Video | Japan withdraws ambassador to Moscow after Medvedev visits disputed island
Japan announced that it was recalling its ambassador to Moscow, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited a disputed island in a territorial row.
"We have a territorial problem and that needs to be solved," Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara was reported as having said in = a news conference at which he announced the envoy's temporary recall.
"But our basic policy of concluding a peace treaty with Russia and strengthening economic relations once that problem is settled remains unchanged," he said.
Medvedev made a brief visit on Monday to one of four island outposts seized by Russia from Japan at the end of World War Two.
Japan's top government spokesman said earlier that leaders from Japan and Russia were still likely to hold talks at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on November 13-14, although Maehara said nothing had been decided.
At the same time, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, is struggling with a divided parliament and a fragile economy, and is increasingly coming under fire for what critics claim was his mishandling of a separate territorial feud with China, and is under pressure to look firm this time.
Strained relations between Japan and China have raised concerns about the fallout for business given deep economic ties between Asia's top two economies.
