Today I got a question about Russia-Japan relations. Hmmm.. Okay, here we go!

In 1701, one unlucky Japanese trading ship got in the storm near Kamchatka, Russian Far East. The crew of the ship and its captain named Denbei (Jap. 伝兵衛) was rescued by native inhabitants. Denbei was conveyed to Moscow for the meeting with Russian Emperor Peter the Great. Peter was impressed by erudition of the guest and ordered to open Japanese language school in Moscow where Denbei was assigned as a senior teacher. Only 35 years later Russian ships for the first time reached Japan.

Throughout the history he relations between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire were mostly hostile due to the conflicting territorial expansions of both empires.

The first Russian-Japanese agreement was about the status of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the 1855. Since then political relations between the countries has always been under the shadow of Kuril Islands problem.

The Kuril Islands  is a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately 1,300 km northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. The islands have rich reserves of mineral resources. There's about 2000 tonnes of Gold, 9000 tonnes of Silver, 40 mln tonnes of Titanium, 273 mln tonnes of Iron.

According to the agreement of 1855, Russia was holding all the islands except for 4 that belonged to Japan. In 1875 Russia gave up all the rights to the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan in exchange of full control over Sakhalin. After defeat of Japan in the World War II, Russia demanded full control over the Kurils. From that time Russia demands that all The Kuril Islands is inseparable territory of Russia. Japan insists that 4 South Kuril islands, historically inhabited by Japanese, belong to Japan.

According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan says he will energetically develop political and economic relations with Russia.   

Prime Minister Kan said that he would energetically address Japan’s ties with Russia and would "push the wheels of the cart forward", both in the field of politics and economics, so as to eventually conclude a peace treaty and settle the issue of the northern territories, the biggest problem in Japanese-Russian relations. 

Let's hope for the best because now, in this no-win situation for both countries, it's very difficult if not impossible to to build trustful and friendly relationships between the nations.

In my next posts I will tell more about economical and cultural ties between Russia and Japan.