The Wall Street Journal - 31.10.2019

A8| Thursday, October 31, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

WORLD NEWS

Russia and Japan launched

a new program in their years-

long effort to resolve a territo-

rial dispute that has festered

between the neighbors for de-

cades.

On Wednesday, a group of

Japanese tourists boarded a

ship at the Japanese port of

Nemuro for a six-day visit to

the islands of Kunashir and

Iturup, two of a group of is-

lands seized from Japan by

the Soviet Union in 1945.

The tourism program, a

small sign of progress in ef-

forts to heal relations between

Moscow and Tokyo, is part of

a series of joint economic ac-

tivities agreed to in 2016. The

others include fish farming,

cultivation of vegetables in

greenhouses, wind energy and

waste-processing projects.

The contested islands have

long been a source of conflict

between Russia and Japan.

Japan and the former Soviet

Union never signed a peace

treaty following World War II

due to their dispute over the

islands, which Japan calls the

Northern Territories and Rus-

sia calls the South Kurils.

The territory has become a

symbol of national sovereignty

in both nations, raising the

political cost of any conces-

sion and creating a stumbling

block for re-establishing full

diplomatic relations after

By Ann M. Simmons

in Moscow and Chieko

Tsuneoka in Tokyo

more than seven decades.

Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe has made resolv-

ing the dispute a priority as

part of a push to improve rela-

tions with Moscow. Russian

President Vladimir Putin, ea-

ger to attract Japanese invest-

ment, has indicated a willing-

ness to compromise while also

maintaining a tough stance at

home, stirring nationalist sen-

timent with promises to keep

control of the islands.

“At the moment, the posi-

tions of Russia and Japan are

very far from each other,” said

Valery Kistanov, head of Japa-

nese studies at the Russian

Academy of Sciences’ Institute

of Far Eastern Studies.

In September 2018, Messrs.

Putin and Abe agreed to study

joint rule of the islands. “We

have to change our approach

to reach a peace agree-

ment....We owe this to our fu-

ture generations,” Mr. Abe told

Mr. Putin at a conference in

Russia’s far-eastern city of

Vladivostok.

Mr. Putin said there he

would study the joint-rule pro-

posal, saying the islands are too

insignificant to continue block-

ing relations. The Russian presi-

dent offered to sign a peace

treaty without conditions by the

end of 2018 and then to work

on the status of the islands.

But since then progress has

stagnated.

Tokyo has frowned on Mos-

cow’s buildup of military in-

frastructure on the islands,

and Japanese media have re-

ported that Russia plans to de-

ploy additional missile sys-

tems on two of the islands.

Russian authorities haven’t

confirmed those reports.

Tokyo described a visit this

year to one of the islands by

Russian Prime Minister

Dmitry Medvedev as ex-

tremely regrettable and offen-

sive to the people of Japan.

Russian Foreign Minister Ser-

gei Lavrov has said Japan

must recognize the islands as

part of Russia as a starting

point for negotiations, some-

thing Tokyo refuses to do.

Japan, Russia Seek to

End Islands Dispute

500 miles

500 km

JAPAN

RUSSIA

CHINA

N. KOREA

S. KOREA

Sea of

Okhotsk

Pacific

Ocean

Disputed

islands

Theresa May had built up at

the start of the 2017 election

campaign.

In an exchange on the floor

of the House of Commons the

day after it approved the elec-

tion Tuesday, Mr. Corbyn

sought to paint the prime min-

ister as a reckless capitalist

whose Brexit deal would leave

Britain at the mercy of big

business.

He repeatedly criticized Mr.

Johnson for wooing President

Trump and accused the prime

minister of secretly negotiat-

ing a “Trump trade deal” that

would give U.S. pharmaceuti-

cal companies more access to

Britain’s public-health service

and drive up drug prices.

Mr. Johnson faces some

other big pitfalls in an election

where narrow margins could

count. Even before Brexit

started to dominate the British

political debate, loyalties to

the two main parties were in a

long-term decline. John Cur-

tice, a leading election spe-

cialist, says more than 100 of

the 650 seats in the House of

Commons are likely to be won

by smaller parties.

Brexit has encouraged vot-

ers to become even more foot-

loose. Mr. Johnson’s Conserva-

tive Party is forecast to lose

seats in parts of the country

where staying in the EU is

popular. In Scotland, it could

lose between five and 10 seats

to the Scottish National Party,

which is campaigning to stay

in the bloc.

It is defending 19 seats in

London—including Mr. John-

son’s seat in Uxbridge—where

both the Labour Party and the

centrist, anti-Brexit Liberal

Democrats expect to do well.

Elsewhere, for example in the

west of England, the Liberal

Democrats are targeting some

Conservative seats—though

they could also take votes

from Labour, which has a fuzz-

ier position on Brexit.

The prime minister faces

other challenges too. One is

the single-issue Brexit Party,

led by longtime anti-EU cam-

paigner Nigel Farage. It isn’t

clear how many districts the

party will run in—but it is

likely to focus on Mr. John-

son’s failure to fulfill his re-

peated promise to take the

U.K. out of the EU on Oct. 31

and campaign for an exit from

the EU without a deal to

smooth the way. It isn’t pre-

dicted to win many seats but

could shave Brexit voters from

the Conservatives, opening the

way for other parties.

LONDON—Boris Johnson
has finally secured the elec-
tion he has pushed for almost
since he became prime minis-
ter in July. Nonetheless, it is a
huge bet for him, with poten-
tially vast consequences for
the U.K.
If it pays off, he will win
fivemoreyearsinpowerand
a likely place in the history
books as the leader who fi-
nally took the U.K. out of the
European Union.
If he loses, he could be the
shortest-serving British prime
minister since George Canning
died in office
in 1827—and a
likely second
referendum on Britain’s EU
membership could mean
Brexit never happens.
As the informal campaign
for the Dec. 12 election kicked
off Wednesday, he starts off
with instant recognition
across the country and a repu-
tation as a charismatic politi-
cal campaigner. His lead of 10
percentage points or more in
opinion polls suggests he is
likely to secure the majority in
Parliament that he currently
lacks.
He will deliver a simple
message directed mainly to
the 52% of voters who backed
Brexit in the 2016 referendum
as the only leader who can get
Britain out of the EU. He will
bolster it with policies aimed
at boosting spending on po-
lice, schools and health.
“Next year will be a glori-
ous year,” he told cheering
Conservative lawmakers in the
House of Commons on
Wednesday.
Opinion polls also suggest
that, on the face of it, he is
also lucky in his chief oppo-
nent: Jeremy Corbyn, leader of
the main opposition Labour
Party. Mr. Corbyn isn’t polling
well and is expected to cam-
paign for socialist policies that
put many voters off.
Yet the Labour leader can’t
be written off: He enjoys cam-
paigning and almost wiped out
the 20-point opinion-poll lead
that former Prime Minister

BYSTEPHENFIDLER
ANDMAXCOLCHESTER

Johnson Stakes Brexit on an Election

Jeremy Corbyn, left, leader of the opposition Labour Party, isn’t polling well ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA WIRE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANALYSIS

LUKE MACGREGOR/BLOOMBERG NEWS

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