Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba apologized in parliament for inappropriate statements made by two Japanese officials endorsing the idea of organizing a joint nuclear waste disposal site with Russia on the southern Kuril Islands, provided they are returned by Russia to Japan.
„This shouldn't have happened. I think it's a display of carelessness or arrogance. "As a responsible government official, I apologize," Ishiba said.
The country's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoji Muto and the Minister of Okinawa and the "Northern Territories," as the Russian southern Kuril Islands are called in Japan, Yoshitaka Ito, who also spoke, admitted that they were surprised by these statements.
The government was urged not to allow officials to repeat such statements, as they hurt the former Japanese residents of the Kuril Islands, as well as have a negative impact on foreign policy towards Russia.
In January, a symposium was held in Tokyo dedicated to the topic of choosing a place to bury radioactive waste from Japanese nuclear power plants. One of the guests expressed the idea of negotiating with Russia the transfer of four Kuril Islands to Japan on the condition of jointly creating a nuclear waste disposal area there. Officials from the Japan Nuclear Waste Management Organization and the country's Natural Resources and Energy Administration, who attended the conference, praised the idea. One of them even called it "wonderful, although difficult to implement", and another said that it was so good that it would "kill several birds with one stone".
The statements of the officials caused a negative reaction from the authorities of Hokkaido Prefecture, which borders Russia and to which, according to Japan's official position, the "northern territories" belong. They called the statements reckless and unacceptable and protested to the authorities. Both officials later apologized for their comments, calling them ill-considered.
Since the middle of the last century, Moscow and Tokyo have been negotiating a post-World War II peace treaty. The main obstacle to this remains disagreements over rights to the southern Kuril Islands. After the war, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but Japan disputes ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small uninhabited islands. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Russian sovereignty over these territories, which has the appropriate international legal basis, is not subject to comment.
After Tokyo imposed anti-Russian sanctions in connection with the situation in Ukraine, Russia suspended consultations with Japan on the issue of a peace treaty. Moscow also withdrew from negotiations with Tokyo on establishing joint economic activities on the southern Kuril Islands.