On the question of the impact of COVID-19 on the situation in Japan and Russian-Japanese relations (2020 – first half of 2021)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious damage to the economy and public life of Japan, and has severely affected the tourism industry and its affiliated businesses. Due to new mutations of the coronavirus and periodic outbreaks of the disease, Japan de facto continues to be in an emergency mode, although de jure this mode is either introduced or canceled in different regions of Japan. At the same time, the government is making tremendous efforts to organize the 2020 Olympics in summer 2021. A period of “cooling” has also begun in the Russian-Japanese relations, caused by the absence of meetings of the leaders of the two countries at the highest level. So far the meeting of the President of Russia V.V. Putin with the new Prime Minister of Japan Suga Yoshihide didn’t take place. At the same time, the events of the Year of the Russian-Japanese interregional and sister city exchanges continue to be held, although with serious security amendments. Many events are held remotely online, and in the case of offline mode, serious measures are taken to minimize the risks of the spread of COVID-19. Nevertheless, by mid-2021 mass vaccination programs against coronavirus infection had already started in Russia and Japan, as well as in other countries, which gives reason to look to the future with cautious optimism, predicting a gradual return of people and states to the normal lifestyle

Keywords

• japan
• far east
• russian-japanese relations
• tourism
• public diplomacy (peoplomacy)
• humanitarian relations
• covid-19