The Kuril Islands dispute: Why Japan and Russia remain in a standoff

Japan claims the four southernmost islands as its 'Northern Territories,' arguing they are an inherent part of Japanese land that was not covered by the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, despite the treaty requiring Japan to renounce claims to the broader Kuril chain.

Yes, the islands are inhabited, primarily by Russian citizens. Russia maintains infrastructure, including military bases, hospitals, and fish-processing complexes, particularly on the island of Iturup, to solidify its administrative control over the territory.

A formal peace treaty is unlikely in the near term as long as the territorial dispute remains unresolved. Both nations hold fundamentally different legal interpretations of sovereignty, and the strategic military value of the islands makes compromise politically difficult for both sides.

The 1956 joint declaration was an agreement between the Soviet Union and Japan that officially ended the state of war between the two nations and restored diplomatic relations, though it stopped short of resolving the final status of the disputed islands.