Japan is currently engaged in several territorial disputes with nearby countries, including Russia, South Korea, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
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Japan is currently engaged in several territorial disputes with nearby countries, including Russia, South Korea, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
The Kuril Islands are an archipelago stretching from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula. The Kurils and the nearby island of Sakhalin have changed hands several times since the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda first defined the boundary between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan; under this treaty, the border in the Kurils was demarcated as the line between Etorofu and Urup. [1] The rest of the Kuril Islands came under Japanese rule after the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg and the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. They would remain under the Japanese until the end of World War II, when the Soviet Union annexed the islands as the result of a military operation which took place during and after the Surrender of Japan. [1] This territory fell to Russia upon the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Despite the Soviet annexation, Japan continues to claim the southernmost islands as the Northern Territories, consisting of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the Habomai Islands. [1] This claim is based on ambiguities in several documents and declarations made during and in the aftermath of World War II. The Yalta Agreement, signed by the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union in February 1945, stated that in return for declaring war on Japan, the Soviet Union would receive several territories, including the Kuril Islands. [2] However, the later Potsdam Declaration, which provided for Japan's unconditional surrender, did not mention the Kurils, instead referring to the 1943 Cairo Declaration by the US, UK, and China. [3] The subsequent Treaty of San Francisco forced Japan to give up their claims to the Kuril Islands, but since the Soviet Union refused to sign the treaty, the US still considers the Kurils as Japanese territory under Russian control. [4] In addition, Japan claims that the Northern Territories are not a part of the Kuril Islands and had officially been a part of Japan from the Treaty of Shimoda until the end of World War II, and thus should be counted as Japanese territory under the Potsdam Declaration. [1] [5] In response, Russia claims that the Yalta Agreement explicitly allowed for the annexation of the entire archipelago. [6] Japan claims that the Yalta Agreement is a secret agreement between the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and that Japan, which is not a party to the agreement, will not be bound. In addition, the Japanese government claims that the ownership of the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, which the Japanese government has abandoned, is not specified in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the Soviet Union has not signed the treaty, so it is undetermined under international law.
The dispute over the Kuril Islands was one of the main reasons that the Soviets did not sign the Treaty of San Francisco, and the state of war between the two nations persisted until the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, in which Japan agreed to renounce their claims to Iturup and Kunashir in return for the Soviets returning Shikotan and the Habomai Islands. However, due to American intervention, the negotiations that led to the joint declaration were unable to resolve the dispute, and to date, no formal peace treaty has been signed between Japan and Russia, the Soviet Union's successor state. [1] [6] The offer of splitting the disputed territories has been repeated by the Russian government, and leaders of the two countries have met several times to discuss a solution to the dispute.
Okinotorishima is an uninhabited atoll in the Philippine Sea. Discovered by European explorers[ who? ], Okinotorishima went unclaimed until the Japanese arrived in the territory in 1931, with the atoll becoming the southernmost point in Japan. [7] Japan claims that Okinotorishima is an islet, and accordingly claims a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, this classification has been contested by China, Taiwan, and South Korea, who contend that Okinotorishima does not meet UNCLOS's criteria for an islet of being able to support human habitation, and thus that Japan cannot claim an EEZ around the strategically located atoll. [7] [8] To maintain their claims, Japan has spent over US$600 million to build observation posts and shore up the atoll against erosion and typhoon damage, and has also cultivated coral in the area in an attempt to slowly grow reefs into islands. [9]
The Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyu Islands in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Tiaoyutai Islands in the Republic of China (Taiwan), are a group of five uninhabited islands located in the East China Sea. The Empire of Japan first claimed the islands in 1895 during the First Sino-Japanese War, placing the islands under the administration of Okinawa; they had turned down a previous opportunity to do so in 1885 for fear of provoking a conflict with the Qing Empire. [10] After the end of World War II, the Senkaku Islands, along with the rest of Okinawa, were administered by the United States until 1972, when they were handed back to Japan after the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement. [11]
Neither the PRC nor the ROC disputed the Japanese and American rule over the Senkaku Islands until the early 1970s, possibly due to the discovery of potential oil reserves in the area in 1968. [11] Both Chinese claims are based on knowledge of and control over the islands prior to their Japanese discovery in 1884 and their acquisition by Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War, which ultimately resulted in the ceding of nearby Formosa and surrounding islands to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki; the Chinese claims include the Senkaku Islands in this transaction, and thus also include them in the Treaty of San Francisco at the end of World War II, which returned Taiwan to China. [11] The Japanese and Americans dispute these claims, stating that there was no evidence of a Chinese presence on the islands when the Japanese claimed them in 1895, and that they had been included in the administration of the Ryukyu Islands after World War II with no objections by either Chinese government. [11] The Senkaku Islands have seen many incidents between the three countries at the center of the dispute since the 1990s.
