Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara on Thursday reiterated his government's stance on disputed islands it holds claim to off Hokkaido, northeastern Japan, saying that they are sovereign Japanese territory from a point of law.
Speaking at a press conference, Maehara said that regardless of how many Russian dignitaries visit the islands or how much Russia' s military presence grows in the area, the islands are originally Japanese territory from an international legal standpoint.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the islands last November.
Four islands-which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories-are the subject of a 60-year dispute between the two nations.
Maehara's comments are thought to be a retort to Russian President Medvedev's orders Wednesday to boost his nation's military presence on the Kuril Islands.
Japan's foreign minister will meet with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Friday amid growing tensions and saber- rattling between the two countries, exacerbated by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan saying this week that Medvedev's visit to one of the four Russian-held islands last November was an '' unforgivable outrage.''
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that the comments made by Kan were extremely unfriendly and had considerably damaged Russia-Japan relations regarding the territorial dispute.
Against a backdrop of ill-feeling, Maehara's forthcoming visit to Russia is aimed at resolving economic issues between the two countries, but the territorial standoff is showing no signs of abating, with the Russian side insisting Japan changes its fundamental stance towards Russia.
The dispute over sovereignty is largely concerned with the somewhat ambiguous San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan inked in 1951.
The treaty states that Japan must give up its claims to the Kuril islands, but recognition of sovereignty over the islands was not given to the Soviet Union either, and therein lies the conflict.
Russia believes sovereignty was recognized long before the 1951 treaty, at the end of the Second World War, but the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai rocks are believed by Japan to be a part of the Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture. Russia has and continues to ardently contest this.
The pace of the deterioration of Russia-Japan relations quickened in 2006 when a Japanese fisherman was killed and a crab fishing boat was captured in the waters around the disputed Kuril Islands, but days later Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pledged Russia would build relations with Japan through increased dialogue and Japan's foreign minister at that time received the pledge with equal good will saying Japan has a "firm and long standing relationship with Russia."
The Japanese government for its part incensed Russia when in 2008 it published a new guideline for school textbooks to teach Japanese children that their country has sovereignty over the Kuril Islands. The Foreign Minister of Russia said Tokyo's actions were reprehensible and Russia reaffirmed its sovereignty over the islands.
In January last year, Russian border guards were engaged in an aggressive encounter with two Japanese fishing vessels in disputed waters off the islands.
The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from ever signing a postwar peace treaty.