JAPAN/FILE: Japanese government pledges to solve a territorial dispute with Russia

Record ID: 464769

  • Title: JAPAN/FILE: Japanese government pledges to solve a territorial dispute with Russia
  • Date: 8th February 2010
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 7, 2010) (REUTERS) THE VENUE KUDAN KAIKDAN/TRAFFIC RIGHT WING ACTIVISTS' VANS DRIVING IN A ROW ON THE STREET RIGHT WING ACTIVISTS' VANS MARCHING RIOT POLICE PUTTING UP BARRICADE ON ROAD RIGHT WING ACTIVIST SPEAKING ON LOUDSPEAKER IN VAN AND DRIVING PAST POLICE RIOT POLICE PUTTING UP BARRICADE ON ROAD NORTHERN TERRITORIES DAY RALLY AUDIENCE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER YUKIO HATOYAMA CLAPPING JAPANESE SLOGAN "NATIONAL CONVENTION TO RECLAIM THE NORTHERN TERRITORIES" AND GREEN FLAG READING "RETURN THE NORTHERN TERRITORIES" IN JAPANESE HATOYAMA STANDING UP AND BOWING/DELEGATES APPLAUDING (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER YUKIO HATOYAMA SAYING: "I know that there are people who trust this new government and believe we will solve the northern territories dispute. We'll do our best to find a solution to this issue."
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9TNS3WT5H6RNEOQOD9IES3VFT
  • Story Text: The Japanese government reiterates its pledge to solve a territorial dispute with Russia.
    Riding in vans decorated with the symbols of Japan's rising sun and shouting patriotic slogans, right wing activists gathered in central Tokyo on Sunday (February 7) to call for the return of four islands from Russia.
    With riot police standing on guard, the members of the nationalist groups paraded around the streets surrounding the venue where the Japanese government held a rally to commemorate what Northern Territories Day.
    The demonstrators demanded the government take steps to win back the ownership of the Kuril Islands seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two, just one week before Japan surrendered.
    The rally is held every year on the seventh of February, when in 1855 Japan and Russia signed a friendship treaty which, defining the borders between the two nations, recognized the Kuril Islands as Japanese territory, nearly 1700 kilometres (1057 miles) north from Tokyo.
    At the gathering, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose grandfather Ichiro was the first prime minister to rebuild diplomatic ties with Soviet Union in 1956, delivered a speech expressing his willingness to end the territorial dispute.
    "I know that there are people who trust this new government and believe we will solve the northern territories dispute, " said Hatoyama adding "We'll do our best to find a solution to this issue."
    Japan's Prime Minister has also reiterated the government's determination to strengthen the cooperative relationship with Russia, which is considered as a partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
    The long-pending row over the sovereignty of the Kuril Islands has prevented Japan and Russia from formally ending the war hostilities.
    The sparsely populated islands in dispute are in the Kuril chain between Japan's northern island of Hokkaido and Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, with the closest just 15 km (9 miles) from Hokkaido.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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