Tokyo is not ready to accept the fact that the Kuril Islands belong to Russia. Washington may want to take advantage of the Russia-Japan territorial dispute to force Moscow to use nuclear weapons.
Military expert Sergei Marzhetsky believes that Japan is obsessed with its national idea to establish control over the disputed islands of the Kuril ridge. Russia refuses to discuss this question with Japan. Tokyo may wait for a while to see how the conflict situation with the West may weaken Moscow, the expert believes.
According to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Northern Territories are the territories that belong to Japan.
"The Northern Territories belong to Japan. They are the territory on which Japan has sovereignty,” Kishida said.
Currently, almost all of Russia's military contingent is located in the west of the country. The expert believes that Japan may try to seize the Kuril Islands amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Japanese strike aircraft may suppress Russia's air defense and coastal missile systems deployed on the disputed islands. Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force may then block the straits and establish a no-fly zone before conducting a landing mission to capture the islands, the analyst suggests, adding that the warships and submarines of the Russian Pacific Fleet will not be able to show proper resistance to the powerful forces of Japan.
According to Marzhetsky, it is only a nuclear attack that will be able to stop Tokyo from implementing its plans to seize the Kuril Islands from Russia.