In 2002, Yoriko Kawaguchi, then Japanese foreign minister, was dispatched to Moscow to discuss ways of improving her country’s relations with Russia. During that visit, she told President Vladimir Putin that Japan and Russia had the most troubled relations of any two Group of eight leading economies, and that it should not be so. She argued that a dispute over a set of Pacific islands claimed by both countries was needlessly blocking potential progress in other areas. Mr Putin agreed. This was a problem that both governments had inherited from decades-old wartime hostilities, he said, and both countries should benefit from improved economic ties.
2002年，时任日本外相川口顺子(Yoriko Kawaguchi)受命前往莫斯科，商讨改善日俄关系的方法。在那次访问中，川口顺子向俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)表示，在八国集团(G8)任意两国间的关系中，日俄两国的关系是最让人头疼的，而事情本不应如此。川口顺子当时主张，两国都声称对太平洋上的一群岛屿拥有主权，由此引发的争端妨碍了两国关系在其他领域的潜在发展空间，这是没有必要的。普京对此表示同意。他表示，两国政府都是从几十年前的战争时期继承了这个问题，改善双边manbetx20客户端下载 关系对两国都有益。