Japan's intervention in Siberia is one of the dark pages in the history of bilateral relations as well as of Japan's foreign policy. Japanese, American and Soviet archives give a better understanding of how this adventurous enterprise has begun and what forces and interests have worked behind it.

This book features conversations between Donald Keene, a preeminent scholar of Japanese literature, and Shiba Ryotaro, an author who continued to contemplate the human condition through his original and distinctive lens of history. These talks-which mainly explore the foundation of Japanese culture-took place in Japanese on three occasions in 1971, in the historic cities of Nara, Kyoto and Osaka. Drawing on their profound insights into Japan's relations with foreign cultures over the course of Japanese history, the two engage in a passionate discussion of their first-hand impressions and observations of Japanese culture. This article contains a translation of the third chapter of the book “The People and Culture of Japan”. In the third chapter, culture and art of the Muromachi period is being discussed. The main attention in the conversation is given to the formation of the aesthetic principles of this time, which influenced the further development of Japanese culture. Reflecting on the features of the concept of beauty “in Japanese”, the interlocutors consider the features of the Golden Temple and the Silver Pavilion, Japanese architecture, painting and ceramics. Donald Keene is a Japanologist who has published about 25 books in English on Japanese topics, including both studies of Japanese literature and culture and translations of Japanese classical and modern literature, including a four-volume history of Japanese literature. Keene has also published about 30 books in Japanese, some of which have been translated from English. He is President of the Donald Keene Foundation for Japanese Culture. He received the Medal of Culture in 2008. Shiba Ryotaro was born in Osaka in 1923, and graduated from the Mongolian department at the Osaka Foreign Language School. In 1960, while working as a newspaper reporter, he received the Naoki Prize for his first novel “Fukuro-no shiro” (Castle of Owls), after which he became a full-time novelist. He has received many other awards, including the Japan Art Academy’s Imperial Award, for his numerous historical works such as “Kukai-no fukei” (Kukai the Universal: Scenes from his Life). He received the Order of Culture in 1993. Other prominent publications include “Ryoma-ga yuku” (Ryoma Goes his Way), “Kaido-wo yuku” (On the Highway), “Kono Kuni-no Katachi” (The Form of Our Country), and “Saka-no ue-no kumo”(Clouds above the Hill). He died in February 1996.

Despite the economic difficulties of the last two and a half decades, Japan remains to be one of the richest countries in the world. In addition, it is also one of the most prosperous countries - both in terms of distribution of the results of economic growth among the population, as well as by a number of characteristics of the standard of living. The article examines the influence of education democratization, the ideology of lifetime employment, government policies to equalize revenues and support weak sectors and others on the formation of the middle class. The basic indicators of standard of living of the Japanese are given.

The article presents an unpublished primary source regarding Adam Laxman’s expedition to Japan - a journal written by one of the members of the expedition, the copy of which is being held in the collection of the Russian State Historical Archive. An attempt is made to determine the authorship of the journal, to compare its contents with those of other primary sources concerning Adam Laxman’s expedition, and to consider the significance of the journal for further research.

The refined expressiveness of Japanese Art is known all over the world, but it is almost unknown, that the conception of Art and the word itself appeared in Japan only in the second half of the 19th century. The origin of the implicit nature of Art in Japan can be found in some peculiarities of the worldview of the Japanese. The same points predetermined the role and significance of actually existed, but not realised as such, the Art, as well as the criteria of the artistry and aesthetic ideals.

The decision of the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe to hold in October 2017 pre-term parliamentary elections has caused controversy in the country. However, the ruling coalition led by Abe won a landslide victory, while the opposition camp failed to counter effectively. This will allow Abe to pursue more consistently and resolutely his goals in domestic and foreign policy, as well as economy.

The article has been prepared on the occasion of the 125^th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai A. Nevsky (1892-1937), a Russian linguist, folklorist and ethnographer of genius who spent 14 years (1915-29) in Japan. It illustrates new findings, publications, and research on his life and legacy carried out in the last decade. For the first time Nevsky’s archive in Tenri University Library, Japan is being considered in detail.