Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at a hot spring resort on Thursday seeking progress on a territorial row that has prevented their countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War Two. The two sides are likely to clinch some agreements on economic cooperation but both have sought to dampen expectations of a breakthrough in the feud over the windswept islands in the western Pacific seized by Soviet forces at the end of the war. The two leaders will meet in Abe’s home constituency in southwest Japan on Thursday and in Tokyo on Friday. Abe has pledged to resolve the territorial dispute, in hopes both of leaving a diplomatic legacy that eluded his foreign minister father, and of building better ties with Russia to counter a rising China. But a deal to end the dispute over the islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kuriles, carries risks for Putin, who does not want to tarnish his image at home of a staunch defender of Russian sovereignty.

kick off　 始まる、幕を開ける
welcome　　　～を歓迎する
hot spring hotel　　　温泉宿
_-day-summit　　　＿日間の首脳会談

　少なくとも北方領土の4島のうち２島だけでも返還されれば大成功だ！