The article is dedicated to the 50^th anniversary of the normalization of SinoJapanese relations. The author analyzes the development of Sino-Japanese relations, paying special attention to economic interaction, changes in geopolitical situation, and ways of overcoming internal challenges and external threats. The two main trends in the Sino-Japanese relations over the last 50 years are deepening of economic interdependence between the two countries and change of their roles in both economy and politics, primarily due to the growing influence of China.
Successful economic reforms carried out in China in the 1980s and 1990s opened up new prospects for the countries and led to a tremendous increase in trade and investment. However, while in the 1980s Chinese economy was more dependent on trade with Japan than vice versa, by the 2000s the situation changed and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, China even became a locomotive of Japan’s economic recovery.
China has also overtaken Japan as an influential political player. This has forced Japan to seek security guarantees and opportunities to build up its military potential in order to counter the Chinese threat.
Despite the intention to establish relations of peace and friendship, the countries are still unable to resolve a number of issues related to historical memory. Besides serious tensions remain in the East China Sea around the disputed Senkaku/ Diaoyudao islands. The issue of Taiwan also remains a dangerous flash point for conflict. Other recent challenges are the COVID-19 pandemic and the situation around Ukraine, which, the Japanese side thinks, might be repeated with Taiwan. All this still poses a threat to the stability of Sino-Japanese relations. The ability of the two countries to draw lessons from history and to resolve differences through dialogue gives hope that the conflicts will be settled.

Nowadays young people constitute the majority of population in many countries. However, engaging with young people is not only a demographic necessity — young people all over the world actively influence peace processes through diverse initiatives.
As stressed in the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war. Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. Surveying the moods of young people around the world, a foundation maintaining official relations with UNESCO, the Goi Peace Foundation, conducted a survey of young people around the world (aged 15–25) in 2021, where th e respondents were asked about their perceptions of the current state of peace, their awareness of issues related to peace, about what they would like to do to contribute to peace.
The article analyzes young people’s own point of view on youth participation and inclusion in peace processes and compares all the participants’ opinions with opinions of participants from Japan.
The youth aged 15 to 25 make up a tenth of Japan’s population, and some young Japanese people identify themselves as the satori sedai (さとり世代) — a term first used in 2010 to describe those born around the time the economy started to slide two decades ago and characterizing the Japanese youth as having pessimistic attitudes towards the future. That is why the analysis of the values and social orientations of Japanese youth towards peace, issues related to peace, and their possible contribution to peace building as compared to those in the rest of the world is especially interesting. The article indicates that young Japanese demonstrated willingness to socialize, strengthen, and protect peace in formal and informal political platforms through various practices. It is noted that the participation of the youth, both all over the world and in Japan, in building and supporting world peace can yield substantial positive results.

The article examines the question of how rigid the system of social stratification is in Japan, whether it is possible for people to move from lower strata to higher strata, and what factors facilitate or, conversely, complicate this movement. The main attention is paid to the problem of intergenerational mobility, which can be used to judge whether society is becoming more equitable, whether there is inheritance of socio-economic inequality or, conversely, whether there are opportunities for its mitigation in subsequent generations.
The factors contributing to social mobility, and, conversely, constraining it, are considered by three parameters of social stratification — income level, social status, level of education. The issue of the influence of the institution of marriage on social mobility is also considered. The article shows that, although the life paths of people belonging to different strata develop differently, nevertheless, Japanese society has institutions that allow a person to overcome the influence of “birth circumstances” and climb up the social ladder.
The redistribution of income through the social security and taxation system, as well as a relatively small wage gap between workers of different skill levels, make it possible to keep income inequality at a level that supports social income mobility. The rise of the share of more prestigious professions in the professional structure of the employed and a significant increase in the absolute number of those who have these professions create objective conditions for the movement of thousands of young people to higher status groups.
Democratization of the education system and easier access of young people from different social strata to good education raise the chances to move up the social ladder for an increasing number of young Japanese. Finally, the democratization of the institution of marriage, the manifestation of which is an increase in the importance of the level of education when choosing a partner and the lower importance of the question of their social roots, also contributed to the mobility of the social structure. Noting these positive changes, the author, at the same time, highlights the factors constraining social mobility, the main of which is the preservation of the hierarchical structure of the Japanese school and university education system.

