The article analyzes the foreign policy of Shinzō Abe, one of the most notable and unusual political figures of contemporary Japan, who was the head of Japanese government twice for a total of almost nine years. It traces how his political philosophy formed under the influence of ideological views of his relatives, prime ministers N. Kishi and E. Satō, as well as his father, Shintarō Abe. It also considers Abe’s approaches to building Japan’s relations with the countries which are most important for its interests.

Abe was perceived as a devoted ally of the U.S. in Washington. He established relations of confidence with presidents Obama and Trump. For this purpose, he strengthened Japanese-American military-political cooperation, took steps to support American strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. He implemented, even if without substantial results, steps to stabilize relations with China, trying to combine policy of containing Beijing with efforts to develop bilateral ties. Abe paid substantial attention to relations with India, including for the purpose of the idea, which was put forward by him and supported by the U.S., to establish quadrilateral cooperation of “democracies” in the Indo-Pacific region – the U.S., Japan, India, and Australia.

His policy in the Korean direction was not successful. The relations with Pyongyang remained in deadlock, and, with Seoul, the most acute bilateral problems were not finally solved. Abe also paid great attention to policy aiming to conclude a peace treaty with Russia on the basis of a radical improvement of Japanese-Russian ties in all spheres. The reasons for his failure in these directions are discussed in this article.

The article evaluates Abe’s efforts aimed at developing governmental documents and making the Diet adopt laws determining the basic directions of the foreign and military policy of the state. The author characterizes the results of the activity of S. Abe in the sphere of foreign policy and assesses its influence on the formation of the course of the Japanese government after his resignation.

Based on the analysis of statistical and information sources, academic publications, and the authors’ personal experience, the article analyzes the peculiarities of Japanese minimarkets that rank among amazing Japanese inventions, creations, and practices and have become an integral part of the Japanese way of life and a trademark of the country. In the academic literature, there have been no comprehensive works focused on this phenomenon so far, and their regional peculiarities, especially the geography of stores operated by different chains, are almost completely neglected. The purpose of this article is to highlight the key academic discourse, to characterize the unique character and universality, which, in fact, constitute the phenomenon of konbini, as well as to identify their regional features.

The study clearly shows that these stores, which came to Japan from the United States in 1973, have been completely transformed and are constantly evolving, changing the store concept and presenting a globally unique phenomenon. It describes the characteristics of the leading chains of these stores in their endeavor to gain even greater popularity among consumers and the innovations that have emerged in recent years, including those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Studying the phenomenon of konbini, the authors, on the one hand, note their transformation into an important element of social infrastructure, that meets the needs of modern society and is especially necessary in the context of rapidly progressing aging of the population, and, on the other hand, their certain negative impact, especially on the younger generation.

The paper features an analysis of the regional characteristics of these stores and the cartographic material illustrating them. It is revealed that, within prefectures, the location of konbini correlates with the number of inhabitants (the number of stores is proportional to the population of municipalities), and each of the 20 konbini chains operating in Japan is located in its own specific area. The authors conclude that konbini facilitate the development of the country’s regions as a whole, and their role in Japanese society cannot be overemphasized. The Japanese experience can be relevant to other countries, including Russian chain stores.

One of the most important features of the documents from the Shōsōin treasury is the opportunity for researchers not only to study the events, institutions, and sources of the Nara era, but also to see the Japanese 8^th century “with a human face.” Among the documents, there is a lot of material that talks about the everyday life and service of the sovereign’s subjects. This is of special interest for the author of the article, who aims to see a person who lived in ancient Japan. To create a basis for future research, the author conducts a source study of the Shōsōin documents as a preparatory stage for their study.

The objectives of the article are to discuss where and why the Shōsōin documents were created; find out how they were placed into the treasury and how they were stored in it; give their classification, describe the types of documents; find out what happened to them after the conservation of the Shōsōin at the end of the 8^th century, how the documents were rediscovered in the Edo period, how and why they were studied in the 19^th and 20^th centuries; talk about the scholars who were involved in their research, and about the modern study of the Shōsōin documents.

