Institutions of Russian-Japanese Economic Cooperation

Russian-Japanese economic cooperation has a rather interesting and informative history, but it is based mainly on primary energy resources trade, which Japan needs probably more than any other country in North East Asia. It is not surprising that the Russian mining sector attracts the dominant share of Japanese investment, and this area can be considered the most protected from negative external influences, such as sanctions policy or the general cooling of interstate relations. There are other directions, for example, the development of car assembly plants network in Russia, the construction of metallurgical and pharmaceutical plants, and the use of empty agricultural lands in the Russian Far East. Under favorable circumstances, it is possible to significantly expand the range of industries and launch projects in the fields of hydrogen energy, digital economy, robotics, space systems, and so on.
Unfortunately, at the moment, Russian-Japanese relations are going through one of the most difficult periods in their history, largely due to a sharp change in the global geopolitical landscape in addition to the different perception by Russian and Japanese elites of the models of geo-economic space formation in Northeast Asia. In fact, in the NEA region, the tendency towards the consolidation of two strategic blocs is noticeably increasing, one of which is China and Russia, while the other includes Japan and the Republic of Korea, with the obvious patronage of the United States. Nevertheless, Tokyo, despite declaratively joining large-scale anti- Russian sanctions, still seeks to preserve the foundation for further cooperation in case of at least a relative normalization of the geopolitical background. Therefore, it is still relevant to consider the institutional foundations of cooperation arising from the already established system of contracts and agreements. This article focuses on the analysis of existing and promising institutions of Russian-Japanese cooperation, because, without this foundation, it will be difficult to count on mutually beneficial long-term interaction, which is hardly possible to completely nullify due to many circumstances, both internal and external. In addition, under the new circumstances, the Asian direction of foreign economic policy is becoming a crucial one for Russia, which is officially recognized by the national elites.

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