The paper examines the main narrative strategies of “Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige” (1802-1809) by Jippensha Ikku (1765-1831) in terms of the “culture of play” concept. The phenomenon of the “culture of play” was connected with the search for new forms of expression, perception, and rethinking of the social order carried out by the townspeople of the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) in Japan. Playful literature gesaku, including Ikku’s literary work, was the embodiment of this concept, based, mainly, on the carnivalesque overturn of the usual, official reality. The “culture of play” is represented in “Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige” by a number of narrative strategies, namely, the chronotope, the communicative system of characters, and the special structure of episodes. The inner space of Ikku’s kokkeibon is a grotesque world, where the sensual pleasures and the rude humor linked to it prevail. Construction of such world takes place with the use of a literary device called ugachi - a combination of opposite ideas and phenomena in one scene. There is also a special type of time represented, concentrated on the pure everyday being, the endless motion of the life cycle. Attention is paid to the “voices” of the numerous characters of “Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige” as well as to their interaction. The characteristics of their speech become the only personal traits of the characters’ portraits; the polyphony of different “voices” enables Ikku to create the panorama of everyday life, close to reality, and to represent many points of view not taken into consideration by the official rhetoric. The figure of a narrator occupies a unique space in this system of characters, on the one hand, taking part in the protagonists’ fictional journey, and, on the other, being just a spectator, recording the events, both from the widest perspective possible and in detail. The structure of episodes is close to that in theatre genres. The characters represent a certain stage type; the episodes contain a specific mechanism of development, often with the allusions to the famous plays and comic stories. Such humorous profanations become a powerful device for the playful rethinking of reality.

This article is devoted to the conceptual analysis of the collection of national mottos of the Japanese nation, which was published in 1944 in Manchukuo. The book includes thoughts and statements of Japanese political and public figures, soldiers, philosophers (including Chinese ones), writers and poets. Chronologically, the collection covers the time from the appearance of the first written works of the Chinese philosophy (approximately 7^th century BC) to the beginning of the 20^th century. The book was released at a difficult time for Japan and the world, when war was going on in Europe and the Pacific. For the Japanese Empire, the point of the war turning against its favor occurred in the summer of 1942, during the Battle of Midway. From this time on, Japan gradually loses the initiative in conducting offensive operations against the Americans and their allies in the Pacific Ocean. Since the Japanese military situation deteriorated, the government began to strengthen its propaganda measures aimed at strengthening the idea of opposing European colonialism under the aegis of the Country of the Rising Sun, which was, in Tokyo’s view, shared by all East Asian nations. Apparently, as a part of this campaign, the Harbin branch of the Japanese Telegraph Agency “Nisso” and the Patriotic Association of Writers published a collection of mottos of the Japanese nation, which was intended to “spiritually unite” the Japanese subjects living in Manchukuo and promote an increased understanding of the Japanese mentality and Japanese culture among the Russian-speaking population of East Asia. Targeting Russian population did not happen by chance. In the conditions of “common misery for all”^[1], Japan, apparently, planned to enlist Russian emigrants living in Asia. The collection considered in the article has become a bibliographic rarity today. The philosophical sayings, judgments, and appeals contained in it are of great interest for studying the past of the Country of the Rising Sun, as well as its ideology during World War II, and for understanding the essence of Japanese nationalism. The mottos included in the brochure reveal the general ethnic features of the Japanese, their attitude towards life and death, as well as such concepts as “duty”, “homeland”, and “honor”.

At current stage, European Union and Japan are strategic partners, developing comprehensive bilateral interaction nearly in all possible aspects of international relations. This research is aimed at the analysis of the humanitarian areas of their partnership. The paper discusses the EU - Japan interaction in healthcare, education, science, culture, and environmental protection, including such aspects as bilateral dialogues, people-to-people exchanges, joint education programs, joint research projects, and other initiatives. The authors conclude that the humanitarian track of the relations has developed considerably over the last few years. The most intense cooperation can be seen in science, which is determined by the economic needs of both partners and their desire to develop strategic industries. Cooperation in healthcare comes second in terms of intensity, which has been caused by the pandemic and other common threats. Education and culture ties demonstrate fewer joint projects. However, the realization of the first region-to-country agreements between the EU and Japan has been started in these areas, too. Finally, environmental protection as an area of bilateral cooperation is mainly represented by the coordination of the parties’ international policies. The research also demonstrates that the EU is the initiator and an active party of the cooperation. Meanwhile, Japan accepts the initiatives of its partner and can use the situation in order to fulfill its interests. At the same time, the cooperation is potentially beneficial for both partners, thanks to their compatible level of economic development and common interests.

The article overviews the COVID-19 situation in Japan and its impact on the country's economy. As of the beginning of August 2021, the cumulative cases of coronavirus in Japan reached 0.9 million, of which about 15 thousand were lethal. At the same time, the cumulative cases in the world exceeded 198 million, and deaths - 4.2 million. The top five countries in terms of cumulative cases include the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, and France. According to this indicator, Japan ranks 33^rd in the world. In Japan, the COVID-19 situation is not as serious as in the abovementioned states. However, its economy has also suffered significant damage. Japan's GDP decreased by 4.7 % in 2020 (its decline was estimated in the range from 4.7 to 7.3 %). Three additional budgets to finance anti-crisis packages have increased state budget borrowings. As a result, the share of borrowings amounted to 64.1 %, which is significantly higher than in 2009 (52.1 %) - the year of the global financial crisis. Unemployment increased for the first time in 11 years, and automotive industry, tourism, and public catering were among the industries most affected by the pandemic. The Olympic Games in Tokyo were held without spectators (both foreign and local), and local firms could not gain the 4 trillion yen which was estimated to be the expenses of foreign tourists. The pandemic also had a negative impact on value chains, reducing Japan's foreign trade in the first half of 2020. However, its dynamics recovered quickly. COVID-19 caused an increase in online trade, and also provoked a "restructuring" of the national labor market (due to anti-epidemic measures, the share of remote workers has significantly increased). In general, the pandemic has had a negative impact on the economy and society of Japan. But the national government sees an opportunity in every crisis. Thus, it is expected that one of the consequences of the pandemic will be structural changes in the economy, and local firms will invest more in digitalization and green technologies.

