The beginning of the 80s of the last century was marked by the deterioration of Soviet-Japanese relations, which was mainly due to the strengthening of the military-political confrontation between the United States and the USSR. The US administration has demanded that its Far Eastern ally tighten its policy towards Moscow. The reason for launching a large-scale offensive against the USSR was the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. On December 29, 1979, