Japan disputed territories
This is an interesting poster I saw in the Azabu-juban subway station in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Titled "Nihon no katachi," meaning "The Shape of Japan," it shows all the marine territory over which Japan claims sovereignty, including disputed islands with Korea (Takeshima Island), China (the Senkaku Islands), and Russia (the Kuril Islands).
Most famous of the disputed territories are the islets north of Hokkaido which Japan calls the "Northern Territories" but the rest of the world knows as the Kuril Islands, which Russia seized in August 1945. Japan relinquished its claim to the Kuril Islands in the 1950s, but since then it has changed its mind and denies that it ever relinquished them. The Kuril Islands/Northern Territories dispute is what blocks a final peace treaty between Japan and Russia. Technically, Russia and Japan are still at war. (Unknown to the general Japanese public, the reason behind the seizure of the Kurils is that those islets were used as the naval staging area for three wars launched by Japan - 1894 against China, 1905 against Russia, and 1941 against America. So it seemed in 1945 that Japan could not be trusted with their sovereignty.)
I had an almost-heated discussion with a Korean-American woman about what "technically" means. She remarked that North and South Korea are still technically at war, living side-by-side by means of a truce. I overheard her and chimed in that Russia and Japan, too, are still "technically" at war, but she didn't get it. I immediately looked it up on Wikipedia and showed her, but she still didn't get it. And this moronic woman is studying for a Ph.D. in Asian studies! Oh, my God.