Northern Territories

The Soviet leaders traditionally saw their occupation of the Northern Territories as legitimized, among other things, by the 1944 Yalta agreement between the USSR and three Western powers.

1993, Harry Gelman, “Summary”, in Russo-Japanese Relations and the Future of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance, RAND, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page vii

The Soviet Union apparently took the U.S.— Japanese political-military alliance quite seriously—probably more seriously than we might imagine. The Soviet Union’s reluctance to return the Northern Territories to Japan, even at the expense of the bilateral relationship, is ascribable to the global confrontation between the USSR and the United States.

2000, Hiroshi Kimura, “Basic Determinants of Japanese-Soviet Relations”, in Japanese-Russian Relations under Brezhnev and Andropov, M.E. Sharpe, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12

It was the USSR that was first to drop the idea to gain Japanese recognition of its rights over the territories renounced by Japan at San Francisco, and to propose the transfer of Shikotan and Habomai, precisely in line with what was advocated by the Japanese representative at the time of the signing of the San Francisco treaty, i.e., recognition of Kunashiri and Etorofu as a part of the Kuriles renounced by Japan, but strong insistence on Habomai and Shikotan being part of Hokkaido, and therefore referred to at that time as the Northern Territories (hoppo ryodo) separate from North and South Chishima.

2000, Alexei V. Zagorksy, “Reconciliation in the Fifties: The Logic of Soviet Decision Making”, in Gilbert Rozman, editor, Japan and Russia: The Tortuous Path to Normalization, 1949-1999, New York: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 59

The islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia, were seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War Two, when 17,000 Japanese residents were forced to flee.

2017 September 7, “Russian and Japanese leaders 'decisively condemn' North Korean tests”, in Reuters, archived from the original on 07 Sep 2017, World News