Tokyo

JAPAN and Russia look set to improve ties and clinch some business deals when their leaders meet next week, but both sides are scaling back expectations of a big breakthrough in a territorial row that has blocked a peace treaty to formally end World War II.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who pledged in September to "resolve the territorial issue", wants to leave a diplomatic legacy by breaking the impasse with Russia, a strategy he hopes would help Tokyo counter a rising China.