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Russia and Japan

Edited by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Jonathan Haslam, and Andrew C. Kuchins
Reviewed by By Robert Legvold
September/October 1993
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Edited by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Jonathan Haslam, and Andrew C. Kuchins
University of California
1993
456 pp.
$26.50

A comprehensive examination of the Soviet/Russian relationship with Japan examining both sides' policies, drawing on many perspectives (Russian, American, British and Japanese) and featuring several dimensions (economic, political and security). The volume mixes seasoned specialists with younger scholars, all of whom, however, bring a fresh eye to this important but impacted relationship. Most of the authors devote the lion's share of their attention to the Soviet period, with some afterthoughts on trends since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Several selections, however, deal entirely with the new post-Soviet setting, and of these Robert Scalapino's essay on Russia's role in Asia, Sergei Goncharov's and Kuchins' piece on the domestic sources of Russian policy, Alexei Zagorskii's chapter on Russian security policy, and Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's concluding thoughts on future Russo-Japanese relations serve well to orient the reader in this new reality.

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