ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the territorial/border disputes between Japan and its neighbours, Russia, Korea and China, namely, the ‘Northern Territories/Southern Kuriles’, ‘Dokdo/Takeshima’ and the ‘Senkaku/Diaoyu’ problems. These problems tend to be treated as unrelated because of their different ways of development. However, they all share a common foundation in the territorial disposition of Japan after the Asia-Pacific War, particularly the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The ambiguous wording of the treaty left seeds of various problems, including those problems concerning Japan’s postwar borders, against the background of the escalating Cold War in Asia. This chapter considers the origins and development of those problems in the context of the San Francisco System and its transformations.
