Putin visits disputed Etorofu island off Hokkaido, media reports

BREAKING: Putin makes his first-ever visit to the disputed island of Etorofu off Hokkaido, prompting a formal protest from Japan, which claims the Russian-held Northern Territories as its own.

Vladimir Putin just set foot on an island Japan says is Japanese.

Etorofu sits off the east coast of Hokkaido, part of what Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, held by Moscow since the end of World War II. No sitting Russian president had ever visited any of the disputed islands, not even Medvedev went this far in the top job, his 2010 trip to Kunashiri came as the closest precedent. Putin, in the region for Pacific Fleet naval drills off Sakhalin, stopped at a fish processing factory on the island.

Tokyo answered fast. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi lodged a formal protest, saying the Northern Territories are Japan's inherent territory, historically and under international law. The timing stings too, this landed during o-Bon, the holiday when Japanese families go home to honour their ancestors.

A fish factory photo op that took eighty years of dispute and stamped a president's boot on it. That is the message, and Tokyo heard it loud and clear.

This is Angel Manalo, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at japantimes.co.jp