Japan Deems Russia’s Occupation of Disputed Islands ‘Illegal’

Japan reinstated a reference to Russia’s “illegal occupation” of disputed islands in its annual diplomatic report for the first time in 19 years, as relations between the neighbors turn increasingly hostile following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The two countries have been locked in a territorial dispute over a group of islands known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan for more than 75 years. The Soviet Union seized the disputed islands in the final days of World War II, expelling thousands of Japanese residents.