MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator...
On October 17, Seiji Maehara, Japan"s transport minister and state minister in charge of Okinawa and the Northern Territories, said Japan should continue its demands that Russia return the Kuril Islands and called their seizure an "illegal occupation."
"The Northern Territories" is Japan"s term for the four South Kuril Islands - Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai - held by Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately issued a note saying that Japan"s position on the issue is unacceptable to Russia.
The South Kurils are a crucial economic asset because the seas around it are swarming with fish and other biological water resources, and Russia will never give up tens of thousands of square miles of its exclusive economic zone.
Also, it is a matter of national prestige to Russia, which received the islands as a winning country after World War II (1939-1945), which was a kind of revenge for losing the 1904-1905 War with Japan.