The decision of the Russian side to stop negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty remains in force, since in today’s conditions a corresponding dialogue with Tokyo is impossible, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

The diplomat recalled that after the start of the Northeast Military District, Japan adhered to an openly unfriendly course towards Moscow. In particular, it continues to impose illegal sanctions, Russophobic sentiments are purposefully incited in Japanese society, joint military activity with NATO states is increasing near the Far Eastern borders of the Russian Federation, and direct material and technical assistance is being provided to the Kyiv regime.

“Under such conditions, we do not see any possibility of continuing the previously held dialogue with Tokyo on concluding a fundamental document, which was intended to lay the foundation for long-term, good-faith relations,” Zakharova said. “The Russian Federation will continue to respond to any new hostile attacks by the Japanese authorities with the most stringent and sensitive countermeasures for Japan with the adequate use of all available means and instruments, guided solely by its own national interests.”

Earlier, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that Tokyo places full responsibility for the deterioration of bilateral relations on Moscow. According to him, the reason is Russia’s decision in March 2022 to withdraw from the dialogue on a peace treaty with Japan, after Tokyo introduced broad sectoral sanctions against the Russian Federation.

“We believe that this whole situation has developed solely because of (the actions -

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) Russia. Attempts to place blame on Japan are extremely unfair and completely unacceptable,” TASS quoted him as saying.

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In his keynote speech in parliament on January 30, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo still expects to conclude a peace treaty with Moscow. At the same time, Kishida emphasized that Japan intends to continue its sanctions policy against Russia and support Kyiv.

  • Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida

  • AP

  • © Rodrigo Reyes Marin

Let us recall that the Soviet Union and Japan did not conclude a peace treaty at the end of World War II due to a dispute over the ownership of the Southern Kuriles - the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and the Habomai ridge. In 1956, the countries signed a joint declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Tokyo after a peace treaty was concluded. However, Japan claims all the islands and rejects Russian sovereignty over them.

Fumio Kishida's statement about his intention to continue working on concluding a peace treaty was commented on the day before by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.

According to him, “no one is against” concluding an agreement with the understanding that the issue of ownership of the Kuril Islands is forever closed in accordance with the Russian Constitution, and their strategic role will grow, including the deployment of new weapons there.

“We don’t care deeply about the “feelings of the Japanese people” regarding the so-called northern territories. These are not “disputed territories,” this is Russia,” Medvedev emphasized.

After the start of the SVO, the Japanese authorities consistently introduced broad restrictions against the Russian Federation and Belarus. Tokyo's sanctions lists include hundreds of citizens of both countries, as well as many Russian companies. Tokyo froze the assets of the largest banks in the Russian Federation and introduced a ban on the export of goods and technologies to Russia, the list of which exceeds 300 items.

At the end of March 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported: “Under current conditions, the Russian side does not intend to continue negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty due to the impossibility of discussing the signing of a fundamental document on bilateral relations with a state that takes openly unfriendly positions and seeks to harm the interests of our country... “All responsibility for damage to bilateral interaction and the interests of Japan itself lies with official Tokyo, which deliberately chose an anti-Russian course instead of developing mutually beneficial cooperation and good neighborliness.”

After this, in April 2022, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published an annual report on diplomacy - the so-called Blue Book - in which for the first time since 2003 it designated the northern territories (as Tokyo calls the South Kuril Islands) as “occupied”.

"Improve your status"

In a conversation with RT, the head of the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO, Doctor of Historical Sciences Dmitry Streltsov, noted that in connection with Japan’s current course towards the Russian Federation, there are no prerequisites for resuming dialogue on the peace treaty.

“Japan sees itself as part of the collective West, acts as a united bloc with it on the issue of Ukraine and supports all anti-Russian actions. If there is some qualitative change in the current geopolitical situation for the better, perhaps it will be possible to resume dialogue on a peace treaty. However, in the current conditions there is no prospect of resolving this issue,” the expert said.

In turn, the head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Kistanov, called the statement of the representative of the Japanese Cabinet of Ministers about Russia’s guilt for the deterioration of bilateral relations devoid of common sense.

“In Russian it’s called “getting off a sore head and onto a healthy one.” To blame Russia for the fact that Japan has imposed the most severe unilateral sanctions against the Russian Federation is, to put it mildly, illogical,” the expert noted.

Tokyo’s position is especially strange, given its geographic distance from Ukraine and the fact that the Russian special operation does not in any way affect Japan’s national security, the political scientist added.

“Why did Japan begin such anti-Russian actions in all directions, although it is located on the other side of the planet from Ukraine and Europe? Tokyo follows in the footsteps of Washington's policy on all points - this was the case throughout the entire post-war period, and this is also evident in the situation with Ukraine. In addition, Japan believes that it must improve its status in the international arena. And Prime Minister Kishida is trying to use things like anti-Russian actions to increase his rating, because it is now very low due to the failure of domestic economic policy and corruption scandals,” the specialist explained.

Earlier, on January 22, the Yomiuri newspaper published the results of a survey, according to which the level of support for the Japanese government led by Kishida dropped to a record low of 24%.

Valery Kistanov also expressed the opinion that Fumio Kishida is making efforts to ensure that Japan becomes the leader of the anti-Russian movement in Asia.

“Japan tried to mobilize Asian countries for anti-Russian actions, but Tokyo did not succeed very well: apart from South Korea and Singapore, virtually no one else shares Japan’s position regarding the Northeast Military District. Japan is seeking to play a role as a pro-Western Asian leader on this issue. Tokyo provides enormous financial and material assistance to Ukraine, Japanese officials constantly travel there,” the analyst recalled.

  • Coast of Iturup Island

  • RIA News

  • © Anton Denisov

Kistanov noted that in the context of Kishida’s statement about his intention to conclude a peace treaty with the Russian Federation, one must remember that he himself, as head of the Foreign Ministry in the government of Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2017, actively opposed reaching a compromise solution with the Russian side regarding the Kuril Islands.

“Now that Kishida has come to power, he has fully developed his vision of Russian-Japanese relations, which is that there can be no compromises, Russia allegedly illegally occupies the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Iturup and Kunashir. “This is all written down in official Japanese documents, including the Blue Book on foreign policy, and is constantly voiced by Japanese politicians and the media,” the RT interlocutor emphasized.

The more the Japanese prime minister’s chair shakes due to numerous scandals within the ruling party and unsuccessful economic policies, the more actively he promotes this position, added Valery Kistanov.

“We must also take into account that February 7 is coming soon - in Japan this is “Northern Territories Day.” There will be a national rally, the Prime Minister will speak there and in his speech will demand the conclusion of a peace treaty and a solution to the territorial problem without taking into account the interests of Russia,” the expert said.

However, the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over these islands is not subject to doubt and cannot be challenged, Kistanov stated.

“Japanese politicians understand perfectly well: there are no such prospects to expect that Russia will enter into some kind of negotiations on a peace treaty in the near future, especially taking into account Japanese demands to resolve the territorial problem,” the political scientist concluded.