On humanitarian cooperation between Russia and Japan against the backdrop of the Special military operation

Abstract

Tokyo’s negative attitude towards Moscow’s policies in connection with the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine led to a sharp deterioration in relations between Russia and Japan, which the Russian Foreign Ministry characterizes as “degradation” and “dismantling of bilateral ties”. Recently, Japan has begun to play a more active role on the international arena , including within the G7, criticizing Russia and introducing political and economic sanctions against it. In response, Russia also began to impose sanctions against Japan, which caused the collapse of relations. However, the degradation of political and economic relations has not yet led to the destruction of humanitarian ties between the countries, although it has noticeably hit them. It seems that maintaining humanitarian ties in such a difficult political situation can play a positive role in achieving constructive cooperation between the countries in the future.

Keywords

• japan
• russia
• russian-japanese relations
• sanctions
• humanitarian cooperation