Japan still insists on the territorial ownership of the Kuril Islands

The subject of negotiations on a peace treaty with Russia is the territorial affiliation of the four “northern islands,” as Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai are called in Japan, said Secretary General of the Japanese government Hirokazu Matsuno.
 “The Northern Territories are islands that are subject to the sovereignty of our country, the ancestral territory of our country. There is no change in the position of the Japanese government. The subject of negotiations on a peace treaty is the territorial ownership of the four islands - this is the consistent position of our country,” he said in response to a journalist’s question about Tokyo’s position in connection with the fifth anniversary of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Singapore.