On June 1, 2010, Japan issued the 7th edition of stamps in a mini sheet depicting “Hometown scenes”. These stamps were dedicated to Hokkaido, the most northern big island of Japan. The stamps represented artwork of Taiji Harada. The upper part of the mini sheet had a map of Hokkaido imprinted. The map also included two islands of the South Kurils. In the wake of World War II, the Soviet Union had occupied the Kurils.

Japan still has claims on four of the South Kuril islands. The mini sheet was withdrawn on the second day of issue after protests in order to not undermine the Japanese claim on all of the four islands. On September 10, 2010, the mini sheet was re-issued but this time without any map being imprinted