parliament issued an official statement recommending the return of the territories in dispute, to which Russia protested immediately.

As of 2006, Russia's Putin administration has offered Japan the return of Shikotan and the Habomais (about 6% of the disputed area) if Japan renounce its claims to the other two islands. The Soviet-Japanese joint declaration of 1956 signed by the USSR and Japan promised at least Shikotan and the Habomais to be returned to Japan before a peace agreement could be made.

On 16 August 2006, a Russian border patrol boat found a Japanese vessel fishing near the disputed islands. The Japanese vessel allegedly defied several orders to stop, and made dangerous maneuvers. A Russian patrol opened preventive fire on the Japanese vessel to stop it. A Japanese 35-year-old crab fisherman, Mitsuhiro Morita, was wounded in the head unintentionally (according to Russian sources) and died later. It was the first fatality related to this dispute in 50 years. However, the diplomatic fallout from this incident was minimal.

See also

• Soviet-Japanese relations and Russo-Japanese relations
• Foreign relations of Japan
• Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875)
• All-Russian Committee for Defence of Kuriles

References

1. European Parliament resolution on relations between the EU, China and Taiwan and security in the Far East #15
2. "Milestones". Time. 168 (10): 12. August 28, 2006. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. "Japan fisherman killed by Russia". BBC news. 16 August 2006.
4. "Russia-Japan Island Row Intensifies with Killing of Fisherman". PINR. 01 September 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Chishima: Frontiers of San Francisco (A documentary film about Kuril Island dispute.)
• Japan's Northern Territories (Japanese government website)
• News from Kuril Islands (News Blog in German and English)
• Map of the region showing the history of the Russo-Japanese border
• The convoluted case of the coveted Kurils analysis by Kosuke Takahashi (November 25, 2004)
• Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy by Gregory Clark (Economist), Japan Times (March 24, 2005)
• Creative thinking on the Kurils analysis by Kosuke Takahashi (April 20, 2005)
• Akaha and Vassilieva, "Lessons for Improved Japan - Russia Relations", Asahi Shimbun, June 20, 2005, Monterey Institute of International Studies
• Kuril Island Society, which is committed to raise awareness about pristine wildlife sanctuary covering most of the disputed region.
• Little known facts in history of the dispute (in Russian).

v t e Soviet occupations
Europe	Austria Baltic states Estonia Latvia Lithuania Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Bornholm Czechoslovakia Transcarpathia Finland Germany East Prussia Hungary Poland Western Ukraine Western Belorussia Sovietization Romania
Asia	Afghanistan Northern Iran Manchuria Northern half of the Korean Peninsula
Italics indicate countries occupied while the Soviet Union was a member of the Allies of World War II.

• Kuril Islands
• Irredentism
• Territorial disputes of Japan
• Territorial disputes of Russia