Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands on Wednesday, travelling to the island of Iturup — known in Japan as Etorofu — where he toured a hospital, met local residents, and sampled caviar at a fish-processing plant. The visit prompted an immediate and forceful response from Tokyo, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi calling it "absolutely unacceptable" and "incompatible with Japan's consistent position" on the territory.

Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev to lodge a formal protest, warning that the visit risked further damaging already strained bilateral relations. Takaichi stated that the islands were "both historically and under international law" an inherent part of Japanese territory, and said the visit would make it harder to restore ties in the medium to long term.

The Kuril Islands — a chain stretching off Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, comprising Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai islet group — have been at the heart of a territorial dispute since 1945, when the Soviet Union seized the archipelago in the final days of the Second World War and expelled a Japanese population of around 17,000. The two countries never signed a formal peace treaty as a result of the unresolved dispute. Today the islands are home to approximately 20,000 Russian citizens and hold strategic significance for Moscow's Pacific Fleet, as well as access to rich fishing grounds, oil, and gas reserves.

Ahead of his visit to Iturup, Putin observed live-fire naval exercises off Sakhalin Island — a Russian island to the northwest of the Kurils — from aboard the missile cruiser Varyag, flagship of Russia's Pacific Fleet. In remarks at Sakhalin, Putin asserted that the four disputed islands were recognised as Russian under international documents and characterised Japan's sanctions, imposed following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as "unprovoked." He also acknowledged the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had pursued a diplomatic entente with Moscow over the islands before relations collapsed after the Ukraine invasion.

Putin's visit is the first by a sitting Russian president since Dmitry Medvedev travelled to Kunashiri in 2010, a trip that also drew a sharp protest from Tokyo. The combination of the presidential visit and the accompanying naval exercises underscores Russia's determination to reinforce its territorial claims in the region, while signalling to Japan and its Western allies that Moscow has no intention of softening its position on the islands, particularly amid the broader freeze in Russia-Japan relations.