FOCUS: Japan Waiting to See Putin’s Next Move after Peace Treaty Proposal

September 19, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government is taking a wait-and-see attitude in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise proposal last week that the two countries conclude a post-World War II peace treaty without any preconditions by the end of this year.

The government has told the Russian side through back channels that it cannot accept the proposal, which apparently contradicts the 1993 Tokyo declaration between the two countries, according to government sources.

In that bilateral statement, Japan and Russia confirmed that they would sign a peace treaty that formally ends their World War II hostilities after settling the issue of sovereignty over four Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands called the Northern Territories in Japan.

"There's no point concluding a peace treaty without demarcating the border line," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Tokyo plans to wait for Putin's next move while taking his latest proposal as an informal offer, the sources said, suggesting that officially criticizing the overture could affect the face-to-face relationship that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has built with the Russian leader, the sources said.

Putin abruptly made the proposal during an open session, also attended by Abe, of the annual Eastern Economic Forum meeting in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok on Sept. 12.

Following the session, the two leaders had talks again, accompanied only by their interpreters, after their meeting held in the same city two days before, which was the 22nd bilateral summit between Abe and Putin.

Within the Japanese government, there is the view that the Putin proposal was motivated by the leader's frustration with what he sees as inadequate Japanese investment in the Far East region.

The Japanese side aims to achieve a breakthrough on the territorial issue by realizing proposed joint economic activities on the disputed islands off the main island of Hokkaido in northern Japan.

However, Abe admitted during an open debate in Tokyo on Friday that the joint initiative is not going smoothly, due to a stalemate in talks on a special legal framework that does not undermine the two nations' positions on the islands.

In the debate session, hosted by the Japan National Press Club, Abe did not conceal his irritation at a journalist's question about whether the two leaders do not share a common approach to resolving the territorial issue.

"I think many experts have quite different views from yours," Abe told the journalist.

The prime minister is believed to be nervous about criticism from both ruling and opposition lawmakers over his not having immediately reacted to the Putin offer at the Vladivostok session.

During the Tokyo debate, Abe reiterated the Japanese government's basic stance of concluding a peace treaty with Russia after settling the island issue. But at the same time, he gave consideration to Putin, saying that the president's proposal "undeniably reflected his resolve that a peace treaty is necessary."

Calling the Putin proposal a "curveball," Abe said on television on Monday, "We shouldn't fear it, but need to capture and straighten it."

In the same TV program, Shigeru Ishiba, Abe's sole contender in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election to be held on Thursday, argued that the Putin offer took the territorial negotiations back to the drawing board.

The 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration stipulated that the Habomais and Shikotan, two of the four islands, be handed over to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty.

But Ishiba, former LDP secretary-general, warned, "We may be unable to get back the two or even any of the four." Jiji Press