The article deals with the Japanese medical presence in the Russian Far East in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. It has been found that, during the Meiji period (1868–1912), as a part of the modernization in Japan, there was an active development and introduction of Western dental technologies into everyday life. Following global trends, the Japanese government set a course on the standard-setting regulation of the training and professional activities of specialists in the field of dentistry. The authors believe that dentistry in Japan has passed the way from traditional healing practices to medical science and medical specialty in a short period of time due to the borrowing of Western technologies. The article reveals the causes and features of labor migration of Japanese dentists to Russia. Russian authorities did not interfere in labor migration. However, the law did not provide for private dental practice by foreigners without passing an exam at a university medical faculty. Nevertheless, many Japanese specialists were able to legalize their activities. Using the example of the identified historical characters and their activities, a picture of the organization and provision of dental care to the population by Japanese migrants is being described. The authors argue that Japanese dentists were acting within the framework of Russian legislation and were limited in their professional work. They also applied Western technologies of treatment and prosthetics. Flexible pricing policy, a wide range of materials and technologies, relevant skills and personal qualities made it possible for Japanese dentists to earn the trust of patients and provided them with high material well-being. The researchers were unable to find examples of scientific, practical, or educational interaction between Russian and Japanese specialists in the field of dentistry during the studied period. The Japanese living in the Russian Far East did not aspire to legalize their activities completely by passing exams at Russian universities. The authors suppose that it was due to insufficient knowledge of the Russian language, high financial and time costs, geographic remoteness of the region from educational and scientific centers, and lack of plans for a permanent stay in Russia.

This paper uses an ad hoc corpus of an acknowledged translation of a play by Anton Chekhov to study means of expressing causality in Russian and Japanese discourse. Lexemic distribution of corresponding connectives in the bilingual text appears to be much wider and less ordered than that of the dictionary, reflecting trends in cognitive, illocutionary and meta-use of connectives, that have been broadly acknowledged in linguistic literature. This study confirms a consistent feature of connectives as being pragmatically, rather than semantically determined, resulting in a broad and various distribution. On the other hand, pragmatically oriented connectives become a powerful help for the translator who generally seeks additional means to cover up inevitable lacunae between two linguistically rooted mental realities.
The most striking discovery, however, lies in the obvious disproportion of referring to causality in spoken speech between Russian and Japanese speakers. The Japanese appear to make extensive use of explicit causality relations in order to strengthen their stance vis-à-vis their counterpart in conversation. This is performed either through appealing to universal logic or eliciting compassion to one’s personal circumstances, thus exploiting a mindset strongly favoring rationality while playing for empathy under the cooperation maxim. Contrarily, Russians, generally less accommodating and in a high-context language game of a different sort, seem set on downplaying references to causal relations, relegating them to vaguer types of connectives (AND type) or omitting them completely, with one notable exception in mention negative results of an undesired action. This tentative conclusion, of course, awaits confirmation on a wider range of newer data, calling for further study in the field of contrastive rhetoric and creation of more bilingual corpora.

The paper investigates why political representation of women in the Japanese Diet has not progressed as anticipated. Although Womenomics policies have been implemented successfully by the government in recent years in Japan, it has been argued that Womenomics policy does not adequately address
other aspects of female representation, including women’s political participation. To examine this, the current study, which is based on a qualitative research method, used semi-structured interviews with women MPs from several different political parties in Japan and with academics specializing in women’s issues and Japanese politics. Based on these interviews, it was noted that the patriarchal social structure still prevalent in Japan was the main barrier to understanding the significance of women’s political representation in Japan, suggesting that there has been no advancement in the representation of women in politics as a result of an inability to appreciate the value of women’s involvement in politics. However, an ongoing failure to remove the barriers that prevent women who are interested in politics from taking part in political life from doing so is another
reason why women’s political representation has not improved in Japan. Component investigation of this can be assessed across three stages. Women’s interest in politics is the first of these, as women specifically struggle
with issues such as a lack of family and spousal support. In the second stage, the systemic limitations that affect women’s political decisions and interests, include the extreme overworking culture in Japan and the lack of female role models in politics must be considered. The male-dominated political system and party structures that effectively prevent women from participating in politics after they have passed the first two stages of entry to the Diet must then be seen as a third set of barriers.

The article analyzes the Buddhist vegetarian cuisine of the Ōbaku Zen school called fucha ryōri and its history in Japan from its inception in Nagasaki with Chinese monks to the present day. The Ōbaku school, the third branch of Japanese Zen Buddhism, which appeared after Rinzai and Sōtō, was established in Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) by Chinese emigrants led by Ingen Ryūki (1592–1673), who arrived to the islands in 1654. Despite the fact that Ōbaku did not make a significant revolution in Japanese Buddhist community, its ceremonial, routine, and cultural aspects of the teaching, imbued with novelty and otherness, attracted Japanese people, since they made it possible to learn a different culture, and significantly influenced the unique image of the Edo era. This also applies to fucha ryōri cuisine, which, being part of the Buddhist teaching, adhered to the same basic principles as the Japanese Buddhist cuisine shōjin ryōri, but had distinctive features related to both the menu and the ceremonial, preserved even now, more than three centuries later.
The article describes the origins of fucha ryōri in Japan in its connection with the teachings of Ōbaku Zen, its traditional features that have become key characteristics, as well as the assimilation of fucha ryōri into a foreign cultural environment. Particular attention is paid to the description of the original menu, the color, taste, and methodological symbolism of the cuisine, the rules for serving fucha ryōri dishes, which, along with obvious indulgences in the diet (the abundant use of oil and kuzu starch), distinguished it from shōjin ryōri. The author concludes that the cooking of the Ōbaku monks brought a significant number of innovations to the Japanese diet, ranging from acquaintance with beans, bamboo sprouts, lotus roots, the popularization of the alternative tea tradition, and ending with the introduction of new variations of already familiar dishes into daily diet. At present, shōjin ryōri, enriched with local elements, is prepared not only in the temples of Ōbaku, but also in secular restaurants, and any guest interested in vegetarian cuisine can appreciate the taste and harmony of the centuries-old traditions of the two countries and modern ideas.