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.

The Russo-Japanese War was essentially the first war during which the Hague Convention With Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land was tested. At that time, Russia, like Japan, was concerned about the country’s international reputation and sought to create the impression of a civilized power. After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, it made great efforts to ensure that the detention of prisoners of war met international requirements. 
There were a little more than 2,000 Japanese prisoners of war in Russia. Most of them were kept in the Arakcheev Barracks of the village of Medved, Novgorod Province. The article shows that the prisoners of war had good financial provision and enjoyed freedom of movement in the village. The Russian side tried to take into account the dietary tastes of the Japanese. The article presents the results of the mission of the American Vice-Consul Thomas Smith, undertaken to study the situation of the prisoners of war, according to which the treatment of the Japanese POWs did not cause any criticism. 
The author also shows that, today, the memory of the Japanese prisoners of war is carefully preserved by the villagers. There is a permanent museum exposition in the local house of culture, and the tombstones left after the burial of the deceased prisoners of war are part of the memorial in their honor.

This article deals with little-known aspects of the Indochina crisis of 1940 in Japanese–French relations — Japan’s claims to control and military presence in French Indochina in the summer and autumn of 1940. Ensuring the security and stability of Indochina was at the heart of the French policy towards Japan during all the pre-war years. It was characterized by a willingness to make concessions and compromises, so it was often criticized for “appeasing the aggressor.” 
The beginning of the war in Europe in September 1939 prompted Japanese military circles to develop new expansion plans in the face of France’s weakening position in East Asia. The military defeat of France in June 1940 prompted Japan to increase pressure on it in order to completely stop the supply of military materials to China and to take control of the execution of these measures. Japan’s strategic goal was to establish control over Indochina. 
The new authoritarian regime of the French state (the Vichy regime), which replaced the parliamentary regime of the defunct Third Republic, compromised with Japan, taking into account the inequality of forces in the region; therefore, its policy is called the policy of concessions. The author examines the process of shaping French policy and the actions of its main performers: Head of State Philippe Pétain, Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul Baudouin, Ministers of Colonies Albert Rivière and Henri Lémery, Governors-General of Indochina Georges Catroux and Jean Decoux. The article is based on diaries, memoirs, and other testimonies of the actors in combination with the latest research works.

This article focuses on the problems of the formation and development of Japanese studies in Novosibirsk in the 2^nd half of the 20^th century. The paper shows the prerequisites for the emergence of Japanese studies education and the introduction of a Japanese language course at Novosibirsk State University. The emergence of Japanese studies in Novosibirsk was due to the development of Soviet-Japanese cooperation in the 1960s, the formation of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences, and the development of Oriental linguistics at Novosibirsk State University. Special attention is paid to the contribution to the formation and development of Novosibirsk Japanese studies by Olga Pavlovna Frolova, who became the first and, until the end of the Soviet period, remained the only professional Japanese studies scholar in Novosibirsk. 
The first scientific article on Japanese linguistics in Novosibirsk was published in 1970; in 1971, the teaching of the Japanese language for students of the humanities at the NSU was introduced. Since the late 1980s, Novosibirsk Japanese studies have gone beyond the boundaries of the NSU, as students at various universities and secondary schools began to study Japanese. In 1995, a department of Oriental studies with a specialization in Japanese was opened at the Faculty of Humanities, and, in 1999, the Department of Oriental Studies was established at NSU. In Novosibirsk, along with Japanese linguistics, the study of archeology, literature, art, and traditional culture of Japan has been developed. At the beginning of the 21^st century, many students of Oriental studies from Novosibirsk became leading Russian Japanese studies scholars.

