Asia-pacific

Japan lays claims to disputed islands

PM Shinzo Abe pledges to find peaceful solution to long running dispute with Russia over group of islands.
Last Modified: 08 Feb 2013 04:02

Japan's defence ministry has said Russian fighter jets violated its airspace near a group of islands in the midst of a territorial dispute between the two countries.

Both the nations claim the islands as their own, with Japan calling them the Northern Territories while for Russians they're the Southern Kurils.

Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, has pledged to find a peaceful solution to this long running dispute, as a group of Japanese demand the right to return to the islands after almost 70 years.

Al Jazeera’s Stephanie Scawen reports.

89
Source:
Al Jazeera
Topics in this article
People
Country
Featured on Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera's exclusive publishing of a key Guantanamo prison military document lays bare the brutality of force-feeding.
Former military official says poverty and anger in indigenous communities mean conditions for an "insurgency" are ripe.
A four-part series that gives a rare insight into the country on the move, with history in tow.
Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
Featured
Syria: The War Within
Two years since the start of the uprising, rebels and Assad's forces remain locked in conflict.
China Rising
A four-part series that gives a rare insight into the country on the move, with history in tow.
Crisis in Bangladesh
Extensive coverage of war crimes tribunals and controversial calls for blasphemy laws.
Al-Nakba
Series on the Palestinian 'catastrophe' of 1948 that led to dispossession and conflict that still endures.
Korea Tensions
Al Jazeera looks at the escalation of military threats between N Korea and geopolitical rivals.
join our mailing list