By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Japanese combat jets have been scrambled amid claims Russia invaded the country's air space.
Japan says two Russian fighter jets briefly entered its skies above the northern island of Hokkaido, something Russia denies.
If true, it would be the first such intrusion in five years.
Russia has been holding military manoeuvres around the islands this week.
However, it is no coincidence that the political dispute comes on what the Japanese call 'Northern Territories Day', when rallies are traditionally held calling for the return of disputed islands off Hokkaido.
The former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to visit Moscow later this month to discuss territorial issues.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed on the remote island chain in July prompting protests in Tokyo.
His trip to the islands - known as the southern Kuriles in Russia but as the Northern Territories in Japan - prompted complaints from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Unlike Japan's dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, which are rich in maritime oil and gas reserves, the feud with Russia has more to do with the legacy of World War Two.
Soviet soldiers seized the islands at the end of the war and the territorial dispute has soured diplomatic relations ever since.
"Flights of military aircraft are ... carried out in strict accordance with the international rules governing air space and do not violate the border of other states," Colonel Alexander Gordeyev, a Russian Defency Ministry spokesman, said of his country's military manoeuvres this week.
"All flights by the air forces in the region are strictly regulated by the joint command and are carried out under the supervision of air traffic control," he told the Interfax news agency.
Tensions are already high in the region between Japan and China.
Japan claims a Chinese frigate has directed radar used to launch weapons at one of its destroyers in waters near the islands, which are referred to as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
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