Yeltsin Bid to Skip Islands Issue Ruffles Japanese Hosts

Having crushed an armed uprising at home with military force, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin arrived Monday night in Japan on a delicate, twice-postponed mission to make amends with Russia’s richest and most adversarial neighbor.

But even before landing here, Yeltsin ruffled his Japanese hosts by declaring that their two days of talks should avoid the central issue of the troubled relationship: ownership of four small Pacific islands seized by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

The dispute over the islands--which Moscow calls the South Kurils and Tokyo calls the Northern Territories--has kept the two countries from signing a bilateral treaty formally ending World War II. It has also stalled massive Japanese aid and investment for Russia’s post-Communist transition to capitalism.

Yeltsin deepened the historic mistrust between Russia and Japan by postponing two official visits in the past 13 months. Both times, he was able to blame nationalist enemies in the Russian Parliament for opposing any discussion of the islands.

Yet, a week after he sent tanks to blast the Parliament building, jailed his leading foes and consolidated his one-man rule, Yeltsin appears no freer or more willing to strike a deal with Japan.

Under questioning by Russian reporters as he left Moscow, Yeltsin declared: “I am strongly hoping that Japan does not touch on the territorial issue. . . . I hope that Japan doesn’t spoil the trip by bringing up the Northern Territories issue. And I’m praying that economic cooperation won’t be stopped again.”

Japan’s NHK television reported that Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were “perplexed” by the remarks, which seemed to upset weeks of painstaking negotiations over how Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa would handle the issue in their wide-ranging talks.

The islands, with their hidden fiords, smoldering volcanoes and rich fishing grounds, symbolize far beyond any economic or strategic value the Titanic clash of egos that pushed the rival Pacific powers into two wars in this century. The 25,000 Russian islanders live in a space the size of Delaware.

After grabbing the islands on the heels of Japan’s surrender in World War II, the Soviet Union laid claim to them on the basis of the victorious Allies’ 1945 Yalta treaty dividing the spoils of that conflict.

But in 1956 Moscow agreed that once a Russian-Japanese peace treaty was signed, two islands--Shikotan and the Habomai group--would be returned to Japan and that future talks would be held to decide the fate of the others, Kunashiri and Etorofu. Moscow claimed in 1960 that Japan nullified the accord by signing a security treaty with the United States.

In the run-up to this week’s talks, diplomats reportedly agreed that Hosokawa would not press Yeltsin for formal acknowledgment of the 1956 accord. In turn, the Russian leader would recognize the existence of a territorial dispute that must be resolved in subsequent talks “on the basis of law and justice,” a phrase the Japanese interpret as vaguely supporting their claims.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Monday night that, despite Yeltsin’s remarks, the talks could still produce such an outcome--a small first step toward peace.

That is a far cry from the expectations raised last year when Yeltsin, Russia’s first post-Cold War leader, announced he was bringing to Tokyo “14 options” for settling the dispute and spoke ambitiously of getting $50 billion in aid from Japan.

Since then he has canceled one visit scheduled for September, 1992, and another for last May as Japan made it clear there would be no aid without territorial concessions, and Russian nationalists howled in protest.

Tokyo softened its position under pressure from the West by agreeing last spring to add $1.8 billion to the Group of Seven industrial nations’ aid package to Russia. In total, Japan has pledged to give Russia $4.1 billion, about 10% of the package, but has delivered only $1.1 billion.

Yeltsin can expect little new aid unless he explicitly acknowledges that the islands belong to Japan, according to officials on both sides. They say Yeltsin is unwilling to take that step now because it would be opposed by the army that saved him from last week’s uprising and probably by the new Russian Parliament to be elected in December.

According to recent polls, three out of every four Russians oppose returning the islands. Likewise, two of every three Japanese oppose additional economic aid to Russia. But Japan is expected to lend $200 million for a Russian telecommunications project.

And Yeltsin and Hosokawa are expected to sign 16 agreements, including plans to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons and to set up “Japan Centers” for teaching management techniques to budding Russian capitalists.

“It’s not going to be easy to achieve results on the northern islands,” Hosokawa told Japan’s Parliament last week, summarizing his modest expectations. “This visit is more an opportunity to take Russo-Japanese relations to a new level.”

As such, Yeltsin is likely to be judged by his hosts as much on style as on substance--on whether the symbolic things he says or does will overcome or reinforce the Japanese people’s deep distrust of Russians in general.

So far, the signs are somewhat troubling.

Stepping off his presidential jet at Haneda Airport and striding down a red carpet, Yeltsin ran smack into the uplifted arm of a baffled protocol official who was trying to stop him at a microphone set up on the tarmac for his opening remarks.

Instead, Yeltsin bulled his way past and went right up to a crowd of reporters, in the style of a populist politician. “Good evening, Japanese people! Let us hope that the negotiations will be fruitful,” he declared. In doing so, he eluded the live TV cameras set up for him, so few people heard his voice.

The fact that Yeltsin decided to come at all, in the wake of the deadly battle against his own Parliament, is controversial here. Many Japanese openly called him a dictator and said he was using Japan as a stage to tout his victory.

“I don’t think Yeltsin understands the feelings of the Japanese people,” said Sergei Braguinsky, a Russian who teaches economics at Yokohama City University in Japan. “He canceled visits when he didn’t have to, and now he’s coming when he doesn’t have to.”

Yeltin began his official visit today literally with red-carpet treatment at a welcoming ceremony in central Tokyo. Walkways of long red fabric covered the stone courtyard as Yeltsin greeted Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, received an honor guard salute and shook hands with such dignitaries as Hosokawa.

Later, at a meeting with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, Yeltsin expressed his condolences for the treatment of 600,000 Japanese soldiers held as prisoners of war in Siberia during World War II. No violence was reported, but a right-wing group paraded a caravan of sound trucks through central Tokyo, blaring messages through megaphones to return the Northern Territories immediately and apologize for the wartime treatment.

As he greeted his hosts during the morning ceremonies, Yeltsin wore a constant smile and appeared relaxed--a point not overlooked by commentators for the NHK public television network. They speculated he had been told by Russian officials that he needed to soften his severe reputation in Japan.

As Yeltsin arrived, 10,000 police guarded the airport, the embassy and the Akasaka Palace where he is staying.

Diplomats said both governments weighed the possibility of Yeltsin’s staying home but concluded that the damage of a third canceled visit would be too much to repair.

Yeltsin said Monday he was confident he could leave Moscow because the security situation is under control. “Those who, as they say, ‘kicked up a row,’ are under a reliable lock,” he said.

Just in case of any trouble, the president’s advance team installed special direct-dial telephones to Moscow at each of the Tokyo venues he will visit.