1. Country comparison

2. History
    Tsarist and Soviet era (1855–1991)  Early post-Soviet era (1991–1999)  Current relations (1999–present) 

3. Kuril Islands dispute

4. Military cooperation

5. See also

6. References

7. Further reading

8. External links

A 2018 opinion poll published by the Russian Levada Center shows that 61% of Russians have a favorable view of Japan, with 20% expressing a negative opinion.^[2] According to a 2017 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, 64% of Japanese people view Russia unfavorably, compared with 26% who viewed it favorably. People ages 50 and older are much less likely to hold a favorable view of Russia (16%) than those 18 to 29 (53%).^[3] Nonetheless, the Japanese government sees Russia as an important partner for security and counterbalancing China and North Korea in the region. Because of this, since the start of the Ukrainian Crisis and the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Japan has continued to engage with Russia in spite of sanctions against the country by Japan's Western allies.^[4] The governments of the two countries have taken efforts to increase relations, including Japanese investment in Russia,^[5] military cooperation,^[1] and organizing a year of cultural exchange between Russia and Japan for 2018.^[6]

Country comparison

History

Tsarist and Soviet era (1855–1991)

Early post-Soviet era (1991–1999)

The government of Boris Yeltsin took power in Russia in late 1991 upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At once, Moscow took a stand in opposition to relinquishing the disputed territories to Japan. Although Japan joined with the Group of Seven industrialized nations in contributing some technical and financial assistance to Russia, relations between Tokyo and Moscow remained poor. In September 1992, Russian president Boris Yeltsin postponed a scheduled visit to Japan. The visit took place on October 11, 1993. He made no further concessions on the Kuril Islands dispute over the four Kuril Islands (northeast of Hokkaido), a considerable obstacle to Japanese-Russian relations, but did agree to abide by the 1956 Soviet pledge to return two areas (Shikotan and the Habomai Islands) to Japan. Yeltsin also apologized repeatedly for Soviet mistreatment of Japanese prisoners of war after World War II. In March 1994, then Japanese minister of foreign affairs Hata Tsutomu visited Moscow and met with Russian minister of foreign affairs Andrei Kozyrev and other senior officials. The two sides agreed to seek a resolution over the persistent Kuril Islands dispute, but the decision of the dispute is not expected in the near future. Despite the territorial dispute, Hata offered some financial support to Russian market-oriented economic reforms.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

By the late 1990s the Russian leadership began to pivot from West to East, considering improving relations with Japan as part of this effort, and viewed Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's position as an opportunity. President Boris Yeltsin met with Prime Minister Hashimoto in Krasnoyarsk on 1 November 1997, where he proposed to solve the territorial problem with a peace treaty by 2000. Yeltsin also asked Hashimoto to consider financial assistance to Russia to the measure of $3 or $4 billion. Hashimoto also promoted the idea of increasing economic cooperation, which was called the Hashimoto–Yeltsin plan. In mid-April 1998, the Kanawa summit between the two leaders included Hashimoto making a proposal of having the four disputed Kuril islands coming under Japanese sovereignty. Yeltsin made a public statement about it and that he was considering accepting it, which prompted the Russian government and media to unite against this. By the autumn of 1998 the proposal had died after so much opposition in Russia, and Hashimoto was out of office after the July 1998 parliamentary election. Nonetheless about $1.5 billion of the World Bank/IMF loan to Russia came from Japan. A meeting in November 1998 between Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi and Yeltsin in Moscow took place, where Russia proposed to give Japan special status over the islands jointly with Russia as transitory legal regime. The Japanese side was cautious to the proposal and by 1999 there was a stalemate on the territorial question, while the economic initiatives stalled in their implementation.^[7]

On July 30, 1998, the newly elected Japanese prime minister Keizō Obuchi had focused on major issues: signing a peace treaty with Russia, and renewing the Japanese economy. However, he died soon afterwards.

Current relations (1999–present)

In March 2014, following Russia's annexation of Crimea, Japan imposed several sanctions against Russia, which included halting consultations on easing the visa regulations between the two countries and suspension of talks on investment cooperation, joint space exploration and prevention of dangerous military activity.^[8][9]

On 27 April, 2018, in Moscow was held the fourth Russia-Japan forum dubbed The Points of Convergence, where the sides discussed pressing issues concerning the two countries’ trade and economic relations. Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was the forum's special guest, read out Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's address at the event's opening ceremony. Participants discussed the two countries’ tourism cooperation, investment projects for the Far East and other Russian regions, as well as interaction in the areas of infrastructure, technology and energy industry.  