Due to the expiration of a number of previously classified materials related to the activities of the Soviet special services during the Second World War, and also due to the especially high public interest to “the case of Richard Sorge” within the last 5 years, a military historian and Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail A. Alekseev introduced a large number of previously unknown Russian- language documents on this case into scientific circulation. These documents are of exceptionally high interest to researchers. For example, it is the first time the published materials definitively answer questions on whether Sorge was a double agent, whether he reported to Moscow the exact date of the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, and also what the real reason for the failure of the network of Soviet military intelligence in Japan in 1941 was. 
Soon after that, the authors of this article for the first time made a complete translation of the memoirs of Ishii Hanako, Sorge’s Japanese wife, which were analyzed in detail and commented on by the authors of the book Another Sorge. The Story of Ishii Hanako. The memoirs of Ishii Hanako give a chance to take a fresh look at Richard Sorge’s personality, his goals in studying Japan and his approaches to this issue, to form a more personal and, at the same time, objective picture of his character. Together with the case of the “Special Folder” of the Central Committee of the CPSU on perpetuating the memory of Richard Sorge, declassified in 2020, for the first time in history, these materials allow to fully estimate Ishii Hanako’s effort to preserve the memory of Sorge in Japan during the period from 1945 to 1964. By comparing the memoirs, the documents of the Soviet side, and by carrying out the research and analytical work, the authors have reached a new level of understanding of “the case of Richard Sorge”. 
In addition, a number of new materials devoted to the same case and revealing the level of awareness of not only the government and law enforcement agencies of this country, but also the emperor himself, as well as the division of powers of special services in the liquidation of Sorge’s intelligence network were published in Japan within the period of 2017–2022. However, for a number of reasons, in Russia, these documents remain poorly studied.

In the Japanese Buddhist canon, the heavenly sovereigns belong to the fourth class of Buddhist deities — after the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and light kings. They are the largest group. Sculptures are distinguished by the complexity of plastic forms, decorativeness, and expression. In Japanese iconography, the appearance of Buddhist characters was transformed according to ethnic requirements; their attributes, costumes, and poses changed. The heavenly sovereigns, with soft faces reminiscent of bodhisattvas, were endowed with formidable features in Japan; secular attire was changed to the attire of warriors. Other deities, initially considered warlike, acquired a peaceful appearance.
Four heavenly sovereigns (shitennō) should be singled out as the most famous — Tamonten, Jikokuten, Zō chō ten, Kō mokuten. They hold weapons in their hands. For Kō mokuten, in his fight against ignorance, the word serves as a weapon, and he holds a scroll-sutra and a brush. In addition to them, Bonten, Taishakuten, Bishamonten became recognized. They have great physical and spiritual strength and appear in majestic poses. Bishamonten acts as a warrior-protector but is also a deity who bestows mercy on everyone. The warrior Benzaiten took on the traits of femininity. Kichijō ten is known as the goddess of wealth and happiness.
The cohort of heavenly sovereigns belong to the guardian deities of Buddhist law — Shū kongō jin and Kongō rikishi. They are akin to guards located in the niches of temple gates. Sacred sculptures demonstrate the martial spirit with a powerful physique, facial expressions, hand gestures, military armor. Initially static, the sculptures acquired expressiveness of movement due to the position of arms and legs. The article considers the most artistically significant sculptures to trace the process of improving the stylistic means of sculpting Japanese-Buddhist images, to reveal the features of grotesque works, and to expand knowledge about Buddhist temple sculpture.

The purpose of the study is to consider two concepts important for Japanese Buddhist thought and for teachings about literature: suki (“elegant taste”, devotion to the beautiful) and kokorozashi (“determination”, willingness to focus all one’s forces on something). An important source for understanding these terms is the Hosshinshū collection of setsuwa (early 13^th century). In collections of setsuwa tales, there are often reasonings about the poet and poetry; they accompany the stories about the miracles associated with famous poems changing the fate of the poet and his loved ones. The compilers of the collections, in general, follow the tradition where the word of the poet is valued below the word of the Buddha, but it is all the more important to choose examples from which it would be seen that the path of a poet can simultaneously be one of a Buddhist ascetic.
One of the versions of the Buddhist understanding of poetry can be found in Hosshinshū. Here, poets, with their special way of life and thoughts, belong to a wider category of “connoisseurs of the beautiful,” “people with taste,” sukimono. These people are able to renounce ordinary human worries, glory, and self- interest for the sake of poetry or music, which brings them closer to hermits. In this case, what is important are not so much the properties of poetry as such, but “determination” of the person themselves, their choice in favor of something that absorbs their strength and becomes their support on the way.

