The Japanese realized that they would not see the Kuril Islands
Tokyo's hopes of obtaining territorial concessions from Russia in the form of the islands of the southern part of the Kuril chain, which were ceded to the USSR following the Second World War, are actually approaching zero.
One of the former high-ranking Japanese diplomats, who worked in the Russian direction for many years, told Izvestia about this.
According to him, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe showed sufficient courage by agreeing to such close communication with the leader of the Russian Federation in the conditions of “not the most comfortable position for Russia in the international arena after the events in Crimea.”
“Abe himself says that there is progress, but he never specifies what exactly. We do not see any encouraging news in this regard. But we see news about amendments to the Russian Constitution banning the transfer of Russian territory to other countries,” says the diplomat.
At the same time, the newspaper points out that some Japanese experts were encouraged by the wording in this amendment “except in cases of demarcation or re-demarcation of borders with neighboring states.”
True, the publication notes that the author of the amendment, speaking about the possibility of foreign states taking over part of Russian territories in the future, mentioned not only Crimea and Kaliningrad, but also the Kuril Islands.
“And now looking at the process of amending the Russian Constitution, many Japanese have begun to think and are inclined to believe that the islands will never be returned,” Hironori Fushita, an expert at the Japan Institute of International Relations, laments in a conversation with the publication. – And the forecast here is not very optimistic. Abe will not solve this problem, and after him everything will become even more difficult, since the new head of government will not have such enthusiasm.”
At the same time, the newspaper adds, in the public space, none of the Japanese politicians will allow themselves to stop publicly seeking Moscow to transfer the islands to Japan.
Read on: Japan has its sights set on more than just the Kuril Islands, but also Crimea.
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