Japan complains over tourists visiting disputed isles via Russian immigration

Sunday 14th September, 04:23 AM JST

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14 Comments

GG2141 at 06:27 PM JST - 13th September

OK:

So the problem is that Japanese can only visit to tend Family graves. If they go there with a foreign tour company they are causing problems????

Seriously, Japan needs to get a life with regards to the islands. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE RETURNED.
cwhite at 06:44 PM JST - 13th September

buy them or just learn to share
MrRoadrage at 08:19 PM JST - 13th September

Inconsistent with Japan's position?

Does Japan really imagine that the outside world is bothered about its "position"?
Triple888 at 09:21 PM JST - 13th September

Japan is probably the only country in Asia with the most territorial disputes.
rjd_jr at 10:33 PM JST - 13th September

Is there oil or gas reserves there, lol.
bamboohat at 10:47 PM JST - 13th September

Japan is probably the only country in Asia with the most territorial disputes

Yea, well, there can only be one with the most of anything....
Freespeech at 12:23 AM JST - 14th September

The Foreign Ministry says visiting the long-disputed islands known in Russia as the Southern Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories—Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group—via Russian immigration is inconsistent with Japan’s position.

Does it **have **to be "consistent" ? Japan lost the war to the former USSR which occupied these territories in a move consistent with the actions of a victorious country !

Subsequently, the USSR did not partake to the signature of the San Francisco treaty, therefore Japan is still in need of a separate peace treaty with the USSR (Russia in today's context).

And finally, you have to remember that these islands had been entrusted to Japan at the beginning of the 20th century under a mandate of the defunct Société des Nations (forerunner of UN) ; in 1949, the UN put them under US supervision, a situation that lasted until the San Francisco treaty. Thereafter, the USSR was allowed to keep Sakhalin and the Kurils as an application of the Yalta agreement of 1945, just as the US were allowed to keep the Ryukyu and the Bonin islands which they had been first to occupy. In the same move, Japan was formally renouncing any claim on these territories and recognizing that its sovereignty applied only to its four main islands.

Since that time, a lot has been achieved by way of the reversion of the Ryukyu to Japan, but no headway has been made in the way of establishing a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, which makes any claim on the southern Kuril a dream for that matter.
romulus3 at 02:33 AM JST - 14th September

nice. Romulus just found his next holiday destination.
Youdontknow at 03:56 AM JST - 14th September

Oh Japan....please shut the hell up!
mushroomcloud at 05:36 AM JST - 14th September

The Southern Kuriles are not disputed. They belong to Russia.

This disputed island thing is getting old.
OssanULTRA at 11:43 AM JST - 14th September

"The Southern Kuriles are not disputed. They belong to Russia."

Any territory upon which another sovereign state makes a claim is "disputed". That's all it takes. This denying disputes thing is getting old.
stipend at 12:42 PM JST - 14th September

They say unspoiled natural areas are abundant there, attracting the interest of environmentally conscious Americans and Europeans.

Going in by cruise ship is somehow conscious? Better to fly in, hail a ride across the straight with a Russian fishing boat -or swim.

If they can get tourists up there it's great. The islands were impoverished last I checked and accepting community centers from Muneo Suzuki now that I think about it.
WilliB at 12:53 PM JST - 14th September

Japan would have had a chance to buy them back from the corrupt and bankrupt Yeltsin Russia. Now it is too late; in front of the strong cash-loaded Putin Russia, this posturing by the Japanese government is laughable.
Scrote at 04:47 PM JST - 14th September

The Japanese constitution guarantees freedom of travel; the Japanese government cannot tell people where they can and cannot go.