A senior official previously suggested disposing of radioactive materials on the Kuril Islands, leading to public outcry
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has apologized after government officials suggested disposing of nuclear waste on Russia’s Kuril Islands, Japanese newspapers Mainichi and Nikkan reported on Monday.
Moscow and Tokyo have been in a long-standing territorial dispute over four Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, which the Soviet Union seized at the end of World War II. Russia claims that its sovereignty over the islands is backed by post-war agreements; Japan argues that some of them are not covered by these treaties. Despite ending their formal state of war in the mid-1950s, the two nations have never signed a peace treaty.
In a parliamentary session on Monday, Hokkaido MP Kamiya Hiroshi pressed Ishiba about a comment made last month by a senior official from Japan’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NUMO), who suggested that building a radioactive waste disposal site on the Kurils would be like “killing three or four birds with one stone,” Mainichi and Nikkan wrote. Japan considers the Kuril Islands a part of the Hokkaido Prefecture.
“This is something that should never have happened. I don’t know what the intention behind the comment was, but I think there was some laxity, arrogance, or conceit,” Ishiba reportedly said, adding that the proposal is “off the table.”
“As the person in charge of the government, I would like to deeply apologize,” the prime minister reportedly said.
Moscow ended all peace treaty talks with Tokyo in March 2022, soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, when Japan joined in the international sanctions against Russia. Moscow also canceled agreements allowing Japanese citizens to visit the Kurils visa-free, as well as agreements permitting fishing near the islands.
In June of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Japan’s statement on joining efforts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia” derailed talks between Moscow and Tokyo. All hindrances to resuming dialogue between Moscow and Tokyo “have been created by Japan,” he added.
