The concept of economic security has received special attention from the Japanese government since 2019: several specialized state agencies have been created, and in May 2022 the Diet approved the Act on Provision of Economic Security. Economic security-related notions have also been included in the new National Security Strategy, published in December 2022. In this document, economic security is defined as protection of ‘Japan’s national interests, such as peace, security, and economic prosperity, by carrying out economic measures.’ It shall be noted that the current understanding of economic security is different from the one previously assumed, which was largely concerned with the provision of natural resources and food. We observe the concrete measures proposed in connection with the concept of economic security and highlight that the new understanding of the concept has been introduced in relation to the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, in which Japan supports the U.S. in its efforts against the certain advanced-tech companies from China. From the point of view of the securitization theory, claims that certain industries of the PRC’s economy present a threat to Japan’s security could be seen as ‘speech-acts’ aiming to legitimize the employment of extraordinary political measures. We emphasize that the apparent success of such speech-acts is grounded in the Japanese experts’ assessment that there are emergent technologies with the possibility of dual commercial and military use. In conclusion, we examine the securitization of China’s economy by the Japanese government in its current regional and global context and argue that it could be interpreted both as a signal to the U.S. and as an attempt to gain leverage in the competition between the Japanese and the Chinese infrastructural projects in the Asia-Pacific.
The article describes the main stages and characteristics of Japanese-Korean and Japanese- Chinese relations in the Muromachi era (1333–1573). From an international relations perspective, it is an extremely important period – after six centuries, formal relations with China (Ming) and Korea (Choson) were reestablished (relations with the Korean state of Silla were interrupted in 779; the last Japanese embassy to Tang China was sent in 838), and East Asia in general experienced an explosive growth of international trade. In the early Muromachi period, Japan maintained overseas relations only with Ryukyu. Despite the sincere desire of the Ashikaga shoguns to reestablish formal relations with China (Ming) and Korea (Choson), it happened only at the beginning of the 15th century. The article deals with the main reasons why the restoration process turned out to be so long and complicated. Japan-Ming and Japan- Choson relations had both similarities and their own characteristics. There were also dramatic turns in both Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-Korean relations: breaking of diplomatic relations with Ming China under Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, and even a military invasion of the Tsushima Island by Korean fleet in 1419. In Russian historiography, this topic is almost not developed, and therefore, at this stage, it seems important to characterize the key events and features of the Japanese interaction with the outside world using the example of its main partners, China and Korea. Meanwhile, a number of features of Japan’s interaction with the outside world during the Tokugawa period are rooted in the Muromachi period or inherit common East Asian cultural patterns.
The present study is an inquiry into the current state of Japanese diplomatic service and its distinctive features. The author makes use of the latest Japanese-language primary and secondary sources in his analysis that are rarely employed in Russian Japanology. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan is the main government body responsible for Japan’s foreign affairs and its diplomatic service. The Ministry’s work is based on a number of laws mostly enacted in the 20th century, though all of them have gone through a series of amendments. Since these laws provide for only a necessary framework with little detail, their implementation lies in the hands of bureaucracy, which allows for a swift response to changes that may occur by adapting the structure of the Ministry and creating ad hoc chambers without amending the basic laws. This is of paramount importance given the turbulent state of global affairs and Japanese leaders’ bid to elevate Japan to a top-tier cohort in the international arena. To address the challenge, the Japanese leadership has made the Foreign Ministry more accountable and dependent on the ruling party and the prime minister, reflecting Prime Minister Abe’s long-standing desire to act with fewer constraints on the side of bureaucracy. At the same time, the Japanese diplomatic service has faced quite a few issues. Over the last decade, new embassies have been established, and their functions have been greatly bolstered, most prominently regarding the support for Japanese companies’ expansion overseas. However, the Ministry’s ranks fail to expand quickly enough to offset the amount of work to be done. The annual intake to the Ministry stands at about 80 ‘generalists’ and ‘specialists.’ The understaffed diplomatic service runs the risks of becoming overwhelmed and thus ineffective. While the leadership is aware of the problem, it is yet unclear how exactly the problem is to be tackled.
