Japan to again designate Russian-held isles as illegally occupied

Japan will once again describe Russia's decades-long hold over a string of disputed northern islands as an "illegal occupation" in an annual foreign policy report, a draft showed Thursday, as bilateral ties sour following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The classification will appear for the first time since 2003, reflecting Tokyo's shift away from a conciliatory policy stance towards Moscow, taken in the hope that progress in negotiations over the islands off Hokkaido could lead to their return in the future, to a more hostile position.The draft of the Diplomatic Bluebook for 2022 was obtaine…READ FULL ARTICLE