Paul Goble
Staunton, July 29 – The Japanese government went through the motions of protesting the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s visit to the Kuriles, or as Tokyo calls them, “the northern territories.” But its reaction, Anatoly Koshkin was restrained by Moscow’s push for the expansion of foreign investment, including Japanese, there.
A week ago, the historian at Moscow’s Institute of the Countries of the East says, Vladimir Putin called for opening the way for Japanese investment in the Kuriles; and Mishustin during his visit expanded this to call for other countries to be involved as well (nakanune.ru/articles/117363/).
Such joint investment projects will boost the standard of living of Russians on the Kuriles and promote a rapprochement with Japan over their status, Koshkin says, noting that he personally has been pressing for just such an approach for 11 years and saying that this decision is “better late than never.”
Senior Japanese officials have said, he continues, that Tokyo and Moscow are already conducting talks about this, although he stresses that Japan wants any moves in this direction not to violate its legal position about Japanese claims of sovereignty over the islands, something Moscow rejects.
It is not clear how much progress these talks can make, but they have already had the consequence of causing Tokyo to adopt a more restrained position with regard to Russian actions in the Kuriles. And under current conditions, that alone, the product of the influence of Japanese business interests on the Japanese government, is no small thing, Koshkin suggests.
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