The article addresses the current problems of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, the origins of which should be sought in the post-war history of the Ryukyu Islands, which were put under the occupation of the United States in 1945–1972. The authors have identified several problems that remain unresolved after Japan regained all legal and administrative rights to Okinawa in 1972. These issues include the economic development of Okinawa lagging behind the so-called “Japan proper” and the high concentration of American military bases and American servicepersons, which also exerts negative influence on the environmental and security situations in the island. Currently, more than 70% of all US military bases in Japan are located in Okinawa Prefecture. Against the background of emerging threats to regional and national security of Japan, which are associated with China’s growing military power and its territorial claims against Japan, as well as fears of change of the global order due to Russia conducting the special military operation in Ukraine and the escalation of tensions over Taiwan, the government of Japan tends to continue fulfilling their allied obligations to the United States. In this regard, the reduction of US military presence in Okinawa seems unlikely. On the contrary, future militarization of the region is to be expected. Meanwhile, prefectural authorities and the islands’ residents fear that, in the case of a military conflict, Okinawa will be the main target of enemy strikes. The results of public opinion polls of Okinawa residents, which have been conducted since the 1970s to the present times, show that, while the level of public support for the reversion of Okinawa to Japan is high, at the same time, dissatisfaction with the presence of US military bases in Okinawa persists. Most Okinawans support either a complete withdrawal of military facilities from the territory of the prefecture, or a fair division of the burden of US military bases’ presence with other prefectures, emphasizing their own distinct identity.

The article is devoted to military and political events in the Far East on the eve and at the beginning of World War II, namely, German-Japanese relations. The rapprochement of Germany and Japan during this period had a serious geopolitical reason, which consisted in the attitude of both countries towards the Soviet Union. It was a common military and political goal for both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The presence of such an external enemy led to the creation of a German-Japanese military-political alliance, which, however, could not overcome the geographical remoteness of both countries, as well as the partners’ wary attitude towards mutual ambitions in the Asia Pacific region. A huge role in the development of military-political relations between Germany and Japan was played by their military diplomats operating in Tokyo and Berlin. Military-political cooperation between the two countries did not stop until April 1945 and was represented not only by the conclusion of bilateral agreements, contacts with the top leadership of Germany and Japan, and the exchange of intelligence information, but also by the organization of delivery of military supplies, which, however, did not have any real significance. Central to the article is the analysis of reports of German military attachés accredited to the German embassy in Tokyo. These documents are deposited in the captured archival funds, which are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Most of these documents are reviews of military operations during the Sino-Japanese War, as well as data on the armed forces of Japan and the army of the central government of China (Kuomintang). Some of the materials contain intelligence information about the Red Army and the Soviet military forces in the Far East. The Authors did not set themselves the goal of recreating the full picture of military-political cooperation between Germany and Japan in the pre-war period and during the Second World War, but rather limited themselves to analyzing the reflection of this topic in the reports of German military attachés from Tokyo.

The article analyzes the current problems and directions of modernization of Japanese corporate governance, as they are interpreted in the state strategy of socio-economic development, as well as analytical documents of leading business organizations in Japan.
The transformation of the traditional model of Japanese management, which developed during the period of high economic growth (the second half of the 1950s – early 1970s), was taking place constantly and gradually as companies adapted to external changes and accepted some features of Western models.
By the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the Japanese business had already been significantly reformed. The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, increasing uncertainty in the global economic space, and geopolitical tensions have accelerated the processes of change.
The changes affected many areas of corporate governance – the valuation of companies, the structure of funding sources, investor relations, financial and accounting reporting systems, the system of crossownership of shares, appointment of top managers and their remuneration, financial disclosure. In the system of management priorities, the status of shareholders has increased, which has affected both the distribution of profits and the opportunities for investment in strategic areas.
The government’s Strategy for the Formation of “New Capitalism” 2022 names a number of problematic areas of corporate governance – the efficiency of capital use, its distribution, the value of companies, human resource management, innovation and technological development.
The Government proposed the concept of “post-neoliberal” capitalism – the capitalism of “stakeholders.” However, in the case of Japan, this concept is only partially new. Many of the projected and proposed changes do not contradict the traditional practice of Japanese business, especially in terms of the expanded composition of stakeholders, social responsibility of business, long-term planning horizon and investment in strategic areas of growth, personnel development. Of course, traditional business practices will acquire new features while taking into account the current situation, i.e., there is a spiral development, which is very typical for Japan, as well as partnership of the state and business, which is also a Japanese tradition.

This article is a review of the book “Foreign Policy Process in Post-War Japan” by V.V. Nelidov, published in 2022 at the Institute of Oriental Studies. The specifics of the Japanese political system that has developed during the period of the monopoly rule of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955–1993, continues to influence the foreign policy decision making process, and this explains the relevance and practical significance of the monograph. V.V. Nelidov studies the time periods related to the adoption of crucial decisions that would have serious implications for the development of the postwar foreign policy of Japan as well as the formation of its current priorities. In situations that required a prompt response, the complex picture of the interaction of various domestic political forces and individual actors, the influence of external factors became most evident, and the vulnerabilities of the functioning of the state machine were revealed. The monograph by V.V. Nelidov is a valuable piece of research that will be of interest not only to academics and readers who study Japan, but also to those directly involved in formulating Russia’s foreign policy towards Japan.