About 500 Japanese Nationals Rally In Tokyo To Reclaim Southern Kuril Islands

About 500 Japanese nationals, including former residents of the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido administration officials, took part in a rally held in Tokyo to reclaim the Russian-controlled Southern Kuril islands, which Japan refers to as its Northern Territories, media reported on Thursday.

"It is important that all people should support diplomatic negotiations unexceptionally but without abandoning the demand for reclaiming the territories," Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki was quoted as saying by the Japanese Kyodo news agency.

The Kuril Islands is a Pacific Ocean archipelago that became part of Russia after the World War II in 1945. Japan has refused to give up its sovereignty claims to the four islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai.

Moscow and Tokyo tried to negotiate separate aspects of their disagreements, but never signed a full post-war peace treaty. In 2022, Japan redesignated the disputed islands as being under an "illegal occupation" in an annual foreign policy report as bilateral ties soured following the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.