This article is devoted to the spread of the vogue “disease” — shinkei suijaku (神経衰弱) among the Japanese creative elite of the 20^th century. Part of it was writer Tanizaki Jun’ichirō ( 谷崎潤一郎, 1886–1965), whose artistic image of a “mad genius” was formed under the direct influence of psychiatrist Sugita Naoki (杉田直樹, 1887–1949) and the works of R. Krafft-Ebing and Otto Weininger. The strong causal relationship between “madness” and creativity was caused by the fact that European works of literature came to Japan simultaneously with biographies of their authors. This formed the belief that literature (Dostoevsky or Maupassant’s works, for instance) depended on “madness”. Due to this, the image of a “mad genius” was popularized in Japan in the first half of the 20^th century, becoming a key element of the persona of a “modern” writer. These widespread ideas were opposed to the Neo-Confucian thought of the past, Tokugawa era. Genius no longer depended on education, but mental pathologies, giving their owners a special flair and talent. The works of European philosophers and psychiatrists, biographies of writers of the 19^th century allowed the “new” Japanese artists to create for themselves a privileged position in the developing market of mass culture. Shinkei suijaku became a marker of the fact that an intellectual was experiencing the full weight of modern civilization; they were at the very edge of the modernization process. The image of a morbid masochist genius constructed by writer Tanizaki Jun’ichirō formed the basis of almost all of his works.
The main method of research is analytical. Special attention is paid to the specifics of the development of Japanese culture in the first quarter of the 20^th century, when Tanizaki Jun’ichirō joined the discourse of the modernist era with his ideas about the ideal woman who had to change the “genetic” code of the Japanese nation, transforming a person both externally and internally. The works of the writer are a series of “manifestos”, aimed at rethinking the role and image of women in modern society, searching for one’s own identity and the place of the Japanese nation in the modern world.

Makuya, or “Tabernacle of Christ” is a Japanese new religious movement and a neo-Christian religion with some Zionist elements. Its founder, businessman Teshima Ikurō (1910–1973), had samurai ancestors. In his youth, he was baptized and joined the non-church movement — Japanese Christians who reject the church and seek to connect with God through a thorough study of the Holy Scriptures. Scholars agree that, firstly, the Makuya teaching continues and develops the ideas of the non-church movement, and secondly, that, like other Japanese Christian organizations, Makuya is significantly influenced by Japanese culture and is primarily its product.
Makuya continues the non-church movement as its adherents consider the interpretation of the Holy Scripture the main occupation that allows a person to come to God. Just like the non-church believers, Makuya followers accept the hypothesis of a common origin of the Japanese and the Jews. They also consider Judaism more in line with the original teachings of Jesus Christ than Christianity, which has been distorted by translations of the Bible into Greek and other languages and church institutions. The originality of Makuya teaching, among other things, is determined by such practices as “speaking in tongues”, divine healing, walking on fire, etc.
An overview of the life of Teshima Ikurō , the history of the formation of his teaching and the Makuya movement, as well as an analysis of Teshima’s sermons show that some ideas of Zen Buddhism can be traced in his worldview and the Makuya teaching based on it. Two sermons by Teshima Ikurō are analyzed: one where he interprets Psalm 90 (“The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God”), as well as a verse from the Gospel of John. Teshima talks about life, death, the perception of time, and the meeting of person with God. Just like Zen authors, Teshima Ikurō considers the goal of the believer to cast aside illusions and gain true vision. According to the basic postulates of Zen Buddhism, the ascetic gains enlightenment and thereby leaves the endless circle of births and deaths, realizes the non-duality of the world. For Teshima Ikurō , the meeting of a person with God becomes an analogue of enlightenment, after which a person similarly ceases to feel enslaved by time and finds himself in eternity.

