| Popis: |
The article presents a non-traditional approach to evaluation of Japan’s soft power in the context of its humanitarian cooperation with East Asian states (primarily, China and South Korea) and also Russia. The characteristic features of current Japan’s soft power and the historic prerequisites for the development the Japanese foreign policy of this sphere are analyzed. In the author’s opinion, there is no alternative of Japan’s soft power to hard power currently employed by other countries of East Asia. The article stresses the successes of Japanese policy of simulating the inflow of foreign tourism and analyzes the reasons for the steady growth in the number of tourists arriving in Japan. Recent statistics shows the predominance of Chinese and South Koreans among foreign guests, both tourists and expats, with the mostly negative attitude to China and South Korea among the Japanese citizens. The deterioration of the demographic situation in Japan is also marked: the percentage of foreigners is growing, which prompts the Japanese to adjust. The article highlights humanitarian cooperation between Japan and Russia in the Cross-year Year of 2018, which was initiated by the country’s leaders to boost contacts in a broad range of areas. It indicates a decline in the bilateral trade in the past five years and points a low level of mutual tourism. There are different reasons for Russia and Japan for insignificant number of tourists travelling to the partner country. The antipathy of most Japanese toward Russia is a negative factor for bilateral relations. In conclusion, the author elaborates on the possible ways of enhancing the Russo-Japanese relations in the context of the highlighted issues. The article’s objective is to inform experts working in relevant areas about successful Japanese projects with the aim of borrowing some useful Japanese practices of soft power and outbound tourism in relations with other countries. This experience could be beneficial for Russia. |
