Japan in diplomatic row after Russian isle visit

By Alexei Anishchuk

KUNASHIR, Kurile Islands (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited an island outpost seized by Russia from Japan at the end of World War Two stirring a diplomatic row with Tokyo, which demands their return.

Medvedev's visit to the island, one of four known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, was likely to sour relations ahead of an Asia-Pacific leaders summit that Japan will host in mid-November.

It also spells more bad news from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose support ratings have sunk to around 40 percent after five months in office, partly due to his handling of a row with China over another set of islands that both nations claim.

"Japan's stance is that those four northern islands are part of our country's territory, so the president's visit is very regrettable," Kan told a parliamentary panel about Medvedev's visit, the first by a Russian leader, to the island called Kunashir in Russian and Kunashiri in Japanese.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the Japanese reaction "unacceptable."

"It is our land and the Russian president visited Russian land," Lavrov told a news conference.

The island chain, eight time zones from Moscow, stretches northeast from Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido to Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The island Medvedev visited lies some 10 miles from Hokkaido.

The dispute is a highly emotional issue in Japan and, among more nationalist circles, in Russia.