1989 Reports

The Soviet-Japanese Territorial Dispute

Kimura, Hiroshi

World War II ended forty-four years ago, yet there still has not been a peace treaty signed between Japan and the Soviet Union. The stumbling block is what the Japanese call the “Northern Territories” (Hopp6 ryddo) problem, or the question of sovereignty of the Northern Territories — the Habomais group of islets and the islands of Shikotan, Kunashiri and Etorofu off the northern coast of Hokkaido. Tokyo has long demanded the return of these islands, which Soviet troops occupied at the end of World War II. Moscow has flatly rejected such a request.