TOKYO (Sputnik) — On December 15-16, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Japan to meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As a result, the sides agreed to establish joint economic activities on the disputed Southern Kurils in a bid to create a favorable atmosphere for talks on a peace treaty between the countries.
According to the survey by Japan's NHK broadcaster, 7 percent highly approved of the agreement, while 46 percent called it a good deal to some extent. A total of 31 percent are considering the deal to be not very good, while 9 percent called it bad.
A total of 48 percent said that progress would unlikely be reached following the agreement, while 34 percent said they did not know a possible outcome, the poll revealed.
Regarding the future of the Japan-US relations after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, 40 percent of respondents said they would become worse, while 5 percent said that the relations would become better.
Moscow and Tokyo have never signed a permanent peace treaty after World War II due to a disagreement over the group of islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan the Northern Territories, encompassing Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai.
Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!
