Japanese leaders demanded on Monday that Russia return four rocky islands at the centre of 60-year-old dispute that has kept the two nations from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War Two. Far from improving with time, the dispute over the islands, seized by the Soviet Union in 1945, has become so stalemated that the two sides have not even been able to agree on when Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Japan later this year.
Tokyo has refused to sign a treaty, or provide substantial aid to Russia, unless the windswept islands just 15 km (9 miles) off the northernmost main island of Hokkaido are returned.
"I am nearly 80 years old, and I am growing so tired of waiting to go home," Toshio Koizumi, a former resident of Shikotan island, said at an emotional rally in Tokyo.
Participants in the annual event said this year offered a chance to take dialogue to a new level because it was on February 7 1855 that Japan and Russia signed their first trade treaty.
"This year marks 150 years of friendship between Japan and Russia, and I would like to make it the year in which we lay foundations for rapid progress towards a peace treaty," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told the gathering of hundreds of former islanders, officials and supporters.
With both sides refusing to budge from long-held positions, however, analysts said significant progress was unlikely soon.
Russia has said it would be willing, as a compromise, to return two islands of what it calls the Southern Kuriles chain and Japan refers to as the Northern Territories.
"The big problem is that Russia doesn't really want to return any of the islands, while Japan will only accept the return of all four," said Tetsuya Ozeki, a diplomatic commentator.
"But they need to solve this issue so they can better deal with topics such as North Korea," he added. "Also, Japan needs close ties with Russia to counter China's growing influence."
Japan is also engaged in a long-running row with China over a group of southern islands claimed by both nations.
Russia declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, and invaded the northern islands soon after, forcing 17,000 Japanese to flee.
Most people in the islands - Shikotan, Kunashiri, Etorofu and the Habomai group of islets - depend on fishing for their livelihood and Japan, a major fish consumer, would gain rich fishing grounds if the islands were returned. The territories are also close to oil and gas production regions of Russia.
SOURING RELATIONS: But many analysts say the islands, 1,000 km (600 miles) north of Tokyo, are of limited strategic and economic value while Japan would face hefty infrastructure costs if they were returned.
"It's not a question of value," said Hiroyuki Kazuka, whose father was a resident of Kunashiri.
"Those islands were taken from us unfairly, without warning." Both nations have tried to put business and economics above diplomacy. In a major advance late last year, Russia agreed to build an oil pipeline across Siberia to the Pacific, enabling exports to Japan, rather than a pipeline to China alone.
But tensions are never far from the surface. Relations soured last August after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi inspected the islands from a coastguard vessel.
Alexander Losyukov, Russia's ambassador to Japan, was quoted by a Russian newspaper last month as saying that Japan wanted to blackmail Moscow into a deal by holding up economic treaties.
Both nations would gain if a peace treaty were signed.
Russia has vast resources and a booming oil industry but needs a market as well as funds to develop its Far East regions.
Japan imports virtually all its oil and is eager to develop energy sources outside of the Middle East.
For Koizumi, there is a more personal goal: the prime minister who reached a solution would go down in history.
"It's all a question of glory," said Tadae Takubo, a professor at Kyorin University near Tokyo.
"He's not as popular as he once was. The two best ways to make himself famous are to solve the problems with North Korea or to get the islands back."
Koizumi was due to attend the rally on Monday but cancelled due to a cold.
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