Japan Never Backed Russia Returning Only 2 Disputed Isles: Ishiba

Tokyo, Dec. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday denied that Tokyo had ever supported the idea of Russia returning only two of the four disputed northwestern Pacific islands to Japan. 

"The Japanese government has never established a policy of accepting the return of only two of the four islands or the return of two islands ahead of the other two," Ishiba told a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting.

He clarified this after Katsuya Okada, former secretary-general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said that Japan veered toward the idea of Russia returning two of the four, Shikotan and the Habomais, following a summit held in Singapore in 2018 between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Collectively known in Japan as the Northern Territories, the four islands, also including Etorofu and Kunashiri, were seized by the former Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War II. The territorial row has been preventing Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities.

At the Budget Committee meeting, Ishiba said that there has been "no change at all" in Japan's stance of concluding a peace treaty with Russia after resolving the ownership issue over all four islands.

Citing the 1993 Tokyo Declaration, which stipulates that the two sides aim to conclude a peace treaty by solving the attribution issue over the four islands, and the 2018 Singapore agreement, reached between Abe and Putin, Ishiba said that Tokyo and Moscow will hold negotiations based on their past agreements and documents.

On his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's proposal of allowing political parties to keep details of certain outlays undisclosed, Ishiba said that an upper limit should not be set for the amount of such expenditures. The proposal is part of the LDP's legislation to revise the political funds control law.

Ishiba, however, said that expenditures should be allowed to remain undisclosed in "only some exceptional cases."

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