ABSTRACT
The global changes since the end of the Cold War in 1989, in particular the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, faced Japan with the need, but also the opportunity, to adjust and broaden the diplomatic as well as geographic scope of its relations with the states on the Eurasian continent. The succession of the Soviet Union by the Russian Federation and a considerable number of new states, as well as the heavy Western support for their political and economic transition, recast the environment in which Japan had been pursuing its revisionist goal of regaining the so-called Northern Territories to the north of its most northern island, Hokkaido. Moreover, the rise of the ‘Silk Road states’1-the five Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)—as well as the three South Caucasian republics (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) from the ashes of the Soviet Union demanded an adjustment of Japan’s diplomacy to Russia, China, Central Asia and Europe while providing it with an opportunity to use its economic might and strengthen its standing as an Asian power. This recasting of the Eurasian political-strategic map is also influencing Japan’s options in the Middle East, the source of most of its crude oil supply.
