In the US, Russians born in the Kuril Islands were called Japanese

The relevant rules are published on the portal of the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the US Department of State.

The document states that “persons born on the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup pay taxes in Japan. People born in South Sakhalin are taxed in Russia".

This requirement, the Japanese edition of Hokkaido Shimbun points out , appeared in the rules for drawing green cards in the United States in 2018. It says that those born in the Southern Kuriles should indicate Japan as their country of origin, not the Russian Federation. And US residents, including green card holders, must pay taxes on all their income, regardless of the country in which they are received. At the same time, there is no double tax - tax paid in another country is counted towards the amount due to tax in the United States.

Let us recall that at the end of October, one of the Sakhalin officials was removed from office due to the fact that during the presentation he showed a Japanese map on which the South Kuriles were depicted as part of Japan.

Disputes over the ownership of the southern part of the Kuril Islands are very old. Tokyo claims the four southern islands of the Kuril ridge - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, citing the first Russian-Japanese agreement - the Treaty on Trade and Frontiers of 1855. Later, Moscow ceded to Japan all the Kuril Islands up to the borders with Kamchatka, but in 1945 they returned to the USSR.

The declaration of the USSR and Japan of October 19, 1956 ended the state of war and restored diplomatic and consular relations between the two countries. In accordance with the document, Moscow agreed to re-transfer Shikotan and Habomai to Japan, but only after a peace treaty was signed. It is known that it has not been signed yet.

Today, the Russian authorities believe that all the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR as a result of World War II, and the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over them is beyond question. Japan, on the other hand, insists on the return of the "northern territories", which so far, according to the Japanese side, are "under occupation" in order to sign the long-awaited peace. However, the official absence of peace in practice does not mean a state of war and de facto does not interfere with relations between the two countries.