I am fed up with Russia's unreasonable attitude on the reversion to Japan of the four Russian-occupied northern islands and on the conclusion of a Russo-Japanese peace treaty.
I had long thought that no quick progress could be made in Japan's negotiations with Russia. But when former Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, the Russian leader reportedly said his country would abide by principles of law and justice and would negotiate with Japan on those principles.
Yeltsin's words did not convince me because the history of our bilateral relationship shows that the Slavic people, whether they are under communist or noncommunist rule, have a built-in tendency to refuse to differentiate between what belongs to them and what belongs to others. Hashimoto and Yeltsin met several times, and at their meeting in Kawana in 1998, it was agreed that the Northern Territories issue would be resolved and a peace treaty concluded by the year 2000. When I asked if that meant the target date was the end of 1999, Minoru Tanba of the Foreign Office, now the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, replied that "by the end of the year 2000 means by Dec. 31, 2000."