The Liancourt Rocks, known as Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo or Tokto in Korean, are a group of two small islets and rocks in the Sea of Japan. The islands were first incorporated by the Empire of Japan in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War, claiming that the land was terra nullius ; Japanese victory in the war resulted in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, making the Korean Empire a protectorate of Japan, and ultimately the annexation of Korea five years later with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910. [12] After the end of World War II and the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, Japan was forced to renounce its claim to Korea, though the Liancourt Rocks were not specifically mentioned in the final draft, and in 1952 South Korea began to develop the islets after claiming them as part of a 60-kilometer exclusive economic zone in the waters around the country. [12]
Japan has protested the South Korean presence on the Liancourt Rocks, claiming that they were not included in the territory that Japan surrendered in the Treaty of San Francisco. Both the Japanese and Korean claims to the islands rely on historical documents which indicate activity by each side in the area; the Koreans claim that historical places such as Usan Guk (conquered by the Silla in 512), Usando, and other islands owned at various times by Korean kingdoms are the Liancourt Rocks, while the Japanese attribute these mentions to other islands such as Jukdo or Ulleungdo and instead point to records indicating Japanese fishing activity around the islands from, at the latest, 1667. [12]
North Korea also claims the Liancourt Rocks, as both Korean nations claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula and other historically Korean territory. North Korea has used the issue as a means of maintaining tension between Japan and South Korea and improving their own relations with South Korea. [13]
The Treaty of San Francisco, also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war, military occupation and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It was signed by 49 nations on 8 September 1951, in San Francisco, California, at the War Memorial Opera House. Italy and China were not invited, the latter due to disagreements on whether the Republic of China or the People's Republic of China represented the Chinese people. Korea was also not invited due to a similar disagreement on whether South Korea or North Korea represented the Korean people.
The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end. The islands separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The four disputed islands, like other islands in the Kuril chain which are not in dispute, were unilaterally annexed by the Soviet Union following the Kuril Islands landing operation at the end of World War II. The disputed islands are under Russian administration as the South Kuril District and part of the Kuril District of the Sakhalin Oblast. They are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as its Northern Territories or Southern Chishima, and considers them part of the Nemuro Subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture.
The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire was signed on 7 May 1875, and its ratifications exchanged at Tokyo on 22 August 1875. The treaty itself went into effect in 1877.
The Senkaku Islands, also known as the Pinnacle Islands or the Diaoyu Islands in China and as the Tiaoyutai Islands in Taiwan, are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan.
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
Okinotorishima, or Parece Vela, is a coral reef, geologically an atoll, with two rocks enlarged with tetrapod-cement structures. It is administered by Japan with a total shoal area of 8,482 m2 and land area 9.44 m2 (101.6 sq ft). Its dry land area is mostly made up by three concrete encasings and there is a 100 by 50 m stilt platform in the lagoon housing a research station. There is a third completely artificial tetrapod-cement islet.
The Habomai Islands are a group of uninhabited islets in the southernmost Kuril Islands. They are currently under Russian administration, but together with Iturup (Etorofu), Kunashir (Kunashiri), and Shikotan are claimed by Japan.