The article deals with the genesis, semantics, and functions of the dragon image in Japanese culture. The relevance of the study is due to the increased attention of researchers to the basic values of local cultures, issues of symbolism, inextricably linked to the problems of national self-identification. The methodological basis of the study is the structural-semiotic approach, which was used to analyze the value content of the dragon image, the descriptive-analytical method, and the method of cognitive interpretation of the semantics of linguistic means verbalizing the dragon image in the Japanese language. In contrast to the Western tradition, in the culture of the peoples of East Asia, a dragon is a revered and significant symbol of power, strength, and authority.

Stories about dragons are found in ancient texts of both Hinduism and Buddhism. It is established that the formation and evolution of the dragon cult in Japan was influenced by the mythical Chinese dragons, Indian Naga snakes, and the belief in dragons as deities of the water element. The author examines the genesis and evolution of the dragon image in different historical epochs, the influence of cultural-historical, natural, and religious factors on its transformation. It is shown that, in medieval Japan, the dragon was considered the protector of Buddhism, personifying strength, wisdom, prosperity, good luck, and images of these mythical creatures became an organic element of Buddhist culture. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the image of the dragon as a sign of the Chinese zodiacal calendar, the representations of dragons in Japanese mythology, fairy tales and legends, in Hitachi Fudoki, Kojiki, Nihon Shoki. In the mythological picture of the world of the Japanese, the dragon is ambivalent and has both positive and negative features.

It is revealed that the image of the dragon occupies an important place in Japanese traditional culture, painting, architecture, arts and crafts, calendar holidays, is widely represented in proverbs and sayings, set phrases and idioms. The reference to Japanese phraseology allowed to expand the base of the study and to reveal the totality of ideas about the dragon in the worldview of native speakers of the Japanese language. The author concludes that, nowadays, the image of the dragon in Japan has lost its sacral significance and is mainly used as tribute to tradition.

The hermit poet Kamo-no Chōmei compiled a collection of tales about the awakening of the heart (Hosshinshū, c. 1216), continuing and updating the tradition of setsuwa collections of didactic tales. The peculiarities of the collection can be explained on the basis of the changes in the life of the Japanese Buddhist community that took place at the turn of the 12^th and 13^th centuries. The main characters of the tales are hermits, “escapees from the world,” and different aspects of their lives are discussed in the thematic sections of the collection. In addition to the tales, the book contains discussions of difficult questions of Buddhist preaching: how to treat death and love, one’s own body, the poetic word, and what a person can rely on if he or she wants to try to follow the Buddha’s path in the “evil age”. In addition to the Lotus Sutra, which gave the book its title and one of its narrative forms, the sources of the Hosshinshū include the sutras about the Pure Land and Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū, as well as several other sutras and treatises that were common property of various schools in Japan. Chōmei includes both good and bad examples from the life of the Japanese Buddhist community in his book, with only occasional reference to India and China, and confines himself mainly to events recent and contemporary.

During the Bakumatsu period (1853–1867), under pressure from Western countries, the Tokugawa shogunate was forced to end Japan’s policy of selfisolation and conclude unequal treaties with a number of Western powers. This caused deep discontent in the country, affecting various segments of the population. In the context of the political crisis, the shogunate launched a series of reforms aimed at strengthening its power, including military power.

Great Britain secretly supported the opposition forces in the south of the country, and France made a bet on the shogunate, expressing its readiness to support its reforms. As a result, in January 1867, a French military mission consisting of 15 people arrived in the Japanese port of Yokohama, commanded by Captain Charles Chanoine, who had previously led French troops in China during the Second Opium War (1856–1860). The purpose of the mission was to modernize the obsolete military system of the Tokugawa shogunate.

However, the recommendations of the French military advisers were not fully realized, because, after the outbreak of the civil war in January 1868 and the defeat of the supporters of the shogun, Emperor Meiji ordered the mission to leave Japan in October. A number of members of the mission, who did not obey this order, led by Jules Brunet, along with supporters of the shogunate, took part in the creation of the Republic of Ezo (1868–1869) on the island of Hokkaido.