The Japanese Foreign Ministry, in its annual Blue Book report outlining key diplomatic trends, has declared its intention to continue negotiations with Russia to sign a peace treaty and resolve the issue of the “northern territories” (Tokyo’s term for the Southern Kurils), despite the challenging relationship.<\/p>\n
These islands include Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, and the Habomai archipelago.<\/p>\n
The ministry once again described these territories as “illegally occupied” and stated that the Kuril Islands issue is the greatest concern in Japan-Russia relations.<\/p>\n
Japan and the Soviet Union, of which the Russian Federation is the successor, have not signed a peace treaty following World War II due to the territorial dispute over the Southern Kurils.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Russia refused to continue negotiations on this matter after Japan imposed sanctions following the start of the military intervention in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Moscow also withdrew from dialogue on developing joint economic activities in the Southern Kurils.<\/p>\n
The report also emphasized that the Japanese government is pursuing a policy of gradually reducing its dependence on Russian energy resources, including oil and coal, while acting to minimize the negative impact on public life and business.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the report stated that Japan intends to maintain its participation in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects.<\/p>\n
The document stated, “The Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 oil and gas development projects are important for Japan’s energy security in terms of ensuring a stable supply in the medium and long term, and we intend to maintain our participation in them.”<\/p>\n
In the previous version of the\u00a0Blue Book<\/em>, the Japanese Foreign Ministry also declared its intention to maintain its participation in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects.<\/p>\n In the Sakhalin-1 project, where Sokol-grade oil is produced, the Japanese consortium Sodeco (whose main shareholder is the Japanese government, and its members are private companies such as Japex, Itochu, Marubeni, Inpex) has a 30% stake.<\/p>\n The American company ExxonMobil also had the same stake but announced its withdrawal from the project in 2022.<\/p>\n The new managing operator of Sakhalin-1 became Sakhalinmorneftegaz-Shelf, a subsidiary of Rosneft (which previously had an 11.5% stake).<\/p>\n All assets of the consortium running the Sakhalin-1 project were transferred to Russian ownership.<\/p>\n Additionally, ONGC Videsh Ltd (India’s state oil company) has a 20% stake in Sakhalin-1, and RN-Astra (a subsidiary of Rosneft) has an 8.5% stake.<\/p>\n Although Japan does not import fuel under the project, Tokyo considers Sakhalin-1 important for ensuring supply diversity and stability.<\/p>\n The then-Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura, touched on this issue in a statement in the fall of 2022.<\/p>\n Nishimura noted that Japan is 95% dependent on the Middle East for its oil supply.<\/p>\n Japan is one of the world’s largest importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), sourcing approximately 9% of its total LNG volume purchased from Sakhalin-2.<\/p>\n Japanese companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold 12.5% and 10% stakes in Sakhalin-2, respectively, and confirmed their participation in the project in the fall of 2022.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Japanese Foreign Ministry, in its annual Blue Book report outlining key diplomatic trends, has declared its intention to continue negotiations with Russia to sign a peace treaty and resolve the issue of the “northern territories” (Tokyo’s term for the Southern Kurils), despite the challenging relationship. These islands include Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, and the Habomai […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[8890,3865,2340,1433,870,8889,8885,2338,7948,8893,683,8891,8887,8888,8894,8886,1999,8892],"class_list":["post-8775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diplomacy","tag-blue-book","tag-energy-security","tag-exxonmobil","tag-international-relations","tag-japan","tag-japanese-foreign-ministry","tag-kuril-islands","tag-lng","tag-peace-treaty","tag-rosneft","tag-russia","tag-russian-energy-resources","tag-sakhalin-1","tag-sakhalin-2","tag-sodeco","tag-southern-kurils","tag-territorial-dispute","tag-yasutoshi-nishimura"],"yoast_head":"\n