Putin open to talks with Japan about islands off Hokkaido

Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he is open to restarting discussions with Japan over the future of islands off the northern tip of Hokkaido that were seized by the Soviet Union in the closing stages of the second world war.

Putin was speaking with reporters in Moscow on Thursday after an annual event in which he fields questions from the members of the public.

Seventy years after the end of the war, Russia and Japan have still to conclude a peace treaty because Tokyo insists that Russia should return Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islets.

Russia refers to the islands as the Southern Kurils, while they are marked on Japanese maps as the Northern Territories.

The dispute is one of a number that Japan is embroiled in with its neighbours, including the row with Seoul over the sovereignty of Dokdo, which is controlled by South Korea, and tensions over the Senkaku Islands, or Diaoyu islands, which both China and Taiwan claim as their territory.

But in the case of the Northern Territories it appears there is at least room for some negotiation on the ownership of the islands.

If Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were to secure their return, it would provide a powerful boost to his good standing with the Japanese public.