On June 23, 2018, Russia and Japan inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Russia's Far Eastern Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to expand cooperation between the two countries.^[10]

In June 2018, Japan's Princess Hisako Takamado travelled to Russia to cheer on her national team at the FIFA World Cup. She is the first member of the Imperial family to come to Russia since 1916.^[11]

Kuril Islands dispute

Relations between Russia and Japan since the end of World War II have been defined by the dispute over sovereignty of the Kuril Islands and concluding a peace treaty. In the spring of 1992 the Russian General Staff received reports that the Japanese began discussing the possible return of the northern territories. President Boris Yeltsin was considering giving up the Southern Kurils in 1992.^[12] Throughout the 1990s, efforts were made to come to some agreement by President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi. One of the goals of the Obuchi was to sign a peace treaty with Russia by 2000, which he did not achieve. He visited Russia in November 1998.^[13]

On August 16, 2006, Russian maritime authorities killed a Japanese fisherman and captured a crab fishing boat in the waters around the disputed Kuril Islands. The Russian foreign ministry has claimed that the death was caused by a "stray bullet".^[14]

On September 28, 2006, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would "continue the dialogue with the new Japanese government. We will build our relations, how the peoples of the two countries want them to be. Then-Foreign Minister Taro Aso remained on his post in the government. We have good, long-standing relations, we will act under the elaborated program."^[15]

The dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands deteriorated Russo-Japan relations when the Japanese government published a new guideline for school textbooks on July 16, 2008 to teach Japanese children that their country has sovereignty over the Kuril Islands. The Russian public was generally outraged by the action and demanded the government to counteract. The Foreign Minister of Russia announced on July 18, 2008 "[these actions] contribute neither to the development of positive cooperation between the two countries, nor to the settlement of the dispute," and reaffirmed its sovereignty over the islands.^[16][17]

In 2010, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian president to take a state trip to the Kuril Islands. Medvedev shortly ordered significant reinforcements to the Russian defences on the Kuril Islands. Medvedev was replaced by Vladimir Putin in 2012.

In November 2013, Japan held its first ever diplomatic talks with the Russian Federation, and the first with Moscow since the year 1973.^[18]

In September 2017, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at Eastern Economic Forum, which held at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. The main purpose of meeting was approving joint economic activities on disputed islands off Hokkaido. In their talks the both leaders decided to sign off on joint projects in five areas — aquaculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and waste reduction.^[19]

At the 2018 Thirteenth East Asia Summit in Singapore, Shinzo Abe followed up on a proposal from Vladimir Putin to sign a peace treaty without preconditions by the end of the year.^[20] The 1956 Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration promised that the USSR would give Japan the Habomai islet group and Shikotan and keep the remaining islands, in return for negotiation of a formal peace treaty. At the time, the United States threatened to keep Okinawa if Japan gave away the other islands, preventing the negotiation of the promised treaty.^[21][22] Putin and Abe agreed that the terms of the 1956 deal would be part of a bilateral peace treaty.^[23]

Military cooperation

The Russian Chief of General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, visited Tokyo in mid-December 2017 to meet with his Japanese counterpart, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano. He stated that there will be more than thirty joint military drills held by Russia and Japan in 2018.^[1][4]

Russia's military chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, warned Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera in Tokyo that military exercises conducted by the United States around the Korean Peninsula will destabilize the region. Apparently with such exercises in mind, Gerasimov told Onodera at the outset of their talks, “Exercises in surrounding areas would increase tension and bring instability.” Onodera sought Russia's cooperation in dealing with North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations, saying Moscow has “big clout” with North Korea. [https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/11/national/politics-diplomacy/russian-military-chief-warns-japan-u-s-exercises-near-korean-peninsula/#.Wl1EhK5l_IU]

See also

• Russians in Japan
• Japanese people in Russia
• Empire of Japan–Russian Empire relations
• Japan–Soviet Union relations

References

General

• {{loc}} - Japan

Further reading

• Allison, Graham, Hiroshi Kimura and Konstantin Sarkisov, eds. Beyond Cold War to Trilateral Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region: Scenarios for new relationships between Japan, Russia, and the United States (Harvard University Press, 1993)
• Brown, James D.J. "Japan’s foreign relations with Russia." in James D.J. Brown and Jeff Kingston, eds. Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia (2018): 248-61.
• Hara, Kimie. Japanese-Soviet/Russian Relations since 1945: A Difficult Peace (1998) [https://www.questia.com/read/102991800/japanese-soviet-russian-relations-since-1945-difficult online]

External links

• Embassy of Japan in Moscow
• Consulate-General of Japan in Khabarovsk
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090316092828/http://www.st-petersburg.ru.emb-japan.go.jp/index.htm Consulate-General of Japan in Saint Petersburg]
• Consulate-General of Japan in Vladivostok
• Consulate-General of Japan in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090223133210/http://www.russia-emb.jp/ Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tokyo]
• Consulate-General of the Russian Federation in Sapporo
• [https://academia.edu/3501268/Database_of_Russian-Japanese_relations Database of Russian-Japanese relations]

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