The claim that the center of world economic and political life is moving to the Asia-Pacific region (APR) has been thoroughly reinforced over the past two and a half years in the form of two competing integration megaprojects: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (СPTPP, formerly TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RСEP). In the future, due to their gigantic scale, these integration megaprojects can radically change the trade and economic landscape not only in Asia, but also in the world as a whole. Japan, as the second economic power in Asia and the third one in the world, intends to make the most effective use of both the СPTPP and the RСEP in order to solve its economic problems, as well as strengthen its own economic and political positions both on the regional and global levels. To do this, Tokyo is striving to take a leading position in both partnerships. Japan's success in achieving its goals in the СPTPP and the RСEP will largely depend on the further course in relation to both integration megaprojects of China and the United States, as well as building its own bilateral trade, economic, and political relations with both world powers. Tokyo believes that the course of the Donald Trump administration to withdraw from the TPP was a mistake and encourages the Joe Biden administration to return to this integration structure. At the same time, Japan takes a very cautious position about the possible entry of China into the СPTPP. Both projects (especially the RСEP), as well as their significance for Japan, have not yet received a sufficiently broad and deep understanding in the Russian academic literature in the form of monographic studies or articles. At the same time, much more attention is paid to the two new integration megaprojects in Japan and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The article analyzes the views of Japanese and other foreign politicians and experts on the СPTTP and the RСEP, and an attempt is made to identify the role and significance of both projects for Japan and other states.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has spurred the emergence of a number of new technologies, including the deepfake technology, which allows synthesizing very realistic fake video and audio content. This technology, which appeared quite recently, in 2017, has rapidly advanced in just a few years: fake content has become more realistic, deepfake applications have become cheaper and more accessible, allowing users without special computer qualifications to synthesize fake videos in a matter of seconds. It has resulted in the exponential growth of deepfakes in cyberspace. Opening up fundamentally new opportunities for a whole range of industries (advertising and media, entertainment and games, film industry, medicine, etc.), this technology can also be used by malevolent actors for criminal purposes, for information and psychological attacks on the population, and also for deliberately harming state-to-state relations. The risks of malicious use of deepfakes are as real as the benefits of using them. In a number of countries, deepfake technology is already seen as presenting a variety of challenges to national security and information and psychological security in the years to come. This article provides a general overview of the scale and spheres of deepfake usage, the prospects and already registered cases of the malicious use of deepfake technology in the political sphere, and also assesses the risks of malicious use of this technology for Japan and the risk perception by Tokyo.

In the 20th century, relations between Japan and Southeast Asia experienced several dramatic ups and downs. Japan was the first non-European country that in the late 1930s presented its own vision of the regional order in Asia. The consequences of its realization proved to be painful both for Japan itself and for its neighbors. After the Japanese defeat in the World War II, the historical memory of Japan as an aggressor became a part and parcel of political and social consciousness of many states of the region. However, within the second part of the 20th century, Japan had managed to radically transform this perception in Southeast Asia, turning itself into a leading macro-regional power. This transformation did not come without difficulties but eventually resulted in a successful overcoming of the World War II legacy and made Japan one of the most welcomed alternative forces amidst the rising Sino-US contradictions. A new wave of proactive relations between Japan and Southeast Asia took place against the background of China’s economic rise and was connected with the advancement of the Japanese version of the Indo-Pacific as a reaction to China’s rise. This article argues that Japan’s success in its relations with Southeast Asia had several reasons. The first one was the reassessment of the Japanese structural role in the region (from a militarist force pushing for a hierarchical regional order into a power which managed to organize regional development based on the network type of connections). Others included the progressive dynamics of institutional interaction with ASEAN and targeted cooperation in the areas where Japanese interests coincided or were significantly close to the interests of Southeast Asian states. Despite the fact that Russia can hardly repeat Japanese success in developing its relations with Southeast Asia, certain elements of it are well worth taking note of.

The article reviews the book in two volumes by Ludmila M. Ermakova “When Heaven and Earth Opened” (Ermakova, L.M. (2020). Kogda raskrylis' Nebo i Zemlya. Mif, ritual, poeziya rannei Yaponii [When Heaven and Earth Opened. Myth, ritual, poetry of early Japan]. Moscow: Nauka - Vostochnaya Literatura. Vol. I. Research. ISBN 978-5-02-039868-9. Vol. II. Translations. ISBN 978-5-02-039869-6. (In Russian).). The first volume includes both new research by the scholar and some previously published works, revised and enlarged for the present edition. They are devoted to the problems of myth, archaic ritual, and early poetry of Japan. The review notes that all L. Ermakova’s research, without exception, includes reviews of modern Japanese and Western historiography of the problems, as well as a retrospective view of the phenomena, including their manifestations in modern life. The second volume of the edition presents the translations of four important texts of Japanese antiquity: “Nihon Shoki”, “Norito” (“Engishiki”), “Semmyō” (“Shokunihongi”) and “Yamato-hime-no Mikoto Seiki” with prefaces and detailed commentaries. The review emphasizes the original approach of L.M. Ermakova to any problem, deep penetration into it, and her broadest erudition.