All news

Most Japanese citizens back talks with Russia based on 1956 declaration — poll

Some 64.9% of respondents back the idea of stepping up talks between Russia and Japan based on the 1956 agreements

TOKYO, November 20. /TASS/. The majority of Japanese citizens support talks on drafting a peace treaty with Russia based on the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, an opinion poll carried out by the country’s largest private TV company Fuji and daily Sankei Shimbun showed on Tuesday.

Some 64.9% of respondents back the idea of stepping up talks between Russia and Japan based on the 1956 agreements. Another 27.3% of Japanese are not enthusiastic about the proposal, the survey published by the Sankei Shimbun daily revealed.

Nearly 36% of participants of the poll believe that Tokyo would be just satisfied by the handover of Shikotan and the uninhabited island of Habomai. However, another 61.6% of respondents say that Tokyo should strive for the ownership of two large islands of Iturup and Kunashir.

At the meeting in Singapore on November 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to intensify Russian-Japanese talks on concluding a peace treaty based on the Joint Declaration signed on October 19, 1956 on ceasing the state of war. The two countries resumed diplomatic and other relations, but no peace treaty has been signed so far.

Under Article 9 of the declaration, the Soviet Union agreed to hand over Shikotan and Habomai as a gesture of good will after the peace treaty is ultimately signed. The declaration was ratified by the two countries’ parliaments in December 1956.

However in response to Japan’s signing a security treaty with the United States in 1960, the Soviet Union revoked its liabilities concerning the transfer of the islands. The Soviet government said back then that the islands would be handed over to Japan only when all foreign forces were withdrawn from its territory.