The far-east vector for Russian-Japanese investment cooperation

Abstract

The article addresses some of the key issues related to the development of Russian-Japanese cooperation in the Far East in the 21st century, having in consideration the latest trends in regional development. The authors focus on the areas of cooperation which are of common interest to both nations. This includes their longstanding cooperation in energy development, timber processing, and fisheries and their prospective cooperation in agriculture and in the development of transportation communications, knowledge-intensive manufacturing operations, health care, and tourism. The need to develop new areas for investment cooperation is associated with certain realities of our day, like declines in demand for raw materials in Japan, stagnation in the Japanese market for forest products, and increases in export duties in Russia. The purpose of this work is to identify a set of effective methods and ways of attracting Japanese investors into the Russian Far East. The authors are of the view that galvanizing this investment cooperation will not only drive economic growth in the Russian Far East and facilitate the structural reformation of the Far Eastern economy and renunciation of the region’s specialization in raw materials but also to have a benign effect with respect to resolving certain political issues that have been inherent in relations between Russia and Japan for a number of years now. The study’s methodological basis is grounded in the systemic approach. To enable a comprehensive examination of the issue in question, the authors employ a set of specific methods, including the comparative-historical, problematic-chronological, and systemic methods. The study has helped to identify several trends in Russia and Japan’s investment cooperation in the Far East. The authors have established some of the reasons behind the low investment activity of the Japanese business community in the Russian Far East and proposed a set of solutions to the above issues.