ABSTRACT
Perception and subjective historical memory are two key elements that infl uence public opinion and policymaking in nations.1 Images of other nations and cultures exist at all levels of a society, from the elite policymakers down to the ordinary citizens. And these images do not always necessarily correspond to one another. Oftentimes, however, the perceptions toward another country are created at the top among the small circle of the political elite. Hence, perceptions are often viewed among the society at large through the lens of these elite groups. Throughout the twentieth century this has often been the case with Japan and Russia. Perceptions formed (or skewed) by groups of political elite are even more preponderant between Japan and Russia given the enormous geographic distance between the main population centers of the two nations, and the scant history of large-scale direct cultural interaction.2 It is important to consider that as democracy caught hold, fi rst in Japan, and then later in Russia, policymakers became answerable to public opinion. But in the case of Japanese-Russian bilateral relations, public opinion very much mirrored the government line, as perceptions and images had been planted by the governments into the public mind in previous decades, and there they still remain for the most part.
