The paper presents an analysis of the current state of green energy in Japan. The study showcases that Japan’s energy strategy focuses primarily on eliminating energy deficit and secondly on greening the sector. After the Fukushima accident, Japan recognized renewable energy as a solution to the energy security problem and intensified government policies to stimulate investment in renewable energy. Policy incentives, primarily the introduction of feed-in tariffs, and massive investments have led to an increase in the share of renewable energy sources, especially solar PV, in the structure of electricity generation, and contributed to CO₂ emissions decline after 2013, as well as the improvement in the energy efficiency of the economy. By the end of the second decade of the 21^st century, Japan was among the top-five countries based on installed renewable power capacity (excluding hydropower). However, the costs of electricity have been rising and the costs associated with installing renewables in Japan are very high comparing with other countries. Meanwhile, Japan is among the top-five economies with the highest CO₂ emissions, 90% of which are energy-related, and has been criticized by the international community for its ongoing support for fossil fuels. In 2020, Japan has announced an ambitious plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by speeding up the development of key technologies such as next generation solar batteries and carbon recycling. The promotion of ‘hydrogen society’ is called one of the most important steps towards a low-carbon economy in Japan. Achieving the goal will require a significant revision of the current energy plan, according to which, by 2030, more than half of the country's energy will continue to be produced by fossil fuel plants. Japan has made some progress in its green energy policy, but whether it is sustainable remains to be seen. In addition, in light of low oil prices and the COVID-19 recession, the future of renewable energy sources remains uncertain.

This article is based on a large body of unpublished documents from the State Archive of Russian Federation (SARF). The author analyzes the history of the work of the Russian financial intelligence in Japan in 1909. The position concerning the impossibility for Japan to fight with Russia for the financial reasons was very popular in Russia before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, but was wrong. It caused the special interest in Russia to the Japanese financial system after the war. The conclusive series of Russo-Japanese agreements in 1907 just augment this interest. The Russian military attaché in Japan Colonel Vladimir K. Samoylov recommenced his service in Japan in 1906, and found in Japan a systematic realization of the postwar military program and reforms. Consequently, the Russian financial agent in China Lev W. von Goyer was delivered to Japan to investigate the possibilities of its realization in time and a Japanese capability to participate in new war. He worked in close coordination with Vladimir K. Samoylov and had access to whole his military information. The article explored how von Goyer investigated the Japanese budget and other financial documents. The analyses of his report gave a possibility to conclude his high level of knowledge about Japanese economy, financial system and society. The top quality of his researches determined the accuracy of the conclusions. Two of them had a great importance for the Russian defense policy and the Empire preparation to the World War I. He reported to the Minister of Finance and future Prime Minister Vladimir N. Kokovtsov, that the opinion of reduction funding the Japanese military and naval program is wrong with a high probability. However, Japan will not enter in a new war before it will be finished in 1914-1915. This information let Russian War Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to balance the defense policy of the Empire on west and east borders.

The article summarizes the results of the religious-studies and historical-philosophical research based on the Konjaku monogatari-shū (1120s). This largest set of didactic setsuwa tales provides an encyclopedic picture of Buddhism as it was known in Japan at the beginning of the 12^th century. The history of the Buddha Law, shown in the series of stories, is traced through the centuries, from the very beginning until recently, spanning India and China and continuing in Japan; the same issues that are important for the Buddhist community are covered from different angles in all three parts of the collection. From the perspective of the Konjaku narrator, people can follow Buddha in different ways: a monk in a community, a hermit monk, a righteous layperson, and a sinner layperson - all of them move in their own ways towards liberation, and for all of them the main thing is compassionate concern for others. All kinds of rituals based on the veneration of sacred books, repeating the names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, presenting gifts to the community, etc. serve not only to establish connections with higher powers, but also to strengthen good ties between people and get rid of bad ties. Many worldly habits, seemingly far from Buddhist piety, lead to the same thing: one can move towards liberation along the path of ruler, courtier, warrior, rich man, and poor man. Any event, from common to miraculous, can be interpreted in terms of the doctrine of retribution and thus one can find an instructive meaning in it.

This paper examines the perception of Western optics and projection technologies in Japan from the 18^th through the 20^th centuries, which led to the development of film, television, and other forms of media. Film was brought to Japan at the end of the 19^th century and was quickly adapted to local cultural specificities. Despite the influence of traditional Japanese theater, literature, and painting, film in Japan continues to be heavily associated with the cultural and aesthetic influence of the West. Japan’s introduction to film was preceded by its encounters with the telescope, microscope, camera obscura, magic lantern, and other Western technologies. The circulation of these devices contributed to the formation of an associative link between the West, the improvement of vision, and the mechanization of optics, which affected Japan’s perception of cinema. The magic lantern (which became widespread in Europe in the 18^th and 19^th centuries and laid the foundation for the development of the majority of contemporary projection devices) was brought to Japan twice: in the second half of the 18^th century (through Nagasaki), and after the Meiji Restoration (1868), when the politics of Westernization were adopted. The magic lantern of the Edo period, known as utsushi-e , was regarded as a mass spectacle, an element of low, urban entertainment culture, while gentō (imported during the Meiji era) was actively employed by the authorities for educational and propaganda purposes. Japanese film has inherited much from both of these media, including their terminology. The Japanese kanji sha ( utsusu ) used in the word utsushi-e can be found in the term katsudō shashin , used in the 1900s and early 1910s to denote cinema. The term eiga , which replaced katsudō shashin by the late 1910s and early 1920s, was initially used to denote glass slides for the projection of gentō . This paper traces the major milestones in the development of Japanese laterna magica , analyzes its influence on the formation of specific terminology as well as on the social status of film in Japan, and indicates further prospects for studying Japanese media in the context of its interactions with the “culture of seeing” generally associated with the West.

