Why Putin's Trip to Some Remote Islands Made Japan Angry
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the disputed Kuril Islands on Thursday, August 13, 2026. It was his first-ever trip to the island chain, which Russia controls but Japan also claims and calls its Northern Territories. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi quickly condemned the visit, calling it "absolutely unacceptable" and saying it "offends the sentiments of the Japanese people and goes against Japan's position on the Northern Territories" Al Jazeera.
On the southernmost island, Iturup, Putin met with the regional governor and visited a fish-processing plant, a hospital, and a school. About 20,000 Russian citizens live on the islands, which also have mineral deposits like gold and silver and rich fishing grounds. The Kremlin's website separately reported that between April 24 and August 6, 2026, a total of 1,001 ships passed through Russia's exclusive economic zone — an area off a country's coast where it has special rights to use ocean resources — along the Kuril Islands Kremlin.
Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands are "an inherent part of Japan's territory both historically and under international law." Tokyo also filed two protests with Russia over military exercises Moscow had announced around the Kuril Islands France 24.
The dispute goes back to the end of the Second World War. In 1945, the Soviet Union seized the four southernmost Kuril islands and deported their Japanese population of about 17,000 people. Japan says these four islands belong to it. They are known in Russian as Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan, and Iturup, and in Japanese as Kunashiri, Habomai, Shikotan, and Etorofu. No peace treaty — a formal agreement to end a war — has ever been signed between the two countries.
Before the island visit, Putin stopped on the nearby island of Sakhalin on Wednesday, August 12, where Russia's navy was holding drills. That same day, Putin said international documents confirm that the Kuril Islands belong to Russia, including the four islands Japan also claims Nippon.com. He also said Japan's sanctions against Russia were "unprovoked," meaning Japan had no good reason for them. He said Russia is not threatening Japan and that it is Japan which is making territorial claims against Russia.
The broader context here is that relations between Japan and Russia have nearly collapsed since 2022. After Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, Japan joined other G7 countries in imposing sanctions — penalties meant to pressure Russia economically — and gave financial and non-lethal defense aid to Ukraine. These moves brought ties between Tokyo and Moscow to their lowest point in decades. Earlier, there had been signs of cooperation. In 2017, Russia announced plans to bring Japanese businesspeople and officials to the South Kuril Islands to study working together Kremlin. Putin had also told the Japanese newspaper Asahi that Japanese citizens and former island residents could visit under a simplified process and that Japanese fishermen operated in the islands' waters Kremlin. That cooperative framework now appears to be dead.
Putin had signaled his plans as early as January 2024, when he said he would "definitely" visit the Southern Kuril Islands one day Reuters. Russia has a history of dismissing Japanese protests over official visits to the islands. In July 2021, Moscow rejected what it called a "hostile" Japanese protest after the Russian prime minister visited the disputed islands Reuters. The difference in 2026 is that the visitor is Russia's president, not its prime minister.
The visit also fits a wider pattern of Russian diplomatic and military activity in the Pacific region. Putin's August 2025 talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, signaled an effort by Moscow to shift its diplomatic focus toward the Asia-Pacific Kremlin. The naval drills on Sakhalin and the data showing over a thousand ships passing through the Kuril economic zone in recent months point to a steady Russian effort to make both its civilian and military presence on the islands seem normal and permanent.
For Japan, the visit makes an already difficult situation worse. Japan's support for sanctions on Russia and aid to Ukraine has angered Moscow, and Putin's claim that Japan's sanctions were "unprovoked" suggests Russia plans to use the territorial dispute as a tool to pressure Japan rather than something to negotiate. With no peace treaty in sight and communication between the two governments effectively cut off, the Northern Territories dispute has gone from a quiet, unresolved question to an active source of tension in the larger standoff between Russia and countries aligned with the United States.
