Russia-Japan ties hit their lowest point in years following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and nowhere is that tension clearer than in Hokkaido.
The government of Hokkaido has a formal relationship with the state government of nearby Sakhalin, which is close enough to be visible from the prefecture's Rebun island on a clear day. Fifteen Hokkaido cities and towns also have sister-city relationships with Russian cities on Sakhalin and in the Russian Far East. Tomoyuki Sato, a Hokkaido official in charge of the prefecture’s relations with Russia, says that since 2020, fewer people have gone back and forth between Hokkaido and Sakhalin in particular.
“After the coronavirus hit, a lot of Hokkaido localities and their Russian sister cities went online to do events. But after the Ukraine invasion, even those became impossible,” he said.