North or south?

摘要

Territory is grand, but Japan craves energy far more than land. That is why Junichiro Koizumi, who on September 2nd sailed past some disputed Russian-held islands without landing on them, seems unlikely to get too tough over Japan's territorial claim. The islands—which Japan refers to as the Northern Territories, and Russia calls the Southern Kuriles-lie just north of Hokkaido, and were part of Japan until the Soviet Union seized them at the end of the second world war. The disputed claim prevented the two sides from signing a formal peace treaty after the war, and remains an emotive issue.