During the Meiji period, the population of Japan increased from 33 million to 53 million 362 thousand people. The reasons for this rapid growth remain unclear. Usually, scholars mention the development of medicine and the improvement of the hygienic skills of the population, economic development, an increase in the standard of living, the reduction of infanticide. However, these explanations appear to be insufficient. In this article, I am trying to understand in more detail what exactly caused the population explosion of the Meiji period. I conclude that the main factor contributing to the increase of the population was the growth of the marriage rate, which was not paid due attention to before. The demographic theory believes that there is an intermediate stage between the traditional type of reproduction (high fertility and high mortality) and the modern (low fertility and low mortality). It is characterized by a decrease in mortality, while the birth rate remains high for some time. This leads to an increase of population and accelerates population growth. However, the Japanese historical experience shows that this theory, developed primarily on European sources, turns out to be applicable to Japan only with significant reservations: significant population growth begins in the second half of the Meiji period in conditions when the mortality rate has not yet dropped. It begins to decline only in the second half of the 1920s. That means that the increase in the birth rate preceded the decrease in mortality. Only after that do we observe a synchronous decrease in both mortality and fertility. Thus, for half a century, Japanese realities "ignored" Western theory.

Womenomics , which aimed to create conditions to increase the participation of women in the economy, can be assessed as a fairly successful direction of Abenomics , the economic policy of Prime Minister S. Abe. Thanks to a number of measures taken by the government of S. Abe, in the period of 2012-2019, the number of working Japanese women increased by almost 3 million, in particular, due to the expansion of employment among women of the most problematic ages (25 to 44 years old). While in 2012, among the latter, about 2/3 worked, in 2019, the share was already more than 3/4. At the same time, there have been some shifts in the employment model of these women. Namely, among them, the proportion of permanent workers has increased and the proportion of non-permanent employees has decreased. There was also a massive entry into the labor market of “housewives with experience”, i.e., women aged 45-54 years, and although most of them became non-permanent workers, a slight increase in the share of those permanently employed occurred in this group as well. It seems that further efforts to improve conditions for women to combine work and family responsibilities will not only increase their participation in the economy, but also lead to an increase in the fertility rate. This is especially important since an increase in fertility due to an increase in the proportion of married women among the young Japanese still seems problematic. Although the coronavirus pandemic as a whole had a negative impact on female employment, leading to a decrease in its scale, as the economy returned to normal, the situation began to improve, and, by the autumn of 2020, among the problematic ages (25-44 years old), the influx of women to the labor market not only compensated, but even exceeded the outflow caused by the pandemic. At the same time, compared with the pre-crisis level, the share of permanent workers among them even increased. It can be supposed that the impetus given by the pandemic to the development of various kinds of flexible forms of work, including the field of permanent employment, may generally have a beneficial effect on the possibilities for women to combine work and family responsibilities.

The article is devoted to the problems of the history of the Japanese intervention in the territory of Russia. Japan's participation in foreign military intervention became a major factor in the development of Soviet-Japanese relations and it largely determined the anti-Japanese sentiments among Russians at different stages of the country's history. Although there is an extensive historiography of the issue, many problems in the history of Japanese military intervention in eastern Russia remain poorly understood . The aim of this work is to reveal the problems in the relations between the A.V. Kolchak government and Japan. The content and nature of the assistance of the Japanese interventionists to the authorities and the army in Siberia determined the outcome of the civil war in Russia. On the basis of archival documents and materials from periodicals, the historical picture of the relationship of the Omsk government with the state and the military of Japan is being restored. Vice-Admiral A.V. Kolchak tried to obtain material assistance from the Japanese government for his struggle against the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918. Japan established direct relations with the government in Omsk in the autumn of 1918, when Japanese troops were already stationed along the railways from Vladivostok to Irkutsk. The work identifies and analyzes the issues and problems that existed in relations between the central anti-Soviet government of Russia and the Japanese interventionists in 1918-1920. Insufficient material support and Japan's refusal to send troops to Western Siberia and the Urals devalued the allies' assistance to the White movement. Japanese troops actively fought the partisan movement in the Far East, but avoided not only direct confrontation with the armed forces of the RSFSR, but also active intervention in the military and political events in Central and Western Siberia. This ultimately formed a negative attitude towards the Japanese intervention among various political forces and social groups. A comprehensive study of the history of the Japanese intervention provides a deeper understanding of the reasons for the continued negative perception of Japan's participation in the events of the civil war and foreign military intervention in Russia in 1918-1922.

The article reviews the book by Ludmila M. Ermakova “Russian-Japanese Reflections: History, Literature, Arts” (Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, 2020. 327 pp. ISBN 978-5-02-039851-1). The book is a collection of the author’s recent articles which are devoted to a variety of subjects covering the history of Russian-Japanese cultural interaction and the history of Japanese studies in Russia. The review notes the breadth of the author’s interests and the depth of elaboration of each topic, the integrity of the collection and its importance for the history of Japanese studies in Russia.