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.

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