The territorial dispute over the isles - which Russia says are part of its Kuril chain and which Japan calls its Northern Territories - has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from reaching a peace treaty formally ending hostilities from World War II.
Russia's Roscosmos space agency director general Dmitry Rogozin, a former deputy prime minister who oversaw Russia's arms industry, on Monday proposed to change the name of one of the islands to Varyag in honour of a cruiser whose sinking started the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.
Rogozin is well known for his strident statements and has been vocal on social media since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February.
He also proposed the Habomai Islands could be renamed 'the archipelago of Russian hero sailors'.
"Always, when states added territories they would give them their own names," Rogozin said on state-owned radio broadcaster Sputnik.
"Why don't these islands have Russian names?
"This would be much more logical than the names with which we now have been calling these islands and which destroy the Russian language."
Japan has joined its Western allies in slapping economic sanctions on Russia after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what Moscow calls a "special military operation".
Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked war.
Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril Islands because of Japanese sanctions over the invasion.
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