The Japanese government will officially call the South Kuril Islands "Japan's illegally occupied ancient territory."
Report informs citing Kyodo news agency that a draft project of a new edition of the Blue Book on Diplomacy, the government’s information booklet on the country's foreign policy, stipulates.
Japan has claimed four southern islands in the Kuril chain – Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan Habomai Islands since the end of WWII - since they were annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1956, Moscow and Tokyo signed a declaration of cessation of hostilities, but no peace agreement was reached.
Until 2003, Japanese diplomacy officially called the islands "illegally occupied" and until 2012 "ancestral lands". Since 2012, the government has avoided such language in the hope of reaching a compromise with Russia.
Japan was ready to return to the 1956 Island declaration. Under that document, the USSR agreed to return the Habomai and Shikotan Islands to Japan after a peace treaty was signed between the two countries. In 2019, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to end the Kuril Islands issue. However, the negotiations of his time did not yield any results.
In late February, the director of the department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that the South Kuril Islands were occupied. Later, in a speech to parliament, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi called the region "ancient Japanese territory". He said in a separate press conference that the islands were "illegally occupied". After that, Moscow announced on March 21 that it had suspended peace talks.