LibriumArcana.Games

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo and Moscow traded charges after Russia shot dead a Japanese fisherman and captured three others on a fishing boat, in the first fatality for a half-century around disputed islands.

Japan lodged a "stern protest" at the killing and demanded the release of the seized fishermen, but Russia laid the blame squarely with the Japanese who it said were illegally poaching.

A Russian patrol killed 35-year-old fisherman Mitsuhiro Morita as it seized a Japanese crab fishing boat in the contested waters off Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said.

He said the Russian side towed the 4.9-tonne boat and took the three remaining fishermen to Kunashiri Island, one of four Kuril islands which Soviet troops seized at the end of World War II.

It was the first time since 1956 that Russian maritime authorities had killed a Japanese fisherman around the islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, according to the coast guard.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso summoned the acting Russian ambassador to demand the release of the fishermen and their boat and the return of Morita's body.

"We can hardly condone what has occurred in territorial waters of the Northern Territories. We will sternly protest against this extremely grave incident in which one Japanese national lost his life," Aso told the ambassador according to a diplomat.

"Japan for its part cannot accept the seizure itself. The loss of life through shooting cannot be justified by any reason," Aso said.

But the envoy, Mikhail Galuzin, said the boat had entered Russian waters.

"Unfortunately, Japanese sailors don't always respect Russian territorial waters despite numerous warnings from the Russian side to Japanese authorities," Galuzin said.

The Russian foreign ministry in a statement voiced "deep regret" about the death, which it said was caused by a stray bullet.

But it said Russia had warned the Japanese government and fishermen not to engage in "poaching" in the area.

"Obviously responsibility for this incident lies wholly and absolutely with those who were the direct culprits and also with those representatives of the Japanese authorities who connive in the poaching trade by Japanese fishermen in Russian territorial waters," the statement said.

Japan's Kyodo News, quoting officials in Hokkaido, said crab fishing was banned where the shooting took place and authorities had warned companies not to defy Russian orders.

The incident came one day after Japan marked the anniversary of Emperor Hirohito's August 15, 1945 surrender in World War II, an emotionally charged date in East Asia.

Soviet troops advanced on four Japanese-ruled Kuril islands on August 18, 1945 despite Japan's defeat and expelled the Japanese residents.

The two nations have yet to sign a peace treaty formally ending World War II, with a series of talks since the collapse of the Soviet Union making no headway.

Japan has refused proposals by Russian President
Vladimir Putin to turn over only two of the islands and has demanded their full return.

The dispute has also discouraged investment in Russia by Japan, the world's second largest economy.