Why Russia Summoned Japan’s Ambassador After Putin’s Iturup Visit

The summons was therefore a reciprocal diplomatic response. Japan had already summoned Russia’s ambassador after the visit, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called Putin’s trip “absolutely unacceptable,” saying it hurt the feelings of the Japanese people. Tokyo also considered additional sanctions against Moscow.

What Mikhail Galuzin told Akira Muto

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin delivered what Russia described as a resolute protest. According to reporting on the Foreign Ministry’s readout, he reiterated that Russian sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands were unshakable. Moscow said the islands had passed to Russia after World War II and treated any challenge to that position as unacceptable.

Galuzin’s message also placed the island dispute within the broader deterioration in bilateral relations. Russia linked its warning to Japan’s sanctions against Moscow and its political and material support for Ukraine. The Russian side said it reserved the right to take appropriate countermeasures if Tokyo continued what it considers an unfriendly course. No new immediate countermeasure was publicly specified in the reporting available.

Why Muto’s delayed attendance became part of the dispute

Muto did not immediately attend the summons. Russian officials said they were initially told that he was either outside Moscow or unwell, and subsequent reports described a further delay before he appeared at the Foreign Ministry. Accounts differ on the precise timing and reason: one report described a two-day delay, while another said Muto was absent from Moscow for the first request and later cited poor health.

Muto eventually attended the meeting and said he had explained Tokyo’s position to the Russian side in an appropriate manner. Russian officials nevertheless presented the delayed response as another sign of Japan’s unwillingness to accept Moscow’s position.

How Japan and the United States responded

Tokyo’s response was unequivocal. Takaichi said the visit was unacceptable, while Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi strongly protested and summoned Russia’s ambassador. Japan reiterated that the four islands—Iturup or Etorofu, Kunashir or Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai islets—are its Northern Territories.

Japan also weighed additional sanctions after the visit. That possibility matters because sanctions and support for Ukraine are already part of Moscow’s stated grievance with Tokyo, making the territorial dispute harder to separate from the wider confrontation over Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The United States aligned itself with Japan’s position. Washington reaffirmed its recognition of Japanese sovereignty over the Northern Territories and said its support for Japan remained unwavering after Putin’s visit.

The unresolved dispute behind the confrontation

The four southern islands are administered by Russia but claimed by Japan. They were seized by Soviet forces in the final days of World War II, and the competing interpretations of their postwar status remain at the center of the dispute. Japan’s Foreign Ministry identifies Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashiri, and Etorofu as the Northern Territories and says they are not part of the Kuril Islands.

The disagreement has also blocked a formal postwar peace treaty between Russia and Japan. Japan has treated resolution of the islands’ status as a condition for concluding such a treaty, so a Russian president’s visit is politically significant even when it produces no immediate change in control.

The August confrontation shows how the territorial issue now overlaps with a much broader rupture. Japan’s sanctions and support for Ukraine have reduced the space for bilateral negotiations, while Moscow’s public message is that it considers its administration of Iturup settled. Tokyo’s response shows that it continues to treat the island as a core sovereignty issue.

The central point is simple: Russia summoned Muto because Japan challenged the legitimacy of Putin’s visit and, by extension, Russia’s authority over Iturup. Galuzin answered with an assertion of “unshakable” Russian sovereignty and a warning of possible countermeasures. The delayed meeting, opposing U.S. and Japanese positions, sanctions, and the unresolved postwar treaty all intensified a dispute that neither side appears ready to set aside.