The relation between the Russian Far East and Japan is 'near and far'. In the Cold War period there existed an 'invisible wall' in the Sea of Japan. The Cold War ended about 10 years ago. Although a tense atmosphere remains in the Korean Peninsula, people's comings and goings and cultural exchange between Japan and Russia have remarkably increased since then. In this sense the 'invisible wall' has collapsed. Nevertheless, the business between the Russian Far East and Japan has not made a big progress. Why? In this paper I would like to argue what should be done by the Russian Far East and Japan in order to promote economic cooperation in the Northeast Asia.

Russia is usually regarded as a European country, but it is at the same time an Asian and Pacific country. Already in the period of Perestroika the Soviet Union declared itself as an 'Asian and Pacific country'. During the period of the former Soviet Union the Far East was placed a resource base and a munitions-producing base for a whole country. As for its industrial structure industry and mining accounted for about 60% of its national income, and the shar

The volume of foreign trade between Russia and Japan is held in check due to the economic stagnation of Russia. As Russia has insufficient capitals it needs an increase in foreign direct investments. However, the direct investment from Japan is stagnating. Problems of the Russian side in economic cooperation between Japan and Russia can be pointed out as follows 6) :

"At present the richest countries are small countries such as Belgium, Switzerland and Singapore. In the period when agriculture was dominant the size of one country's territory. In the period when industry is dominant its significance has considerably decreased. In contemporary society capital, technology and information are decisively important"3). Presumably Slovenia aims to become a small advanced country of this type.

The second megatrend is regionalism, which means a phenomenon that a group of countries strengthen their cooperation and unity. This does not contradict the globalization. This is enabled by the advent of borderless era which accompanied the globalization. The example includes EU, NAFTA, APEC, etc. Besides, there is a trend that smaller regions (subregions) which compose a wider region voluntarily cooperate with each other. This is called subregional cooperation. For example, Baltic Sea Rim countries (Estonia, Latvia Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Poland) are cooperating with each other, first of all, in environmental problems. In addition, they are cooperating with each other in a wide sphere such as economic problems, cultural exchange, human rights, etc. 'Euroregions' are interesting examples of 'cooperative relationship of municipalities across borders'. Although there are still high hurdles between the Western Europe and the Eastern Europe at the national level in the integration process, the integration of the both parts of the Europe is making steady progress at the micro level. At the level of municipalities which are adjacent to each other, on the borders of Czech and Poland, and Slovakia and Poland, cooperation makes headway in the sphere of improvement of transportation, prevention of air pollution, promotion of regional development, health and social security, education and culture, tourism, etc. More than 40 'Euroregions' are established in the whole Europe. Such cases are too numerous to mention1).

What is the potential strength of the Russian Far East? It consists in the point that the Russian Far East has a vast territory with abundant natural resources. The natural resources are roughly classified into forest resources, marine resources, mineral resources and energy resources, but these are not sufficiently utilized. As for mineral resources, many kinds of valuable mineral ore, for example, gold, diamond, etc. are under the ground, but only a part of them are exploited due to severe natural conditions. In the condition of the market economy these mineral resources are simply sleeping under the ground and they do not represent the country's actual strength unless exploited mineral ores can be profitably sold on the world markets. The Russian Far East is now exporting mainly marine products such as crabs well as timbers in those regions where forests can be easily cut. We are xkqous about exhaustion of marine products and negative effects the environment.

Some topics in this essay:
Japan Russia, Honeymoon Twilight, Russian East, Slovakia Poland, Russia Japan, Khabarovsk Afterward, Negotiators Russian, II Megatrends, Russia Poor, Union East, russian east, natural resources, economic cooperation, market economy, soviet union, northeast asia, transition market economy, transition market, mineral resources, east japan, russian east japan, economic cooperation northeast, cooperation northeast asia, investment overseas, development business russia,