Among the short-short stories by American authors translated by Japanese writer Tsuzuki Michio in the late 1950s — early 1960s, there were also extrashort stories by Robert Albert Bloch (1917–1994): detective stories, fantasy, psychological horror. Japanese writers known by their experiments in the genres of extra-short mystic and detective stories, as well as in the genre of psychological horror, note that their creative activity was partly influenced by Robert A. Bloch: these are Atōda Takashi (b. 1935), Akagawa Jirō (b.1948), and Tamaru Masatomo (b. 1987). Some allusions can also be seen in contemporary short-shorts by less famous Japanese writers, for example, Aoyama Shōji (b. 1975). This paper examines the topics, ideas, artistic devices, and psychologism of the Japanese micro fantasy and horror fiction, as well as its metaphorical meanings and the system of images. Allusions to Robert A. Bloch’s micro fiction in the shōto shōto stories by contemporary Japanese authors are analyzed from a comparative perspective. Literary parallels to Robert A. Bloch’s micro fiction can be found in the Tamaru Masatomo’s collection of short-short stories One Thousand Nights (Sen’ya ichiya) published in 2016; in Akagawa Jirō’s collections of short-short stories The Walk (Sampomichi, 2002), The Dancing Man (Odoru otoko, 1986), and The Talkative Woman (Katte-ni shaberu onna, 1986); in Atōda Takashi’s collections of short-short stories The Strange Day (Kimyōna hirusagari, 1996), The Eaten Man (Taberareta otoko, 2008) and The Cat Case (Neko-no jiken, 2010). The influence of Robert A. Bloch’s micro fiction can also be traced in one of Aoyama Shōji’s short-shorts from the collection of stories The Square of Shōto Shōto-1 (Shōto shōto-no hiroba-1, 2007). Following Robert A. Bloch’s methods and techniques, the Japanese writers in their short-short stories demonstrate symbolism, allegory, and black humor, as well as probing into certain social problems and human nature. For the first time, Japanese shōto shōto stories and Robert A. Bloch’s micro fiction are investigated from a comparative perspective.

The article is devoted to the work of the famous Japanese film director Hamaguchi Ryūsuke — a representative of the new generation of Japanese cinematographers. He is the winner of many prestigious awards of the international film festivals in Locarno, Cannes, etc. His film Drive My Car received the prize of the American Film Academy, Oscar — 2022, as the best foreign film. The film is unusual and interesting in many of its features, which are described in detail in this paper. But, first of all, the author draws attention to the fact that the plot of this picture is based on the eponymous story by the popular Japanese novelist Murakami Haruki. At the same time, the director borrowed a lot from the play “Uncle Vanya”, written by Russian classic A. P. Chekhov, whose influence is quite evident in all the director’s recent works. Another key figure who determined the main vector of creativity of Hamaguchi is Andrei Tarkovsky. The Japanese director owes his acquaintance with Tarkovsky’s films to his teacher — a master of modern Japanese cinema Kurosawa Kiyoshi. Thus, the Russian theme is one of the most interesting aspects of his work. At the same time, the author seeks to analyze in details other literary and cinematic origins of Hamaguchi’s directorial career and comes to the conclusion that his work is a complex but harmonious synthesis of Western and Japanese culture with the latter’s pronounced national traditions.

Ainu is the only native minority language in Japan during the historical period. Its genetic relations are not known, its grammatical system differs from the systems of the languages of the surrounding peoples. The ethnical origin of Ainu is not well-known either. In the 19th century, native speakers of the Ainu language lived in Hokkaido, south Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and south Kamchatka. They were not numerous, but their linguistic situation was stable, and their contacts with other peoples were not significant. Their occupations were hunting and fishing. Since the 19th century, the Sakhalin Ainu and the Kuril Ainu began to move into Hokkaido. The Russian writer A. P. Chekhov visited Sakhalin in 1890 and described the Ainu situation. He wrote that the Ainu were peaceful and gentle people; they could not resist the Japanese expansion. At that time, the Ainu population of Sakhalin was declining; there were two causes thereof: death from starvation and migration to Hokkaido. However, since that time, Hokkaido was occupied by the Japanese people. Ainu lost their territory and did not have equal rights with the Japanese. The Japanese people despised Ainu, using the phonetic semblance of the name of the people (Ainu) and the Japanese word inu, ‘dog’, and considered Ainu a hybrid of people and dogs. The Ainu language had no writing system and only Japanese was taught in the Ainu schools. The Ainu people were in the process of assimilation. After the Second World War, the Japanese and the Ainu were equalized in their rights, but the new reforms did not change the linguistic situation, and the Ainu language became extinct very quickly. The last speaker of Ainu in Sakhalin died in 1975, and the last speaker of Ainu in Hokkaido died about 2000.

