ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union started a development resulting in greater security consciousness in Japan and a discussion in Tokyo of defense measures that Soviet policy allegedly strove to prevent. The policy of the Soviet Union in north-eastern Asia is characterized by the peculiar counterproductiveness. The introduction of a "Day of the Northern Territories" induced the Soviet Union to register a formal protest with the Japanese ambassador in Moscow on 20 January 1981. The Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs criticized this action most emphatically in a conversation with his Japanese colleague Abe at the UN General Assembly. The massive pressure that the Soviets exert to eliminate the territorial question from political talks is illustrated by the way the vague prospect of a visit to Tokyo by Gromyko is handled. North Korea will remain the object of Sino-Soviet rivalry; this, in turn, will closely circumscribe Moscow's and Peking's contacts with South Korea.
