Tokyo has long claimed all of the Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese nation appear to have gradually become open to a compromise regarding the territorial dispute with Russia that has plagued bilateral relations for decades, experts said.
On Friday, Abe met with President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, the second visit to Russia for the Japanese prime minister this year. Putin is scheduled to visit Japan on December 15. Both leaders are also scheduled to meet during the APEC summit in Peru slated to be held in November.
Both leaders highlighted the need to lay the dispute to rest. Putin said that "we can't let the chances that we have slide by," while Abe urged both nations "to build a new era in Russia-Japan ties that will last the next 70 years."
Russian and Japanese officials have been vague on the details of a possible deal on the Kuril Islands, but handing them over to Tokyo seems to be out of the question. On Friday, John Micklethwait asked Putin whether Moscow could give up one of the islands in exchange for greater economic cooperation.
