Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday left Japan for Russia to have talks over decades-old territorial disputes and to prepare the ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-delayed visit to Japan.
During the three day visit to Moscow through Tuesday, Kishida will meet with his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov to discuss bilateral relations including the territorial disputes, and "a range of global issues including Ukraine," the foreign ministry has said.
Soviet troops seized four islands from the Kuril chain that lies off Russia's far eastern coast and north of Japan - which calls them the Northern Territories - just after Japan surrendered in World War II.
The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty.
"I hope to have thorough discussions over the issue of Northen Territories," Kishida told reporters ahead of his departure from Tokyo.
"Intense negotiations are expected but I hope to find a step towards a breakthrough in talks over a peace treaty, and make it a threshold for President Putin's visit to Japan," he said.
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