Japanese god in detail

The Japanese prime minister arrives in the Russian capital on a visit for the first time in five years. This fact reflects not so much stagnation in bilateral relations as the collapse of an unofficial approach to their development. In the days of Boris Yeltsin and Rytaro Hasimoto and Moscow, for some reason, it seemed that unofficial - “non -burden” - leaders' contacts would help to overcome the fundamental contradiction of alienation on the Kuril issue and lead to the signing of a peaceful agreement implying the participation of Japan in the development of the economy of the Far East. Both sides founded their policy on illusory approaches associated with a serious underestimation of the partner, obvious by his misunderstanding.

In Moscow, for some reason, it is generally accepted that the Japanese are “played” when they talk about the “northern territories”, that in fact they do not need the Kuril Islands, that the Japanese need something completely different from Russia, much more, in Russian conviction, significant. It remains only in an informal setting to find out what exactly. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, it seems that they are still sure that Russia does not need the islands, especially since during the years of Russian ownership the economic infrastructure smoked, and it is very difficult for the Japanese to understand that the territory can be owned "in general", and not using its resources, the verb "does not give a damn" in their economic dictionary. Therefore, the Japanese are convinced that Russia is ready to give the islands, only so far it is traded in search of an acceptable price. This price remains to find out in informal communication.

Is it worth it to explain that the bilateral dialogue has not moved from the dead point, in spite of any declarations. Moreover, in Tokyo the "informal approach" was declared erroneous, and its architects lost their jobs in the foreign policy. In Russia, a change in the approach is possible without loss of jobs. So now in Moscow, leaders will meet, configured quite hard. Dzyunitiro Koizumi is sure that without the return of the territories - or at least without a specific plan of action to return them - to talk about a peace treaty and Japanese investments is pointless. "Russia and Japan cannot bring relationships to a qualitatively new level, bypassing the problem of concluding a peaceful contract. It is highly regretted that it is a new member of the Eight Russia, to which the international community has great hopes, and Japan, which is also a member of this group, does not have such a line of the border with which both sides could agree," the Japanese premiere on the eve of the visit in the interview of RIA could agree "News". Vladimir Putin, who prefers the pseudopatriotic rhetoric of the recent past, is probably also tuned: he cannot afford conversations about the islands.

There will be no disagreement in all the rest, since there is no serious relationship between Russia and Japan: even what was during the period of informal dialogue in the calculation of progress is minimized today. So Putin and Koizumi will exchange optimistic protocol statements, sign the document containing general words and, having demonstrated that the dialogue in principle is possible, will disperse. After all, the current Japanese prime minister and the Russian president does not have what filled the Russian-Japanese relations of the Yeltsin era-there are no illusions.