Japan and Russia

There is growing awareness of the importance of images in international relations. Explore the phenomenon over three centuries relating to Russia and Japan. A general perception of one country by another – the ‘stereotypical collective mentality’ – is historic phenomenon that continues to be a fundamental to international relations at all levels.

Yulia Mikhailova is Professor in the Faculty of International Studies, Hiroshima City University, and a specialist in modern Japanese history and Russo-Japanese relations. She is the author of Motoori Norinaga: His Work and Life (1988) and Social and Political Perspectives in Japan from the 1860s to the 1880s (1991). She has published numerous articles in English, Russian, Hebrew and Japanese about the role of visual media in shaping images, and on other aspects of relations between Japan and Russia.
M.William Steele is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Japanese History at the International Christian University, Tokyo. He is a specialist on Japanese social and political history in the late-nineteenth century. His Alternative Narratives in Modern Japanese History (2003), includes several chapters that make use of broadsides, satirical cartoons and woodblock prints in understanding the social history of late-nineteenth century Japan.