ABSTRACT
A combination of certain crucial events in the mid-1990s became a major catalyst for a change of thinking in policymaking circles in Japan and Russia. The rapprochement between Moscow and Tokyo in the late 1980s and early 1990s was largely in response to domestic policy changes in the Soviet Union and the actual collapse of the Soviet Union. This rapprochement was peripherally related to international events that happened subsequent to the change of regime in Moscow. The rapprochement of 1996-2007, in contrast, was a direct response to the changes in the international system that came about as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as domestic change in each country. During the latter half of the 1990s events transpiring in Europe, Central Asia, and Northeast Asia kept the attention of leaders in Moscow and Tokyo. In Europe, NATO expansion was a major factor driving the foreign policymaking process in Moscow and, to a much lesser extent in Tokyo. The birth of the eight new nations in Central Asia and the Caucasus also played an important role in the thought process of leaders both in Japan and Russia. And in East Asia, China’s emergence and the role of the United States have been major factors in the reorientation of foreign policy for Moscow and Tokyo. Additionally, though generally unnoticed, the situation on the Korean Peninsula again began to play an important role in the bilateral relationship. Korea is one of only two countries that are neighbors of both Japan and Russia. One hundred years ago it was the central focus of Japanese-Russian relations. The Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-45) and the Cold War kept Korea from occupying the central role in the bilateral relationship for a long time. But in the 1990s Korea reemerged as a major catalyst in the bilateral relationship.
