The official stance(And well, stance that is very desirable today among western part of the world due to Russian aggression) is claiming them as Japanese and illegally occupied.
But what about regular Japanese, do you recognize them as rightfully yours and want these islands back? Do you even care about them?
Would you support your government if it started the war with Russia and took these islands(Well, considering that Russia is 2nd best army in Ukraine, this opportunity sounds not that irrational)?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/ucdc6w/do_japanese_people_wantcare_about_kuril_islands/
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I don’t believe Japan would start any war on this, they are just applying diplomatical pressure, plus Russia has been terrible with the peace treaty agreement, just keeping Japan in suspense for decades now.
Most regular Japanese people don’t care since it has no bearing on our lives. We also know that there are Russian people living on the island and their removal would be unrealistic.
Of course we’d be happy if miraculously a peaceful agreement is reached and one or more islands are handed over but war is out of the question (also from a constitutional perspective)
I’ve known a Japanese man who went on a racist spiel about how Russia iand Russians are taking Japanese land, so I guess it is a bit touchy for some people
No, people do not care about the Kuril Islands outside the vocal right. Despite anti-Russian sentiments reaching an all-time high at the moment, most people still consider China and North Korea as the primary adversaries in the region.
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Countries only want these because if they own the island, or rock in some cases, they own the fishing rights and oil or whatever under the sea. That’s the whole point of various disputes among China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Russia…
There was a poster about it in the print room of the JHS I taught at.
Was chatting with my wife about this — apparently to her generation and younger they don’t seem to care. But she said her parents’ generation does.
She mentioned so long as no one lives there, who cares — although she’s aware of economic zones and ability to harvest any and all resources, to her it didn’t seem to matter.
As for starting a war, I don’t think Japan would ever “start” a war, but they would and should defend themselves if they are encroached upon in a military fashion. So if these islands (or any other islands) were forcibly taken through military means, then yes Japan should fight back.
I don’t care that much. But. If Russia is gonna keep them I would lien an actually treaty and to be pair for them.
Japan should’ve seized them in aftermath of collapse of the Soviet Union in early 1990s. Well, maybe Japan oughta plan for next time Russia goes belly up in collapse of Putin regime, whenever it occurs.
I got curious and found a national survey which was conducted 3 years ago: [https://survey.gov-online.go.jp/hutai/h30/h30-hoppoug.pdf](https://survey.gov-online.go.jp/hutai/h30/h30-hoppoug.pdf)
>12.9% of the respondents answered “I know much about the current situation” 52.6% answered “I know some about the current situation,” 31.3% answered “I have heard about the Northern Territories but do not know up to the current situation,” and 1.0% answered “I have never heard about the Northern Territories at all.
>
>By age, the percentages of those who answered “I am familiar with the current situation” and “I have heard about the Northern Territories but do not know the current situation” were higher among those aged 70 and above, and among those aged 18-29 and those in their 30s, respectively.
I feel this survey is legit, most Japanese know the situation somehow, but the attention was not too high especially among young people.
However, the war in Ukraine must affect this recognition quite a lot. There are now definitely more articles about the Northern Territories (We don’t say Kuril islands) and sanctions against Russia every single day.
As a regular Japanese, I do recognize them as rightfully ours, but when we look at the reality, it would be super hard to get them back as we all know that it’s impossible to negotiate with Russia peacefully. I’m just worried that Russia tries to invade Hokkaido once they fully take the Northern Territories, which is impossible but no one can underestimate their stupidity nowadays. A Russian politician even stated Russia is entitled to Hokkaido some days ago.
I hope our government doesn’t start a war against any country, but if Russia tries to invade Hokkaido, I do support our government yea…
Most people probably dont care including me.
But there are people like my mother whose grandmothers family (well my great grandmas family in that case) were driven away from the island. So, she does not think very good of the fact that the russians “own” the islands but no real hard feelings since it was a long time ago.