Japan said it “strongly protests” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to a disputed island.

Russian state media reported on Thursday that Putin visited the Kuril islands, claimed by both Russia and Japan.

In a statement on X, Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands are “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law, and the Government of Japan strongly protests this visit”.

The two countries have been locked in a dispute over the Kuril islands for decades.

The dispute was the main reason Moscow and Tokyo did not sign a peace treaty after World War Two.

The island that Putin visited on Thursday is known in Russia as Iturup and in Japan as Etorofu.