Absence of a peace treaty after WWII remains the major issue in Russian-Japanese relations. While there’s no solution for it, Moscow would prefer a “draw,” President Vladimir Putin said using a Judo term for the possible outcome.
“Is there a decision? So far, no. But, what’s the most important, we desire to find it,” Putin told reporters on Thursday, during his end-of-year press conference.
“And it might come in very different forms. I’ve said it once – and the Japanese liked it – it should be a ‘hikiwake,’ a draw, if we can speak in Judo terms.”
The Russian president is an avid practitioner of judo, a Japanese martial art. The “hikiwake,” or draw, is one possible outcome of a competitive judo bout, in which the referees decide that neither of the combatants has achieved a victory.
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union forced Japan to give back the Kuril Islands it had acquired in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
Japan continues to claim four of the islands, and the issue has prevented a final peace treaty between Moscow and Tokyo to this day. While Tokyo regards the islands as the so-called ‘Northern Territories,’ Moscow insists they are an integer part of Russia. Given the polar positions of the two countries on the matter, multiple attempts in talks on the Kuril issue – and the peace treaty – have yielded no result.
