Japan's Historical Disputes with Neighboring States (Rethinking Asia and International Relations)

This book examines Japan’s relationships with China, Russia, the states of the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan. Analyzing key points of conflict, their roots, and current relations, it highlights their significance for each country. Avoiding a focus on sensitive issues of the historical past per se, it provides a Russian perspective on their impact in Japan and neighboring states, their place in the domestic political discourse, and the image of modern Japan in the eyes of political elites and the public and assesses the prospects for improving unfavorable mutual perceptions. Problems of the historical past remain a significant factor in the deterioration of Japan’s relations with China, South Korea, and Russia. Notions of national prestige and historical disputes appear with increasing frequency on the international political agenda in East Asia, driven largely by the economic and military rise of China and the changing military-political balance of power in the region. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of area studies and international relations, especially those specializing in East Asian Studies, Japanese studies, the politics of memory in IR, and problems of national identity.

Dmitry Streltsov is Head of the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO University, and Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2008, he has been heading the Russian Association of Japanologists and is Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook Japan, Russian Japanology Review, and the e-journal Japanese Studies in Russia. His main research field is the domestic politics and diplomacy of contemporary Japan. He is the author of more than 300 academic works, including eight individual monographs published in Russian, such as Japan as Green Superpower (MGIMO-University Pb, 2012), Foreign Policy Priorities of Japan in the Asia Pacific (Vostochnaya literatura, 2015), and The System of 1955 (Vostochnaya literatura, 2019). He contributed two chapters and was the coeditor of A History of Russo-Japanese Relations: Over Two Centuries of Cooperation and Competition (Brill, 2019). He also contributed one chapter and was the coeditor of Handbook of Japan-Russia Relations (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).