Iturup / Etorofu
Meaning and Location
Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, is the largest of the four southern Kuril Islands disputed between Russia and Japan.
It lies between:
- Hokkaido, Japan, to the southwest; and
- the rest of the Kuril Island chain, extending northeast towards Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
Russia administers the island as part of Sakhalin Oblast, while Japan claims it as part of its Northern Territories.
Name Difference
The two names reflect the competing claims:
- Iturup is the Russian name.
- Etorofu is the Japanese name.
The naming itself carries political significance because each country uses terminology consistent with its territorial position.
Historical Background
The dispute emerged from changing sovereignty arrangements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Important developments include:
- Treaty of Shimoda, 1855: established the Russo-Japanese boundary between Etorofu and Urup.
- Treaty of St. Petersburg, 1875: Japan acquired the Kuril Islands in exchange for recognising Russian control over Sakhalin.
- 1945: Soviet forces occupied the southern Kuril Islands towards the end of World War II.
- After the war, the Soviet Union incorporated the islands into its territory and Japan lost effective control.
Japan maintains that the four southern islands were not part of the Kuril Islands it renounced after World War II and therefore remain inherently Japanese territory.
Russia rejects this interpretation and considers its sovereignty over the islands a result of the post-war settlement.
Four Disputed Islands
The Russia-Japan territorial dispute concerns:
- Iturup / Etorofu
- Kunashir / Kunashiri
- Shikotan
- Habomai islets
Japan collectively calls them the Northern Territories.
Russia treats them as part of the southern Kuril Islands.
Strategic Importance
Iturup is strategically important because of its location between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean.
Its significance includes:
- access routes for the Russian Pacific Fleet;
- protection of approaches to the Sea of Okhotsk;
- proximity to Japan;
- fisheries and marine resources;
- military installations.
The Sea of Okhotsk is especially important to Russia because it is a major operating area for strategic ballistic-missile submarines.
Economic Importance
The surrounding waters contain valuable:
- fisheries;
- marine resources.
The wider Kuril region also has potential mineral and geothermal resources.
Control of the islands therefore has both strategic and economic dimensions.
Russia-Japan Peace Treaty Issue
Russia and Japan never concluded a formal World War II peace treaty, largely because of the territorial dispute.
At different points, both sides explored arrangements based on the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration, which contemplated transfer of Shikotan and the Habomai islets to Japan after conclusion of a peace treaty.
However, negotiations have repeatedly stalled.
Relations deteriorated further after Japan joined Western sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which Moscow suspended peace-treaty negotiations with Tokyo.
Recent Significance
High-level Russian visits and military activity on the islands regularly provoke diplomatic protests from Japan.
Such developments are significant because they reinforce Russia’s effective control while Japan continues to formally assert sovereignty.
The dispute therefore remains simultaneously:
- territorial;
- historical;
- strategic;
- diplomatic.
Conclusion
Iturup/Etorofu is the largest island at the centre of the Russia-Japan Northern Territories dispute. Russia exercises effective control, while Japan claims sovereignty. Its importance arises from its location near the Sea of Okhotsk, military value, fisheries, and its central role in preventing a final Russia-Japan post-World War II peace settlement.