This article, based on Japanese sources, discusses the question of how the Ainu language interpreters’ guild was formed, what functions translators performed, and how their status changed in the period from the 17th to the 18th centuries. During this time, Japan pursued the policy of self-isolation, and all contacts with the outside world were closely controlled by the government. However, in the places where contact with foreign culture did occur, interpreters were needed. So, there were interpreters of Chinese, Korean, and Dutch languages. In the island of Hokkaido, where trade with the local Ainu took place, the interpreters of Ainu language were needed. In this article, the history of Ainu language interpreters and their first appearance is researched based on Japanese archive materials. The research also focuses on the functions the interpreters performed and their status in Japanese society at the time. There was a separate category of interpreters of the Ainu language in Matsumae, who were involved exclusively in important official events of the Matsumae clan. Their functions and positions in society, as well as the first mentions of Ainu language experts who succeeded in their profession, are also examined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the status and functions of the interpreters of the Ainu language in Ezo at the beginning of the 18th century, when a new basho trading system was introduced in Japan. The subject of the Ezo interpreters’ level of command of the Ainu language is also in the focus of the research. The study mentions the attempts to compile the first dictionaries of the Ainu language and the difficulties that came with it. The author concludes that the functions of interpreters of the Ainu language have undergone tremendous changes. In the 17th century, the services of interpreters were used only for the occasions of trade, as well as ceremonies of welcoming or escorting a ship. By the end of the 18th century, they stood at the forefront of the Japanese control of the Ainu. Their rights and obligations were so extensive that, in fact, they, as representatives of local authorities, completely controlled the Ainu people.
The article analyzes the current state of the emerging low-carbon hydrogen market in terms of its main parameters: capacity, geographical segments, technologies, investments, and announced projects. Estimates for the development of the low-carbon hydrogen market up to 2050 have been summarized. Barriers to its development and the reasons for different estimates of market capacity have been identified. There are three large-scale geographic market segments: the Asia-Pacific region, North America, and the European Union. The reasons why the energy transition in Japan will be based on low-carbon hydrogen are described. Japan’s state policy in this area is supported by investments and institutional conditions. The timeline of Japan’s energy policy development shows the determination to create a hydrogen economy. The goals of Japan’s international cooperation are to solve the problems of resource provision (agreements with potential exporters of hydrogen and countries provided with resources necessary for the production of new materials and equipment within the entire technological chain of hydrogen production) and to search for markets for Japanese hydrogen technologies. Japan’s main agreements with countries and regions of the world in this area and large-scale projects implemented to date in terms of creating international hydrogen supply chains are systematized. The role of Japan as an initiator of the development of international interactions and the formation of a global market for low-carbon hydrogen, as well as a market leader in terms of public policy, availability of technology, large-scale investment and international cooperation is substantiated. It has been determined that Japan’s high activity in international projects and agreements on the development of hydrogen technologies and hydrogen supply chains determines the country’s leading role in stimulating the development of the global hydrogen market at the current stage. Japan’s activity is leading to an increase in the number of international cooperation agreements, recognition by other countries of the key role of hydrogen in the energy transition, and the adoption by more and more countries of their national hydrogen strategies. It was revealed that due to the high cost of Japanese equipment used in the production of “green” hydrogen, the country is likely to lose in competition for market niches in the global hydrogen market.
This article analyzes a range of sociocultural aspects that influence the formation, development and dynamics of consumer behavior among youth in contemporary Japanese society. The authors note that, while the modern context (technology, media) influences the consumer behavior of Japanese youth, traditional values and orientations continue to have an impact on it. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the research is a comprehensive methodology based on Edward T. Hall’s theory of high-context and low-context cultures, which is applied to characterize the stage of decision-making in the purchase of various products. Additionally, a sociocultural approach was employed, allowing the analysis of consumer behavior aspects such as values, value orientations, behavioral stereotypes, motivations. This approach enabled a more in-depth understanding of the target audience’s needs and preferences, which, in the future, will facilitate the development of effective marketing strategies aligned with the cultural and social norms of consumers. To conduct a more detailed analysis of the brand communications effectiveness with the youth segment of the market, four international companies were selected, representing various approaches to interacting with the target audience: UNIQLO, Comme des Garçons (CDG), ZARA, and Louis Vuitton (LV). These brands were chosen based on their popularity among Japanese consumers according to one of the largest ranking websites, ranking.net. The authors then focused their attention on a thorough analysis of a vast amount of empirical data obtained from various sources, including data from diverse resources, including the report from the World Values Survey Association and news media. They analyzed social networking services (SNS) accounts and official websites of the aforementioned international trading companies. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of in-depth structured interviews with representatives of the Japanese youth, with a total of 11 participants, which allowed for the refinement of the research on certain aspects and the visualization of consumers’ attitudes towards the selected companies in the form of perception maps and word clouds.
The ageing of the population is one of the main challenges Japan is facing. It occurs under the influence of both the economic achievements of the country and the peculiarities of the demographic situation. The article considers three aspects of population ageing – the position of elderly Japanese in the labor market and the problem of their employment, the financial situation and the level of consumption of elderly citizens, as well as the impact of population ageing on the situation in the social security system. The elderly Japanese have become an important reserve of the workforce, which compensates for the reduction in the number of young workers. Their economic activity has significantly increased in the last decade, in particularly due to the purposeful policy of the state, which legislatively establishes rules for extending the employment of workers after reaching the teinen. The incomes of elderly Japanese allow most of them to maintain a fairly high level of consumption, and non-working citizens use their savings for this purpose too. The state policy of smoothing economic inequality in this group, which increases sharply after entering retirement age due to increased diversification of lifestyles, also contributes to maintaining a decent standard of living for older citizens. In general, the absolute and relative growth in the number of senior citizens among Japanese consumers does not lead to a reduction in the volume of the consumer market, although it affects in a certain way the structure of goods and services offered in it. The most obvious negative consequence of the ageing of the population is a sharp increase in the share of spending on senior citizens in the total state spending on the welfare sphere. The main part of their financing is borne by working generations, and the inevitable further change in the ratio between the number of working Japanese and the number of elderly citizens in favor of the latter threatens to further aggravate the problem of financing the country’s welfare system. Considering the tools offered by Japanese specialists, the author believes that Japan will be able to preserve the obvious achievements in the field of social security without overstraining its financing system.
The article examines Japan’s relations with Myanmar at the present stage with an emphasis on their features after the military coup in that country on February 1, 2021. Japan’s ties with the armed forces of Burma, which were created during the Second World War with Japanese assistance, have been preserved for many post-war decades and are still an important factor that predetermined Japan’s special relations with Myanmar. Currently, maintaining informal contacts with the Myanmar military allows Tokyo to claim the role of a “bridge” between Myanmar and Western countries and pursue its own “balanced course” in relation to this country in the face of a clash of geopolitical interests of the main international actors in Myanmar. This coup prompted Tokyo to distance itself somewhat from the ruling regime. However, at the same time, the Japanese Government is pursuing a very flexible policy aimed at preserving its political and economic positions in Myanmar. This is not hindered by the fact that Tokyo’s approaches to Myanmar often conflict with the positions of other Western countries and cause criticism from not only these countries and various international organizations, but also within Japan itself. A powerful pro-Myanmar lobby has been operating in Japan for many decades, personified by the Japan-Myanmar Association. Thanks to the actions of this lobby, as well as the so-called “special relationship” with Myanmar, Japan has become the world’s largest aid donor to this country and one of the leading foreign investors in its economy. Despite the fact that the majority of American and European companies curtailed their activities in Myanmar after the military coup, most Japanese firms, not wanting to lose profitable business, remained in the country, taking a wait-and-see attitude in the hope of the business environment improving. It can be assumed that the rich experience accumulated over many decades in the development of Japan’s relations with Burma/Myanmar, as well as continuing ties with the country’s military elite, will allow the Japanese government to adapt its political and economic ties to Myanmar under any regime in power in this country.
BOOK REVIEW
The monograph by A.N. Meshcheryakov “Terra Nipponica: Habitat and Environment of Imagination” focuses on the description of the Japanese people’s perception of their natural habitat. Analyzing a large number of sources from different historical eras, the author, for the first time in world Japanese studies, tried to consider the evolution of the Japanese views on nature throughout the history of the country. The focus of the work is the analysis of the environment, its size and quality, as well as an attempt to trace the influence of various natural disasters on the formation of a picture of the world. In addition, the monograph examines various models of nature, which are reflected in poetry, gardens, philosophical treatises, and journalism. Considerable attention is paid to the consideration of nature as a means of self-identification of the Japanese.
