Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday pledged to renew talks on solving a territorial dispute over Pacific islands that has prevented the two countries from signing a World War II peace treaty.

Four climbers died over the weekend and two others are missing on mountains including Mount Fuji in central Japan, police and news reports said Monday.

Japan for the first time Sunday officially marked the 61st anniversary of the day it regained sovereignty following its World War II defeat, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe steps up his nationalist campaign.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to reset ties with Russia as he set off Sunday for the first visit by a Japanese premier to Moscow in a decade under the shadow of a festering territorial row.

A limousine carrying Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was involved in a five-car pile-up at a toll gate in Tokyo on Saturday but he escaped without any injuries, police said.

Chinese military planes, mostly fighter jets, made more than 40 flights close to Tokyo-controlled islands at the center of a territorial dispute on a single day this week, a press report said Saturday.

South Korea summoned Tokyo's ambassador in Seoul on Thursday to protest at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's defense of visits by senior officials and lawmakers to a shrine seen by Japan's neighbors as a symbol of wartime aggression.

The top U.S. military officer told China's leaders on Wednesday that Washington is committed to defending Japan, as Beijing and Tokyo engage in intensified rhetoric over a territorial row.

Increasing the number of foreign visitors and turning this into economic growth — this goal of making Japan a tourism-oriented nation will require combined efforts by the public and private sectors.

Japan's prime minister vowed Tuesday to “expel by force” any Chinese landing on islands at the center of a territorial row, after eight Chinese government vessels sailed into the disputed waters.