Abstract Modern perception of Japan by Vladivostok citizens (based on a 2021 survey)

Abstract

The article analyses the modern perception of Japan by Vladivostok citizens as well as their views of the current state and prospects of Russo-Japanese relations. The research is based on the materials of a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Research Laboratory of the Institute of History of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in May-September 2021. Obtained data correlate with the results of similar studies of previous years, which the laboratory conducted in various parts of Pacific Russia. The citizens’ perception of Japan is compared with their views of other countries that are significant for Vladivostok and Pacific Russia, namely, China, the USA, India, and the two Koreas. The authors note that, as the Japanese factor played an important role in the history of Vladivostok, this country attracts special attention of the city’s residents. In their opinion, the high level of attractiveness of Japan in Pacific Russia and Vladivostok as well, which, over the past two decades, has been recorded by public opinion polls, is based, first of all, on the people’s interest to its unique culture, their high assessment of the substantial level of economic and technological development of Japan and the welfare of the Japanese people. However, the historical experience of Russian-Japanese relations and political contradictions between the two countries force a large part of the respondents (about a third of their total number) to believe in the existence of threats to Russia from Japan, which are naturally identified with the territorial claims of the latter. Nevertheless, the residents of Vladivostok, for the most part, show a fairly high level of trust towards Japan, positively assess the quality of modern Russian-Japanese relations and their future, and advocate for their active development.

Keywords

• vladivostok
• japan
• public opinion
• russo-japanese relations