Mitsuhiro Morita, 25, from the far-northern town of Nemuro, was shot through the head as he was hunting for crabs in the Habomai islets, which are claimed by Japan but occupied by Russia.

His death was condemned by the Japanese Government, who demanded an apology, compensation, and the return of three other detained fishermen and their boat.

The Khabomai islands are part of the Kuriles, an archipelago off Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido which was seized by the Soviet Union three days after the Japanese surrender in August 1945. Japan has vainly asserted its ownership of the islands ever since, and as a consequence of the deadlock over the dispute, the two countries have never concluded a peace treaty.

“Our country can never tolerate a Japanese fishing boat being captured and fired on by a Russian patrol boat in waters belonging to our four Northern Territories, which are integral parts of our country,” Chikahito Harada, of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, told Mikhail Galuzin, the Russian Chargé d’Affaires in Tokyo.

“Neither can we tolerate the abnormal case of a crew member being fatally wounded or killed when they were captured and fired upon.”

The incident happened close to the tiny Kagara islet, which is only 3km from Cape Nosappu, the western most point of mainland Japan. Local fishermen pay the Russian Government for the right to harvest kelp from these waters, but the crew of the boat Kisshin Maru were fishing instead for the hanasaki spiky king crab, a summer delicacy costing 2,500 yen (£12.50) a kilog ram.

Hanasaki crab is found only in this region, and can be caught only during the summer months. In 1993, the annual catch was 440 tonnes, but overfishing caused it to slump to 82 tonnes last year. According to the Russians coastguards, they caught the five tonne Kisshin Maru violating the territorial line and fired warning shots. They then opened fire after crew members ignored an order to stop and were seen throwing their catch into the sea.

“The vessel didn’t react to our command to stop, was maneouvring dangerously and several times tried to ram our rubber boat,” Mikhail Shevchenko, of the Border Guards Service said. There was 30kg of crab and 10kg of octopus on the boat, which was towed to the large Russian-held island of Kunashir. Surviving crew members were detained.

This was the first time that someone had been killed as a result of the Kuriles dispute since 1956 — when a shark fishermen was also shot by the Russian coastguard — but there have been many less serious incidents. Between 1994 and 2004, 47 Japanese ships and 430 crewmen were arrested by Russia. Shots were fired in 17 cases and 11 fishermen injured.

A statement posted on a government website said: “The Russian Foreign Ministry expresses its deep regret in connection with the death of one of the crew members.” But it continued: “It is clear that responsibility for this incident rests with those who were directly guilty, and also with those representatives of the Japanese authorities who connive in poaching by Japanese fishermen in Russian territorial waters.”

The Soviet Union invaded the Japanese-held southern portion of Sakhalin island and the southern Kurile islands in the weeks after the Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, and 17,000 people expelled. The incursion is still regarded in Japan as a gross act of treachery that flouted the Japan-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.

The displaced families continue to campaign for the right to return, but repeated rounds of talks between the two governments — and Japanese offers of economic aid and investment in Russia — have done almost nothing to resolve the dispute.

President Putin’s Government has offered to return Shikotan island and the Habomai islets — some 6 per cent of the disputed area — in return for Tokyo’s renunciation of its other claims. But this idea has been rejected by Japan, and there is no prospect of a settlement.

ENDANGERED AND EXPENSIVE

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