Japan summons Russian envoy over Putin's visit to disputed island

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi requested Nozdrev to convey the protest to Moscow “as soon as possible,” Kyodo News reported.

Putin earlier Thursday visited Iturup in his first trip to the island chain off Hokkaido amid a trip to his country's Far Eastern Sakhalin region.

Tokyo maintains that the Northern Territories, consisting of Iturup, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group, were "illegally" seized by the now-defunct Soviet Union soon after Japan's surrender in World War II on Aug. 15, 1945.

Russia, which calls them the Southern Kurils, argues the seizure was legitimate.

The dispute has prevented the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries since World War II, and tensions have deepened in recent years amid Japan's sanctions against Moscow over the Russia-Ukraine war.