Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks with reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on May 25, 2026. Takaichi said the government plans to prepare a $19 billion supplementary budget aimed at easing pressure on households facing sharply higher daily expenses linked to the Iran war. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP via Getty Images) / Japan OUT
Str | Afp | Getty Images
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has sharply condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first known trip to the disputed Kuril Islands, insisting the territory is “inherently Japanese.”
Writing Thursday on X, Takaichi said Japan had “repeatedly requested” that Moscow prevent the Russian leader from traveling to what Tokyo calls the Northern Territories — the Japanese name for the southern part of the Kuril island chain.
She described Putin’s visit as “absolutely unacceptable,” underscoring the long-running territorial dispute between Japan and Russia.
The Kuril Islands stretch from the southern end of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula toward Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. The remote, volcanic chain lies between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. Its four southernmost islands were seized by the Soviet Union after it moved against Japanese-held territory in the final stages of World War II.
Putin’s itinerary included a stop on Iturup, an island where Russia maintains a strategically significant military installation. During the trip, he visited a fish-processing facility, a hospital and a school, and later met with Valery Limarenko, the governor of the Sakhalin region.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also denounced the trip, writing on Facebook that “Japan strongly protests this visit.”
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin tastes caviar as he visits the Yasny fish processing factory on Iturup island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on August 13, 2026.
Gavriil Grigorov | Afp | Getty Images
Japan renounced “all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands” in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco but did not recognize Soviet sovereignty over the territory.
The dispute over the islands had prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty since the end of the war, although a 1956 joint declaration ended the state of war between the two nations.
Japan’s defense white paper
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that Putin’s visit was likely part of the Kremlin’s response to Japan’s latest defense white paper and aims to undermine Takaichi’s efforts to improve Japan’s defense capabilities.
Japan published its defense white paper earlier in the month, prompting outcry from Putin, as well as Russia’s ally, North Korea. Russia’s president criticized the white paper for identifying Moscow as one of Tokyo’s critical threats.
“Russia is continuing active military activities in the Northern Territories, which are inherent territories of Japan, under illegal occupation,” the white paper said.
