ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that although there are strong historical, political, and strategic reasons why relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are unlikely to become warm and friendly in the foreseeable future, there are also factors that could conceivably draw them closer together. The nineteenth century saw the expansion of the Russian empire into the eastern part of Siberia and the early Japanese colonization of Hokkaido and islands to its north. The Russo-Japanese war of 1905–1906 was a major war by the standards of the time and established Japan as the first Asian participant of significance in a European-dominated international system. The strategy involved development of maximum flexibility in respect of markets and sources of supply. The strategic relationship between Japan and the Soviet Union has experienced significant change since the early 1970s. The main projects for the development of energy resources began in the middle 1970s and involved the extension of considerable amounts of government-financed credit by Japan.
