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On July 26, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a courtesy call from a group of junior high school students, who are third and fourth generation or other descendants of former inhabitants of the Northern Territories of Japan, at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
After the seven students spoke about their thoughts toward the Northern Territories,  the Prime Minister said,
 
“Thank you for visiting the Prime Minister’s Office today. You are fourth generation or other descendants of former residents of the islands. All of you came here with a desire to leverage the power of young people to get a peace treaty concluded in order to resolve the issue of the Four Northern Islands. You have just shared with me the feelings of your great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers as well as your grandfathers and grandmothers.
 
Even after more than 70 years have passed since the end of World War II, there is no peace treaty between Japan and Russia. Furthermore, the territorial issue has not been resolved. President Putin of Russia and I are in complete agreement that this is an extremely unnatural state of affairs. When President Putin visited Nagato, we held summit talks there; we discussed about carrying out joint economic activities on the Four Northern Islands. In addition, as the former island residents are at a very advanced age, we also talked about the possibility of making their visit to the Four Islands easier, fulfilling the wishes of the former island residents to visit their respective graves, or visit the sites they wish to go to, and to see the arrival of morning on the Four Islands. I also held a meeting with President Putin in May of this year; we shared the view that the joint economic activities on the Four Islands have reached a new level. The special grave visit by airplane also materialized just recently. Everyone probably found that visiting by airplane was far easier than visiting by ship.
 
I would like to bring this issue to resolution by persistently engaging in the negotiations. To that end, I hope the young generation like yourselves will more actively communicate the importance of resolving this issue and your wishes to turn the Four Islands into a bridge of friendship between Japan and Russia as you mentioned earlier.
 
I will continue to fully engage in this issue. Thank you very much for coming today.”