Aso, Medvedev eye 'unconventional' approach to resolve territorial row

Wednesday 18th February, 02:00 PM JST

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williamsmith at 01:25 PM JST - 18th February

Aso should never go there, it is legitimizing the theft by the Russians of these very Japanese Islands.
whynothow at 01:33 PM JST - 18th February

schtiel

and that would totally help Japanese demographics. 2: I hate commies.

Seems to me that you hate common sense too. Russia.... Commies? Right right... and Iranians are all terroristsss right? Help demographics? All Japanese are just hitching to go live there....right? go back to sleep. You are tired.
Curmudgeon at 01:50 PM JST - 18th February

Isn't Sakhalin the Japanese for "Waterloo"?
kwatt at 02:11 PM JST - 18th February

Majority of Japanese do not think Aso is a true leader of Japan. He was supposed to dissolve the upper house when he was selected as prime minister and to fight the general election in last October. Aso did not, still keep being prime minister. I think that Real prime minister selected by both Houses should go to the summit talk. He could not make better progress about any issues. I don't like his intentional grin on face anyway.
Samuraiiki at 02:56 PM JST - 18th February

The victor gets the spoils. Case closed.
sdf_crew_member at 03:30 PM JST - 18th February

I'd say these islands are material things and marine resources around them too both are quite valuable. If Japan wants (make use of) them it must come forward with a really good proposal. Back patting and ありがとう even in 共 case won't work anymore - 90s are over.
TokyoHustla at 04:16 PM JST - 18th February

Good thing Aso is focusing on the issues that will help his party's standing in the next election.
Konsta at 05:13 PM JST - 18th February

This article is changing in front of my eyes. I can’t believe it. Now the phrase about visiting a liquefied gas plant, which I guess was one of the main reasons of the visit, did completely vanish. Sure, let’s hide economy, crisis etc., and fill the article with ritualistic words about the islands. Islands are an important matter of bilateral relations, but you can’t just take a business meeting and overwrite it with ritualistic shamanic incantations. As the result, we get the questions like “What did Russia want from Japan?”. Japan builds car plants in Russia, helps to make artificial islands, invests in oil and gas industry, and so on and so forth. That is what they want from each other. Even the island issue is not described properly. Did Aso say that he went there with the purpose to discuss the islands? How much time did they actually spend discussing the issue? Did they come to this “original and unconventional approach” phrase during a tea break? I am interested about the atmosphere of the meeting, when they were discussing the question. I hope that the reason of this small article was not a mere propaganda. Something substantial would be nice.
Angelo at 06:54 PM JST - 18th February

What do the Russians want? - Reduce US influence in the region. - Increase Russian influence in the region - Get a softer image, after all those uyokus marching up and down in front of the Russian embassy each holiday with loud speaker attached to cars. - Japanese Yen which is pretty strong these days unlike the Russian garbage money (forget the name) - Japanese technology - etc..

What do they have to offer for all these? Nothing.
some14some at 07:40 PM JST - 18th February

Even former PM Koizumi is there in Russia...would be interesting to know what role he is playing in such type of negotiations.
presto345 at 07:47 PM JST - 18th February

The victor gets the spoils. Case closed.

Oh, no. This case is not closed. The Soviets invaded the northern territories after Japan had unconditionally surrendered. However, Japan does not maintain any claim on Sakhalin, IIRC. So it's OK for Aso to visit there.
Ranger_Miffy at 08:37 PM JST - 18th February

Folks, welcome to "globlization".
ThonTaddeo at 09:30 PM JST - 18th February

They should give the islands over to the Ainu, who had both Hokkaido and Sakhalin stolen from by the Japanese and Russians, and create an independent neutral country called the "Ainu Mosir" (Land of the Ainu). If the Ainu Mosir couldn't function as an independent state, it could be a protectorate of Japan or Russia, using whichever currency the people want. As things are now, the positions of both Japan and Russia strike me as being of the "we stole it fair and square" variety.
bakabaka at 10:05 PM JST - 18th February

ThonTaddeo has it right. The islands are no more Japanese than they are russian....
OssanAmerica at 10:06 AM JST - 19th February

Why the Ainu? There was an Ohotsk Culture that predates the arrival of the Ainu in that region. Give it back to them. If we can find them.