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Vladimir Putin has visited one of a group of islands off the coast of Japan that Tokyo claims as its own territory, drawing an immediate protest from the Japanese government.

This is the first such trip by a Russian president in 16 years.

Mr Putin travelled to Etorofu, known in Russia as Iturup, at the southern end of the Kuril chain off the eastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, the state news agency TASS said.

“We strongly protest the visit,” the Japanese foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said in a statement on X on Thursday.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits a hospital on Iturup island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on 13 August 2026 — In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits a hospital on Iturup island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on 13 August 2026 (AFP/Getty)

“The Northern Territories, including Etorofu island, are Japan’s inherent territories, both historically and under international law.”

The four islands at the centre of the dispute, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were seized by the Soviet Union in the closing days of the Second World War. Moscow declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and six days before the war ended, and the roughly 17,000 Japanese residents were deported after the occupation.

Because the dispute was never settled, the two countries have never signed a peace treaty formally ending the war between them, the last such gap left over from 1945.

Mr Putin toured the Yasny fish-processing plant on the island after overseeing the naval drills.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin visits a school on Iturup island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on August 13, 2026. (Photo by Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP via Getty Images) — In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits a school on Iturup island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on August 13, 2026. (Photo by Gavriil Grigorov / POOL / AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

Footage broadcast by the Vesti television channel showed him in a dark suit examining a large tuna and a halibut laid out on a table while two officials talked about fishing and the migration of fish stocks. He stopped to taste local fish roe.

“What lovely weather you have there, just like a resort!” he told a group of islanders.

A woman who appeared to be in her 30s replied: “And we thought you arranged this!”

Mr Putin had been in the Sakhalin region this week to watch exercises by Russia’s Pacific Fleet, and TASS said he had inspected its flagship.

His visit is the first by a Russian president to the islands since Dmitry Medvedev went to Kunashiri in November 2010, and the first by Mr Putin himself in more than a quarter of a century in power.

About 20,000 Russians now live on the islands, which have gold and silver deposits and some of the richest fishing grounds in the north Pacific. Air and naval bases were built there during the Cold War, aimed at the United States and at Japan, and Russia has kept a military presence ever since.

The visit came a day after North Korea, a Russian ally, launched a ballistic missile towards waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, shortly before joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States that Pyongyang has long condemned.