"If we acquire small islands from Russia and ink a peace treaty, the relations between the two countries will strengthen," the Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying. "This policy needs to be immediately implemented given China’s hegemony."

TOKYO, December 19. /TASS/. The signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan based on the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration will become an important containing factor for China, Executive Acting Secretary-General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Koichi Hagiuda said in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The politician noted that he calls for the handover to Japan of all islands of the Southern Kurils, including large ones, Kunashir and Iturup. "However, over more than 70 past years the problem of the Northern Territories [the Southern Kurils] is back at square one," he stressed. "We need to move forward. Control over China’s hegemony is a vital task."

At the meeting in Singapore on November 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to intensify Russian-Japanese talks on concluding a peace treaty based on the Joint Declaration signed on October 19, 1956. Under the document, the two countries ceased the state of war and resumed diplomatic and consular relations, but no peace treaty has been signed so far.

Under Article 9 of the declaration, the Soviet Union agreed to hand over to Japan Shikotan and a number of small uninhabited islands, which Tokyo calls Habomai, on condition that they would be actually controlled by Japan after a peace treaty is signed. The declaration was ratified by the two countries’ parliaments in December 1956. However, Tokyo continued insisting that it would sign a peace treaty only after the recognition of Japan’s sovereignty over the entire southern part of the Kuril Islands - Shikotan, Khabomai, Kunashir and Iturup.