Russian lawmaker says no talks being held on isle handover to Japan

No islands returned = No investment

Russia was never going to return any of the islands back to Japan; they can not be trusted to keep their word

Why respect treaties older than WWII, in which Japan and Russia wound up on opposite sides?

The first Russo-Japanese agreement to deal with the status of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands was the 1855. The islands of Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands, that all lie to the south of Etorofu, are not explicitly mentioned in the treaty and were understood at the time to be a non-disputed part of Japan. The treaty also specified that the island of Sakhalin/Karafuto was not to be partitioned but was to remain under a joint Russo-Japanese condominium.

In a subsequent 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg Russia and Japan agreed that Japan would give up all rights to Sakhalin in exchange for Russia giving up all rights to the Kurile Islands to Japan. The 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, gave the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Japan. In 1875, the treaty of St. Petersburg, Russia gave up all rights to the Kurile Islands to Japan. After the defeat of Japan, Soviet forces invaded the North and South Kurils. The entire Japanese civilian population of roughly 17,000 was expelled by 1946.

Then, no investment please.

There goes abes january snap election plan.

These 'Island hand back' stories where deliberate lies told by Japanese politicians to a gullible press.They were always bound to be exposed.