La Pérouse Strait (Russian: пролив Лаперуза), or Sōya Strait (Japanese: 宗谷海峡), is a strait dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the Sea of Japan on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk on the east.

[1] A small rocky island, appropriately named Kamen Opasnosti (Russian for "Rock of Danger") is located in the Russian waters in the northeastern part of the strait, 8 miles (13 km) southeast of the Cape Krillion.

[2] Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles into Lapérouse Strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed United States Navy warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.

[4] The ship David Paddack (352 tons), Captain Swain, of Nantucket, was bound home with a full cargo when it wrecked in the strait in 1848.

[5][6] The legendary submarine USS Wahoo, skippered by Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, was sunk in the strait on her seventh war patrol in October 1943.