The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On 19 October 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations between both countries. They also agreed to continue negotiations for a peace treaty. In addition, the Soviet Union pledged to support Japan for UN membership and to waive all World War II reparations claims. The joint declaration was accompanied by a trade protocol, which granted reciprocal most favored nation status and provided for the development of trade. Japan derived few apparent gains from the normalization of diplomatic relations. The second half of the 1950s saw an increase in cultural exchanges.
Relations between the Soviet Unionand Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War II and the Cold War. In addition, territorial conflicts over the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin were a constant source of tension. These, with a number of smaller conflicts, prevented both countries from signing a peace treaty after World War II, and even today matters remain unresolved.
Relations between the Russian Federation and Japan are the continuation of the relationship of Japan with the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991, and with the Russian Empire from 1855 to 1917. Historically, the two countries had cordial relations until a clash of territorial ambitions in the Manchuria region of northeastern China led to the Russo–Japanese War in 1904, ending in a Japanese victory which contributed to the weakening of the monarchy in Russia. Japan would later intervene in the Russian Civil War from 1918 until 1922, sending troops to the Russian Far East and Siberia. That was followed by border conflicts between the new Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan throughout the 1930s. The two countries signed a nonaggression pact in 1941, although the Soviet government declared war on Japan anyway in August 1945, invading the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo as well as seizing the Kuril chain of islands just north of Japan. The two countries ended their formal state of war with the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, but as of 2022 have not resolved this territorial dispute over ownership of the Kurils. Due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations became very tense after Japan imposed sanctions against Russia. Russia placed Japan on a list of "unfriendly countries", along with Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, European Union members, NATO members, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Micronesia and Ukraine.
Socotra Rock, also known as Ieodo, Parangdo, or Suyan Islet, is a submerged rock 4.6 metres (15 ft) below sea level located in the Yellow Sea. International maritime law stipulates that a submerged rock outside of a country's territorial sea cannot be claimed as territory by any country. However, the rock is the subject of a maritime dispute between China and South Korea, which consider it to lie within their respective exclusive economic zones.
The Liancourt Rocks dispute, also called the Takeshima dispute or Dokdo dispute is a territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan regarding sovereignty over the Liancourt Rocks, a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. The rocks also go by the names Dokdo and Takeshima. North Korea also claims sovereignty of the islands, but has not pursued its claim to the same extent as the other parties.
The Senkaku Islands dispute, or Diaoyu Islands dispute, is a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, the Diaoyu Islands in China, and Tiaoyutai Islands in Taiwan. Aside from a 1945 to 1972 period of administration by the United States as part of the Ryukyu Islands, the archipelago has been controlled by Japan since 1895. The territory is close to key shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds, and there may be oil reserves in the area.
There are disputes between China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea over the extent of their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the East China Sea.
Japan has the eighth-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world. The total area of Japan is about 380 thousand km2. Japan's EEZ area is vast and the territorial waters and EEZ together is about 4.47 million km2.
The Russian Federation has the fourth-largest exclusive economic zone of 7,566,673 km2 (2,921,509 sq mi) with 200 nautical miles from its shores.
This article is about territorial disputes of the People's Republic of China (PRC). A territorial dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Many of these territorial disputes are almost identical to those that the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taipei, also known as Taiwan, has with other countries. Therefore, many of the subsequent resolved disputes made by the PRC after 1949 with other governments may not be recognized by the ROC.
Northern Territories Day is an annual commemoration on February 7 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to spread awareness of its position on the Kuril Islands dispute. Northern Territories Day is not one of the public holidays in Japan, so government offices and businesses are open. Its date is set to February 7 each year because on February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia had signed the Treaty of Shimoda. The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed between the Allies and Japan in 1951, states that Japan must give up "all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands", but it also does not recognize the Soviet Union's sovereignty over them. Japan claims that at least some of the disputed islands are not a part of the Kuril Islands, and thus are not covered by the treaty. The day is similar to Takeshima Day in Shimane Prefecture, which celebrates the Japanese point of view in the Liancourt Rocks dispute.