Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday departed for Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Russia.
Japanese government officials said Abe, among other plans of bilateral meetings, will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the joint economic activities on disputed islands off Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
"I will certainly move ahead Japan-Russian relations toward the settlement of the territorial issue and the signing of a postwar peace treaty," Abe told reporters at Tokyo's Haneda airport before departing.
Japan and Russia both claim a group of islands off Japan's Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-WWII peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
