The Prime Minister of Japan tightened the rhetoric on the issue of Smoking

For the first time in recent years, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has toughened his rhetoric on the problem of the Kuril Islands, the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper drew attention to this. Isiba made his statements last Friday at the "All-Japanese Congress demanding the return of the northern territories."

"Japan will firmly adhere to the policy of resolving the issue of ownership of the four northern islands and concluding a peace treaty," he said.

According to the publication, before Isiba, the last time the Japanese prime minister used such a wording was in 2019.

On the eve of the congress, the Secretary General of the Government of Japan, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said that Tokyo is still striving to conclude a peace treaty with Russia, despite the difficult relations between the countries.

In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a Joint Declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring Habomai and Shikotan to Tokyo after the conclusion of a peace treaty, and the fate of Kunashir and Iturup was not affected. The Soviet Union hoped that the Joint Declaration would put an end to the dispute, while Japan considered the document only part of the solution to the problem, without renouncing claims to all the islands.

After Japan adopted several packages of sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation on On March 21, 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow, as a response to Tokyo's unfriendly steps, refuses to negotiate a peace treaty with Japan, stops visa-free trips of Japanese citizens to the southern Kuril Islands and withdraws from dialogue with Japan on establishing joint economic activities in the Southern Kuril Islands.