TOKYO, January 8. /TASS/. While negotiating a peace treaty with Moscow, Japan may suggest renouncing the mutual right to demand any kind of compensation related to the southern Kuril Islands, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Tuesday.

According to the paper’s sources, the relevant document may be signed simultaneously with the peace treaty between the two states. The additional agreement is expected to finally settle post-WWII diplomatic processes and strengthen bilateral relations.

A clause on mutually renouncing demands for compensation was also included into the Joint Russian-Japanese Declaration signed on October 19, 1956 on ceasing the state of war. The Japanese government has believed that the southern Kuril Islands, which Japan calls its ‘Northern Territories,’ have been "occupied" after the end of World War II. Therefore, Tokyo has reserved the right to demand Moscow to pay compensations to the state of Japan and former residents of those islands.

However, according to Yomiuri’s sources in the Japanese government, such claims may put additional strain on the already tense negotiations to sign a peace treaty. As a result, the Japanese government now tends to believe that it would be better to allocate compensations to the affected former residents from the country’s budget rather than demand them from Moscow.

At the meeting in Singapore on November 14, 2018, 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. The two countries resumed diplomatic and other relations, but no peace treaty has been signed so far.

Under Article 9 of the declaration, the Soviet Union agreed to hand over the islands of Shikotan and Habomai as a gesture of good will after the peace treaty is ultimately signed. The declaration was ratified by the two countries’ parliaments on December 8, 1956.

However in response to Japan’s signing a security treaty with the United States in 1960, the Soviet Union revoked its liabilities concerning the transfer of the islands. The Soviet government said back then that the islands would be handed over to Japan only when all foreign forces were withdrawn from its territory.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to pay a visit to Russia in late January. In the run-up to his visit, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono will arrive in Moscow on January 14.