Concept
Kunashir
Related concepts (5)
Urup
Urup (Uruppu-to; Urúp, Urup) is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Kuril Islands chain in the south of the Sea of Okhotsk, northwest Pacific Ocean. Its name is derived from the Ainu language word for salmon trout. Urup is essentially rectangular in shape, with a long axis of 120 kilometers (75 miles) and a narrow axis of about 20 kilometers (12 miles). It is the fourth largest of the Kuril Islands, with an area of . The highest point is Gora Ivao at . A number of tiny islets and rocks are scattered around the coast of Urup.
Iturup
Iturup, also historically known by other names, is an island in the Kuril Archipelago separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly midway along its western shore. Iturup is the largest and northernmost of the southern Kurils, ownership of which is disputed by Japan and Russia. It is located between Kunashiri to its southwest and Urup to its northeast. The Vries Strait between Iturup and Urup forms the Miyabe Line dividing the predominant plants of the Kurils.
Kuril Islands dispute
The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end. The islands separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean.
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (ˈkʊərɪl,_ˈkjʊərɪl,_kjʊˈriːl; Кури́льские острова́; Japanese: "Kuril Islands" or "Thousand Islands") are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor islets. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and, at the southwest end, the parallel Lesser Kuril Chain.
Ainu people
The Ainu are an indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, and Khabarovsk Krai, since before the arrival of the Yamato Japanese and Russians. These regions are referred to as Ezo in historical Japanese texts. Official estimates place the total Ainu population of Japan at 25,000.