President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday visited islands seized from Japan at the end of World War II for the first time, prompting an angry rebuke from Tokyo.
Mr. Putin used the visit to reassert Russia’s territorial claims and to protest Japan’s ongoing sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. A day before the visit, he said that Russia’s claim to the islands was a “reality” that had been “enshrined in international documents.”
“We are not threatening Japan. We have absolutely no claims against it,” Mr. Putin said. “On the contrary, Japan has territorial claims against our country.”
The visit, which came as Russia held large-scale military exercises in the neighboring seas, was the latest flare-up in tensions between the two countries. Russia has been putting pressure on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a defense hawk and critic of Moscow who was elected last year. She has pushed forward with Japan’s largest postwar defense buildup and sought closer ties with the United States.
Ms. Takaichi criticized the visit on Thursday, saying Japan had repeatedly warned Russian leaders to stay away from the islands, which are known in Russia as the southern Kuril Islands and in Japan as the Northern Territories. She described them as “an inherent part of Japan’s territory, both historically and under international law.”
She told reporters that Mr. Putin’s visit “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people and is absolutely unacceptable.” Japan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest the visit.
Japan traces its claims to the 17th century, but the Russians generally date their sovereignty to the waning days of World War II, when Soviet troops occupied the islands after Japan’s surrender in 1945. Japan and Russia never signed a formal peace treaty after the war.
The islands stretch from the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia to Hokkaido in the northernmost part of Japan. Mr. Putin visited an island that is called Iturup in Russian and Etorofu in Japanese. He toured a fish-processing complex and ate caviar. He also visited a hospital and a school, the Kremlin said in a statement, releasing photos of the Russian leader’s stops.
The governor of the Sakhalin region, which includes the islands, Valery Limarenko, accompanied Mr. Putin on the visit. Under a bright sun, Mr. Putin met residents of the region and hugged two young children, in footage posted online by a state news reporter who follows the Russian leader.
“Look at this great weather, it’s like a resort!” Mr. Putin said. One woman responded that such weather is very rare, noting that it is usually windy and foggy. “The weather is smiling on you,” she said.
Mr. Putin’s visit is part of a broader tour across Siberia and the Far East that he has been making ahead of the Russian parliamentary election next month.
On Wednesday, during a visit to Russia’s Pacific Fleet in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Mr. Putin boarded the Varyag guided missile cruiser. He said Japan had placed “unprovoked sanctions” on his country over the conflict in Ukraine and singled out Russia as an enemy threat.
The trip marks Mr. Putin’s first visit to the region claimed by Japan in his quarter century rule. President Dmitry A. Medvedev visited one of the islands in 2010, becoming the first Russian or Soviet leader to do so. Japan denounced the visit and summoned the Russian ambassador to Japan in protest.
Previous Japanese leaders, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a mentor to Ms. Takaichi, made efforts to win back some of the territory.
But in 2019, hopes of a deal were dashed by Mr. Putin. He said that any agreement must have support from the public, which in Russia is strongly opposed to returning any islands to Japan.
Japan has made small efforts to improve relations with Russia in recent months, including sending a delegation of government officials to Moscow for trade talks and organizing cultural exchange trips. But it has maintained economic and trade sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war.
A recent investigation by The New York Times found that Russian military intelligence has been using Japan as a hub to source components for its war effort, exploiting weak Japanese espionage laws and high-tech industry.
Michito Tsuruoka, a professor at Keio University in Tokyo, said that Mr. Putin’s visit suggested that “there is no intention — particularly on the Russian side — to improve relations with Japan.”
“Russia’s narrative is that the deterioration of Japan-Russia relations is Japan’s fault,” he said. “From Japan’s perspective, of course, that is outrageous and untrue; the blame lies with Russia. It is essentially a case of ‘he said, she said,’ and Japan has no choice but to stand firm.”
Kiuko Notoya contributed reporting from Tokyo.