Wakō, which is literally translated as “Japanese pirates”, were pirates who came from different ethnic groups and raided the coastal territories of China and Korea from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The activity of pirates on the Korean Peninsula declined in the 15th century and moved to the coastal provinces of China, where it peaked in the middle of the 16th century and was significant enough to influence the works of art of the Ming period (1368–1644). The first half of the article describes the two main stages of the development of the “Japanese piracy” and includes key events and factors that influenced the rise and decline in piratical activity. The second part of the article explores what historical event is depicted in the “Wakō Zukan” (“Illustrated Scroll of Japanese Pirates”). In order to achieve this objective, the picture was divided into several scenes and described, the result of which is presented in a table. In addition, the article examines four existing theories and assesses the degree of their consistency. In order to better understand the origin of the scroll and its contents, two more scrolls were used, namely: the “Kōwa Zukan” (“Illustrated Scroll of Resistance to Japanese Pirates”) and the “Heiwa Zukan” (“Illustrated Scroll of the Pacification of Japanese Pirates”). “Kōwa Zukan” was also divided into several episodes and a comparative analysis was made, the results of which are reflected in the table mentioned above. This interdisciplinary research will be of interest not only for scholars studying piracy as a historical phenomenon, but also for a wide range of specialists studying the history and art of the Eastern countries, as well as international relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The consulting industry is an essential part of the modern economy. The business of large consulting companies is primarily associated with the American and European markets, but, recently, there has been a development of the industry in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The consulting market in Japan is currently developing and it cannot be compared in its scale with the world leaders. This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the formation of the consulting services market in Japan and its impact on the development of the industry. Particular attention is paid to the system of administrative management of the economy and the corporate structure as key factors that allowed Japanese firms to conduct their business for a long time and overcome their problems without resorting to the support of independent consultants. The government organized various committees and bureaus providing consultation to enterprises and entire industries. Non-governmental organizations maintained economic research and contributed to effective communication between the state and business. The grouping system assumed the presence of its own consulting companies that served the members of the group; therefore, there was no need to involve thirdparty contractors. Key factors in the emergence of consulting firms were the globalization and internationalization of Japanese business. Thus, some companies, having entered the world market, faced high competition from other countries and difficulties in doing business in a completely different environment, because of which the demand for consulting services began to arise. Another impetus for the establishment of consulting firms was the introduction of a new system of accounting and the adoption of the new Corporate Governance Code based on international standards. As a result of the analysis, the author concludes that the emergence of the Japanese consulting market much later than in other countries is due to the specific conditions in which Japanese business developed during the second half of the 20th century. However, in order to maintain their status and competitiveness, companies need to reconsider their management principles and outsource to contractors and consultants more frequently.

On March 30, 2022, Professor Tōgō Kazuhiko gave an interview in Tokyo. Professor is known as an expert on Russia and Europe, the author of many books, among which are The Inside Story of the Negotiations on the Northern Territories: Five Lost Windows of Opportunity [Tōgō, 2010], Japan’s Foreign Policy 1945– 2009: The Quest for a Proactive Policy [Tōgō, 2011]. Professor Tōgō shared his opinion on current complicated issues, including Japan’s relations with the US, Europe, and China, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, conflict between Russia and the West, as well as his view of the Western values and Japan’s position in the world.

The present roundtable took place in the office of the Association of Japanologists on February 19, 2022 and was held on the occasion of the publication of an eponymous monograph. The authors analyze the complex and delicate issues on the present-day agenda of Japan’s relations with the Korean Peninsula states, the PRC, Taiwan, and Russia. In their presentations, the authors point out the historical roots of these problems, aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of their present condition, and show their place in the public consciousness of these countries.