Kimie Hara - Japanese-Soviet/Russian Relations since 1945

The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies

Series

Editorial Board

J.A.A.Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of Oxford and Director, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies; Teigo Yoshida, formerly Professor of the University of Tokyo, and now Professor, Obirin University, Tokyo; Frank Langdon, Professor, Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia, Canada; Alan Rix, Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts, The University of Queensland; Junji Banno, Chiba University; Leonard Schoppa, University of Virginia

Other titles in the series:

The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness,

Peter Dale

The Emperors Adviser: Saionji Kinmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics,

Lesley Connors

A History of Japanese Economic Thought,

Tessa Morris-Suzuki

The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System,

Junji Banno, translated by J.A.A. Stockwin

Industrial Relations in Japan: The Peripheral Workforce,

Norma Chalmers

Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the

Occupation,

William M.Tsutsui

Educational Reform in Japan,

Leonard Schoppa

How the Japanese Learn to Work: Second Edition,

Ronald P.Dore and Mari Sako

Japanese Economic Development: Theory and Practice: Second Edition,

Penelope Francks

Japan and Protection: The Growth of Protectionist Sentiment and the

Japanese Response,

Syed Javed Maswood

The Soil, by Nagastsuka Takashi: A Portrait of Rural Life in Meiji Japan,

translated and with an introduction by Ann Waswo

Biotechnology in Japan,

Malcolm Brock

Britains Educational Reform: A Comparison with Japan,

Michael Howarth

Language and the Modern State: The Reform of Written Japanese,

Nanette Twine

Industrial Harmony in Modern Japan: The Invention of a Tradition,

W.Dean Kinzley

Japanese Science Fiction: A View of a Changing Society,

Robert Matthew

The Japanese Numbers Game: The Use and Understanding of Numbers in

Modern Japan,

Thomas Crump

Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan,

Roger Goodman and Kirsten Refsing

Technology and Industrial Development in pre-War Japan,

Yukiko Fukasaku

Japans Early Parliaments 18901905,

Andrew Fraser, R.H.P.Mason and Philip Mitchell

Japans Foreign Aid Challenge,

Alan Rix

Emperor Hirohito and Sh wa Japan,

Stephen S.Large

Japan: Beyond the End of History,

David Williams

Ceremony and Ritual in Japan: Religious Practices in an Industrialized

Society,

Jan van Bremen and D.P.Martinez

Understanding Japanese Society: Second Edition,

Joy Hendry

The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature: The Subversion of

Modernity,

Susan J.Napier

Militarization and Demilitarization in Contemporary Japan,

Glenn D.Hook

Growing a Japanese Science City: Communication in Scientific Research,

James W.Dearing

Architecture and Authority in Japan,

William H.Coaldrake

Womens

Giday and the Japanese Theatre Tradition,

A.Kimi Coaldrake

Democracy in Post-war Japan,

Rikki Kersten

Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan,

Hlne Bowen Raddeker

JapaneseGerman Business Relations,

Akira Kudo

Japan, Race and Equality,

Naoko Shimazu

Japan, Internationalism and the UN,

Ronald Dore

Life in a Japanese Womens College,

Brian J.McVeigh

On the Margins of Japanese Society,

Carolyn S.Stevens

The Dynamics of Japans Relations with Africa,

Kweku Ampiah

The Right To Life in Japan,

Noel Williams

The Nature of the Japanese State,

Brian J.McVeigh

Society and the State in Inter-War Japan,

Elise K.Tipton

Japanese-Soviet/Russian Relations since 1945,

Kimie Hara

Green Politics in Japan,

Lam Peng-Er

First published 1998

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

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29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1998 Kimie Hara

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,

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invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hara, Kimie.

Japanese-Soviet/Russian relations since 1945: a difficult peace/

Kimie Hara.

p. cm.(Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese studies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index,

(alk. paper)

1. Soviet Union-Foreign relations-Japan. 2. Japan-Foreign

relations-Soviet Union. 3. Russia (Federation)-Foreign relations-

Japan. 4. Japan-Foreign relations-Russia (Federation). 5. Soviet

Union-Foreign relations-19451991. 6. Japan-Foreign relations-

19451989. 7. Japan-Foreign relations-1989-

I. Title. II. Series.

DK68.7.J3H368 1998

327.52047 09 045-dc21 9834178

ISBN 0-203-02430-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-20805-6 (Adobe eReader Format)

ISBN 0-415-19499-7 (Print Edition)

As the new century approaches, Japan is going through a turbulent period in which some of her most entrenched political and economic institutions and practices are increasingly being questioned. The financial crisis which began in the latter half of 1997 affected most of the so-called tiger economies of East and Southeast Asia, and did not spare Japan. The collapse of several important Japanese financial institutions signalled both that the system was in crisis but also that the Government was no longer willing or able to rescue ailing institutions. The sense of crisis quickly dulled the lustre of the Asian model in the eyes of the worlds media, but it also concentrated minds within Japan on the task of reforming the system. The extent to which the system needed reforming remained a matter of sharp dispute, but a consensus was emerging that many entrenched practices deriving from the immediate post-war period of the economic miracle needed to be radically rethought. As of July 1998, the extent and timescale of the desired revolution remains in doubt. Defeat of his party in the Upper House on 12th July forced the resignation of the Prime Minister, but whether this would accelerate or retard reform remained in doubt. Elements of the old regime seemed to be falling apart, but the shape of the new was still but dimly discernable.