Japan celebrates Northern Territories Day

Japan celebrates Northern Territories Day on a grand scale. Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Monday called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent trip to the South Kuril Islands, which Tokyo considers “occupied,” “unacceptably rude.” At the same time, activists of radical nationalist organizations staged a demonstration at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. They reinforced their demand to “return their native land” by desecrating the Russian state flag.

Northern Territories Day has been celebrated in Japan annually on February 7 since 1981 in memory of the first Russian-Japanese treaty of 1855, which left the Southern Kuril Islands for the Land of the Rising Sun. However, experts say that this date has not been celebrated on such a grand scale for a long time. “I consider the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Kunashir to be an unacceptable rudeness,” said Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan at a national rally held in Tokyo for the return of the “northern territories.” “I personally expressed a strong protest in this regard to the Russian President at our meeting in Yokohama.” .

Let us recall that the Russian leader first visited the island of Kunashir in November last year, after which Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Minister of Defense Dmitry Bulgakov and the head of the Russian Ministry of Regional Development Viktor Basargin came to the Kuril Islands. Last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also visited the Kuril Islands, which Tokyo, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, perceived as “a tub of cold water.”

Prime Minister Kan was also supported by Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who is leaving for negotiations in Moscow on February 10. He assured that he intends to devote his political career to “achieving the return of Japan’s ancestral territories as soon as possible.”

In addition, Mr. Maehara publicly reprimanded former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who doubted the realism of Tokyo’s position in negotiations with Russia on the South Kuril Islands. The diplomat's dissatisfaction was caused by Mr. Hatoyama's statement that the demand for the simultaneous transfer of all the Southern Kuriles was unrealistic. “This will only lead to a complete disagreement of views in the negotiations,” he warned the Japanese Foreign Ministry over the weekend. “I would ask the former prime minister to refrain from expressing thoughts that differ from the government’s position, even if it is a personal opinion,” said the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

At the same time, Japanese far-right groups also held their protest on Monday. In the morning, they traveled around the Tokyo area, where the Russian Embassy is located, on buses with loudspeakers. The sounds of military marches interspersed with demands for “Give back the northern territories!” and “You illegally occupied our native land!” In addition, activists of one of the groups came to the Russian diplomatic mission with a torn and covered Russian flag, which they dragged along the ground. Several hundred police officers are keeping order at the Russian Embassy, and the entrance to the diplomatic mission is blocked by hedgehogs.

Alexander Reutov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:

“It is especially sad and regrettable that the Japanese government funds these non-governmental organizations, but has also increased such funding in the last year. We are ready to continue a comprehensive dialogue with Japan on all issues, including the issue of concluding a peace treaty based on the approaches that President Medvedev outlined to Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Yokohama and, of course, based on the fact that it is necessary to conduct such a conversation on the basis of unconditional recognition of the results of World War II war.

The President of Russia was accused of rudeness