Dōgen’s idea of the necessity of displaying the Buddha-nature everywhere and every moment of one’s life is the basis of his texts. “Senjō” with its rules for going to the toilet becomes a real sermon on how to save sentient beings. In the publication Dōgen’s conception is analysed within the context of Japanese Buddhism of the XIII^th c.

This paper covers the principal speech tactics used by Japanese speakers in directive context as they are represented by adverbs and adverbials of illocutive force ( narubeku , dekiru dake , kanarazu , zehi , zettai-ni , dooshitemo , nantoka , dooka , nanitozo , doozo , yoroshiku , yokute , ii kara ). The object of study is samples of typical directive speech situations, derived from corpus data. We use standard methods and tools of discourse analysis, politeness and speech act theory. As a result we have been able to posit such tactics as reference to norms and conventions, appealing to the addressee’s good faith and necessary ingroup cooperation, stating benefits and straightforward acknowledging of them, accepting addressee’s autonomy of decision, as well as negative sanctions in case of non-acceptance. All of these indeed form a language community member’s features while at the same time can be considered as grounds for comparison or generalization concerning proactive, socially meaningful use of language.

Japan, being the world’s biggest creditor, still remains relatively closed to foreign capital flows, particularly in the form of FDI. One of the key aspects of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s new economic policy is active attraction of FDI to Japanese economy. It is important not only to carry out economic reforms but to change ‘isolationistic’ mentality of the Japanese nation which has been formed due to the country’s insularity.

The article deals with the problem of promoting food self-sufficiency ratio in Japanese agriculture. The main measures to solve this problem are the following: reduction of cultivation of particular crops and expansion of others; the strategy of promoting export of agriculture, forestry and fishery products and foodstuffss; iniciating activity of Japanese companies to farm abroad. The author also analyses the prospects of agriculture development in connection with the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact.

The article examines the latest trends in Japanese historians’ studies of the origin and authorship of Koyogunkan , an important source of research of Japanese history, compiled during the Sengoku period (the last third of the XV - the end of the XVI century). In Japanese academic circles Koyogunkan for a long time has been perceived as an unreliable source. Now there is a definite tendency to depart from conception of the past: despite some inaccuracies in chronology Koyogunkan in many aspects has been recognized as a valid historical record, the potential of which is not yet fully disclosed. The issue of attribution of Koyogunkan remains unresolved. In recent years arguments have been given in favor of an earlier origin of Koyogunkan . Prospective authors and compilers of this narrative have been associated with the samurai who served the Takeda house. Japanese historians believe that Koyogunkan contains valuable information needed for the study of ideology and mentality of warriors during the Sengoku period.

On October 19, 1956 USSR and Japan signed a Joint Declaration which marked the end of the state of war and became a legal foundation for peaceful development of the Soviet-Japanese diplomatic relations. Yet in the year of its 60th Anniversary Article 9 of the said Declaration outlying one of the options for settling the territorial dispute still continues to breed strife between the two countries.