Japan’s Policy Swing On The Issue Of The "Northern Territories" And Its Cause Analysis (1991-2021)

The territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the " Northern Territories"(known as "Southern Kuriles" in Russia)has continued since the end of World War II and is still unresolved today.When dealing with the territorial issue with Russia,the Japanese government insists on the principle that politics and economy are inseparable most of the time,requiring Russia to return the four islands before developing economic relations with Russia.To a certain extent,the relationship between Japan and Russia has fallen into a passive situation due to the territorial issue.In the late 1990 s and Abe’s second ruling period,Japan’s territorial policy experienced two obvious eases.It is expected that through a certain degree of "separation of politics and economy",Japan and Russia will first improve their economic relations,and then realize the fundamental demand of recovering their territory.Such a relaxation policy has indeed promoted the cooperation between Japan and Russia in the economic field,but its role in promoting the territorial negotiations is very limited.In the face of Japan’s economic "olive branch",Russia often responded positively,but in the territorial negotiations,it insisted on its original position and never changed the bottom line of only returning the Habomai islands and Shikotan island.As a result,the territorial negotiations between the two countries are "standing still",and Japan’s territorial policy often returns to be tough because it can not achieve the expected results.Therefore,since the end of the cold war,Japan’s territorial policy has been swinging back and forth between tough and moderate,which seems to be lack of coherence.Through an in-depth study of the causes of Japan’s territorial policy swing,we can find that Russia’s tough stance,the obstruction of the United States and the hardliners in Japan are the main forces to promote the Japanese government to adopt a tough policy,while the moderator politicians,scholars and the aborigines of the four islands in Japan are the main forces to promote Japan to adopt a relaxation policy,which is the common strength of these two forces It also promotes the continuous change of the territorial policy of the Japanese government.With Russia’s new constitutional amendment coming into effect after a referendum in 2020,Russia will completely ban the transfer of territory to foreign countries in the future,which not only means that the second round of territorial easing policy implemented by the Japanese government has failed again,but also means that Russia has completely closed the door to territorial negotiations with Japan.After Kan Yiwei came to power,he was faced with both domestic and international pressure.After he made a tough stand on Russia’s unilateral act,the space for improvement of Japan Russia relations in the future was further compressed,and the future settlement of the territorial issue would become more remote.