This paper focuses on Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s views on Japanese aesthetics through the images of ideal women in the writer’s landmark work Each to His Own (蓼食う虫, 1929). This novel was being serialized during twelve months in the newspapers Tōkyō Nichinichi Shimbun and Ōsaka Mainichi Shimbun from 1928 to 1929. The novel is a milestone, for it marks Tanizaki’s transition from the “early creative work”, when he admired Western culture and his ideal woman was a “modern girl”, a follower of Western culture, to the “late creative work”, when Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s national identity came to the fore. Having realized that the unique home world in which he had lived his whole life might disappear, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō joined the discourse of that time with his ideas of beauty. He used his literature as a tool to disseminate his ideas and to shape national concepts. However, the national question was just purely aesthetic for the writer. The novel reflects both the writer’s personal drama - a rather complicated relationship with his first wife Chiyoko - and his first attempt to demonstrate the loss of interest in Western aesthetics through the protagonist’s loss of sexual attraction to his West-oriented wife. In his essay “Love and Sensuality” (恋愛及び色情, Ren’ai oyobi shikijoū ) written in 1931, in which Tanizaki Jun’ichirō invited the Japanese to rethink their views on the traditional conception of life, he clearly stated that, in Each to His Own , he described his own philosophical ideas and his new feminine ideal of a “doll-like” woman of the past. The novel fits into the general trend of the late 1920s, when the whole Japanese culture had a tendency of a ‘return to Japan’. This is also due to the fatigue caused by the inferiority complex towards the West from which Japan had been suffering for a long time.

This paper is devoted to the problems of studying and perception of the Japanese military intervention in the Far East and Siberia regions during the Russian Civil War in modern historical literature. The work discusses the relationship of the development of historiography of Russo-Japanese relations with public perceptions and targeted propaganda by political elites and authorities. Due to the peculiarities of Russia's geopolitical position, all the problems of international relations in the Far East region were considered through the lens of the country's territorial integrity. During the Civil War, the Bolsheviks successfully used anti-Japanese phobias to fight political opponents. The political propaganda attitudes formed in the Civil War and subsequent events of the Soviet-Japanese confrontation in the 1930s were transferred to the works on the history of Japanese military intervention. During the Soviet period, rather than studying the events and problems, historians focused on interpreting the official statements and the positions of the party and Soviet leaders. This trend is generally preserved in the post-Soviet historical studies too. The paper details the works of Russian historians and Japanese scholars over the past three years. A number of interesting studies are noted, for example, the works by the Japanese studies scholar K.O. Sarkisov, historians A.G. Teplyakov, F.A. Popov and others. In general, due to the lack of public demand and the inaccessibility of the documents, Russian historians do not tackle the topic even despite there being the occasion of the centenary of the events. The current level of studies of the history of Japanese military intervention in Russia remains at the level reached back in the 1930s. This situation reflects both the problems of Russian historical science and the current situation in Russo-Japanese relations.

Shrinking population, including working age population is one of the most acute problems for Japan. Most countries solve the problem of labor shortage by actively attracting labor migrants to the country. However, Japan - one of the most mono-ethnic countries in the world - is known for its strict migration law. The migration balance in 2018 amounted to a little more than 160 thousand people, despite the fact that in order to stabilize the population, the influx of people into the country should be about 500 thousand annually. This situation is largely caused by limited migration attractiveness of Japan, where migrants still often face violations of their rights, difficulties in renting housing, employment and in everyday life due to the language barrier, complexity of administrative procedures and socio-cultural characteristics of Japanese society. Given the demographic trends, the use of labor migration to fill the shortage of labor in Japan seems to be not only reasonable, but also an uncontested option. That is why the migration policy of Japan has become one of the most important issues with regard to the well-being of the Land of the Rising Sun during the premiership of Shinzō Abe, who decided to gradually move to liberalize the migration legislation. Since 2012, initiatives and goals of the Abe administration in the field of immigration control have, in fact, affected all categories of migrants - highly qualified specialists, students, low-skilled workers, middle-skilled workers, and illegal immigrants. The article will examine what measures are being taken to attract foreigners and how liberalization of migration legislation correlates with the growth strategy of Japan - Abenomics.

The incense culture in the Japanese archipelago dates back almost one and a half millennia in terms of its development since the discovery of the agarwood bar in 595 off the coast of Awaji Island. In a relatively short period of time, aromatic wood has gone from an exotic phenomenon of mainland culture into becoming one of Japan’s most important items of trade and economic relations with the countries of East Asia. The value of karamono (“things from China”) goods, which, among other things, included incense and tools for its burning, can hardly be overestimated: these were not merely “luxury goods” accessible to the privileged social classes, but rather full-fledged vehicles of continental culture influence. Aromatic wood was used in medicine, religious practices, and in everyday life. Over time, under the influence of Buddhism and the principles of aristocratic and samurai ideology, the use of incense turned not only into a traditional art, but also into a symbol of the national culture of Japan. Based on the analysis of written and artistic Japanese sources, as well as field studies, this article explores the classification of aromatic wood species of the agarwood tree (aquilaria), which played a key role in Japanese culture in the Middle Ages and the Modern Period. These classifications are still being used in assessing the quality of wood and wood products. Medieval Japanese masters invented ways of encoding aromas of fragrant wood through the characteristics of tastes and the place of growth of aromatic trees, as well as through the figurative, symbolic, and metaphorical meaning of each name.

