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arashitranslation
Northern Territories
On 20 November JPT
Japan Prime Minister Abe and Russian President Putin held the Japan-Russia Summit.
Just in 2016 there had been three summits,
The 4th summit in December,
"President Putin visiting Japan"
this big event is approaching.
The attention is of course on the progress of "negotiation towards sovereignty of islands of the North Territories".
A point to note is this "hot spring hotel".
The home prefecture of Prime Minister Abe,
"Otanisanso" of Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
In fact the hotel is arranged to be the venue for the "Japan-Russia Summit" in December.
In this Otanisanso Prime Minister Abe is going to
meet President Putin with "the hospitality of Japan style",
so as to make a progress to the negotiation.
By the way this scene was,
when Russia President Yeltsin visited Japan in 1998,
for "Kawana Summit" held in Kawana of Shizuoka Prefecture.
In fact at that time, President and then Japan Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro,
"attended unexpectedly" the wedding ceremony of a pair of common people held in the hotel.
Apart from that, they went fishing together and held each other’s hands during the press conference
showing an appeal of "closeness".
This "Kawana Summit" was,
deemed as "the closest" solution to the Northern Territories dispute
the relationship between the two countries was deepened.
The Northern Territories, as you may know,
refer to "Kunashiri Island", "Etorofu Island", "Habomai Islands", and "Shikotan Island".
The position of Japan is, from the first,
"Japan claims sovereignty over all four islands".
On the other hand, to Russia,
they belonged to the Soviet Union as a result of the Second World War,
now they are "the territories of Russia"
there is such an opposing understanding.
However, now what attracts our attention is the "Proposal of returning two islands".
To return Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island first
and aim at returning the remaining two islands after that,
It is such a proposal to divide the returning of islands.
So why are these two islands proposed to be returned?
In the first place, it was Year 1956 that the two islands were mentioned to be handed over,
in the "Japanese-Soviet Joint Declaration" endorsed around 60 years ago.
In this Declaration, the peace treaty was signed,
the term to "hand over the two islands Habomai Islands and Shikotan Island to Japan"
was clearly written in it.
60 years had passed, even now the Declaration is still effective,
President Putin showed an attitude that he consider this important.
Because of this the proposal of "returning two islands" has again attracted attention.
Among the four islands in the Northern Territories, the biggest one is "Etorofu Island".
Its area, compared with "Tokyo-to (excluding the islands),
is 1.8 times larger.
"Kunashiri Island" is one-sized smaller than Tokyo-to.
"Returning two islands" can be said, in terms of number, to be returning half of the four islands,
in terms of area, "Shikotan Island" and "Habomai Islands"
was 7% of the total area of the Northern Territories.
So, what is the prospect of the negotiation towards sovereignty of islands of the North Territories?
Prime Minister Abe, after the Summit on 20 November,
stated that "It is not that easy to advance a big step"
President Putin, too,
"The path is not easy, it takes long time to review"
alike expressed the difficulty of negotiation.
President Putin’s visit to Japan in December may be a big turning point.
Source: News Zero: http://www.ntv.co.jp/zero/ichimen/2016/11/post-328.html