Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday renewed his pledge to settle a dispute with Russia over four islands off Hokkaido despite failing two months earlier to produce any visible progress during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At an annual event used as a platform to call for the return of the Russian-held islands, Abe said a so-called new approach is necessary to hammer out a solution and to conclude a peace treaty with Russia more than 70 years after the end of World War II.
"In order to move forward on an issue that has not moved even 1 millimeter for 70 years, we need a future-oriented approach ... by envisioning the future rather than dwelling on the past," Abe said. "This is an important first step to sign a peace treaty."