The article discusses the modan gāru phenomenon, which existed in Japan for about ten years, from 1920 to 1930. During this time, many intellectuals, writers, and critics contemplated this phenomenon, as it was completely unprecedented and incomprehensible in Japanese society. In Japan, between the First and Second World Wars, due to technological progress, industrial development, and the accelerated process of urbanization, the way of everyday life was rethought and redefined. Urbanization in Japan in the late 1910s and 1920s occurred with Europeanization. After the First World War, a new wave of fascination with the West rushed into Japan. Social changes of this time caused the dynamization of the image of the Japanese woman. This is how liberated, self-confident, strong-willed, energetic women appeared. In the media, women began to appear in the images of cafe waitresses, dancers, and saleswomen. Having become icons of a modern city, they walked around the shopping malls, had conversations in cafes, went to the cinema, did various sports, and traveled in buses and trams. The modern lifestyle of the 1920s-30s dictated new changes in the appearance of young girls: their clothes and hairstyle changed. Modan gāru , often compared to American flappers, wore colorful European outfits, high heels, short haircuts, and various accessories. Japanese society, trying to preserve the concept of ryo:sai kenbo (良妻賢母, «good wife, wise mother»), did not want to see young girls who were independent and free from family obligations and who spent their free time in the cinema, cafes, and dancefloors. Modan gāru never stood for women's rights, never belonged to the number of suffragists. But, despite this, they did not want to stay oppressed under male control. Modan gāru liberated themselves from age-old conventions and traditions, achieved financial independence, and were no longer inferior to men.

Taiwan, a former colony of Japan (1895-1945), due to a host of different factors, still remains one of the few regions that doesn’t place an emphasis on the negative sides of a rather long period of colonial rule. Though the problems of the historical past do not have a great impact on developing the traditionally close relations between Japan and Taiwan, they play an important role in forming the “Taiwanese identity” and are closely related to current issues of foreign and domestic policy of the Republic of China. The still ongoing feud between Mainland China and Taiwan, coupled with the current international political situation, in their turn, also have an effect on the evaluations of the colonial past, the policy of the Japanese Empire in the first part of the 20th century, and the perception of contemporary Japan in Taiwan. The article discusses approaches of Taiwanese authorities to problems of the historical past under president Ma Yingjiu (2008-2016) - the period when Kuomintang built up similarly good relations with Japan and China on the basis of a new conception of “Taiwanese identity”. Making an effort to harmonize pro-unification and pro-independence parties, the president tried to form in Taiwanese society a balanced approach to understanding the Japanese and Chinese periods of Taiwanese history, as well as the role of Japan in the formation of the modern Republic of China. Calling himself “the best friend of Japan”, Ma Yingjiu continued to strengthen ties between Tokyo and Taipei, and, at the same time, pursued a hard line in the territorial dispute with Japan - the question of sovereignty over Diaoyudao (釣魚島)/Senkaku islands (or Diaoyutai islands 釣魚臺 as they are called in Taiwan), which reappeared on the agenda of relations between Japan and Taiwan. However, problems of the historical past in the Ma Yingjiu era did not hamper the development of cooperation between Tokyo and Taipei, while the image of Japan remained constantly positive.

The article is dedicated to research on folk symbolism of traditional Japanese zoomorphic toys. Folk toys are an integral part of any nation's traditional culture and have always been considered an essential stage in understanding the world. The toys performed educational functions, familiarized children with natural materials and their properties, helped them master social laws and moral foundations. Folk toys were connected with a variety of economic activities and religious beliefs and performed sacred functions. Zoomorphic toys played a significant role, not only acquainting children and adults with nature and mimicking the appearance of real and fantastic beasts and birds, but often also acting as a “substitute” for a deity, thus acquiring divine power. The latter is highly common for Japanese toys portraying animals. These toys retained folk symbolism to the largest degree. However, this aspect has never been studied specifically. The range of animals that became folk toys in Japan is rather extensive and mainly reflects the traditional Japanese concepts of animals that are still considered symbols of happiness and prosperity. There is a clear syncretism of typological regional concepts of certain animals and the aim of the Japanese folk tradition to demonstrate the priority of national specifics in the selection of animals and in the origins of folk toys. This can probably account for why there are so many folk texts attempting to explain the origins of Japanese zoomorphic folk toys. These are legends and fables that, due to the specifics of the genre, are geared towards the "authenticity" of the story. The toys themselves are an important element confirming the authenticity of folk stories. I.e., there is an evident connection - a folk text explains the origin of a toy, and the toy confirms the truthfulness of the text. Although, in most cases, ceramic and paper animals remained common children toys, they were also given the status of protective children’s amulets that could be used for play or simply placed next to the child. All of this gives folk zoomorphic toys a contemporary edge as a part of life of the modern Japanese.

The article analyzes the collective monograph “Japan in the Era of Great Transformations”, prepared by a remarkable team of Moscow researchers. The monograph was produced by a significant number of authors engaged in the study of various aspects of life of traditional and modern Japan. As a result, we received a comprehensive generalizing study of the politics, economy, and society of Japan over a long historical period from the mid-19th century to the present. The book presents the political and economic changes in society associated with the Meiji Revolution and the construction of totalitarianism, analyzes in detail the democratic change imposed on the country under the Occupation, and demonstrates the current basic trends in Japanese life. The authors of the book draw the reader's attention to the most significant and obvious periods of reform and transformation.