TOKYO—Japan’s Defence
Ministry said two Russian fighter jets briefly intruded into
Japanese
airspace Thursday off the northwestern tip of the island of Hokkaido,
prompting Tokyo to lodge a protest.
Japanese air force
jets scrambled after the intrusion by the two SU-27 jets off the coast
of Rishiri island, which lasted just over a minute, ministry official
Yoshihide Yoshida said.
Yoshida said it was
not immediately known whether the airspace violation was intentional or
accidental, but that it was “extremely problematic.” The last intrusion
by Russian jets in Japanese airspace was on Feb. 9, 2008, he said.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with the Russian Embassy in Tokyo.
Another ministry
official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was not immediately
clear whether it was related to a government-sponsored rally held
Thursday demanding that Moscow return a group of disputed islands off
Hokkaido’s eastern coast captured by the Russians in 1945.
Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe told the rally that he will do his utmost to resolve the territorial
dispute with Russia, which has kept the two nations from signing a
peace treaty officially ending their hostilities in World War II.
Soviet troops captured
the islands in the waning days of the war, forcing about 17,000
Japanese residents to be deported over the next few years. About 17,000
people, mostly Russians, live there now.
Japan has designated
Feb. 7 as “Northern Territories Day,” saying that a treaty dating back
to that day in 1855 supports its claim to the islands, which are known
in Russia as the Southern Kurils.
They lie as close as
10 kilometres to Japan’s Hokkaido island and are also near undisputed
Russian territory. The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds
and are believed to have offshore oil and natural gas reserves, plus
gold and silver deposits.
Addressing former
Japanese residents of the islands and others gathered in a large Tokyo
concert hall, Abe said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in
December that he wants to settle the dispute. Abe plans to send former
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori as a special envoy to Russia this month, but
prospects for progress on the issue are uncertain.
“We aim to finally
resolve the problem with Russia on the disputed islands and realize the
signing of a peace treaty,” Abe said in a brief speech before being
whisked back to parliamentary proceedings.
In 2010, former
President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian or Soviet leader to
visit the islands, triggering sharp rebukes from Tokyo. He visited a
second time last July.
More than half of the former Japanese residents of the islands have died in the 68 years since the Russians took control.
“My birthplace is
right in front of me, but I can’t return” to live there, said Choriki
Sugawara, a 79-year-old man who recalled happy memories growing up on
the island of Kunashir — called Kunashiri in Japan — in a fishing family
of eight.
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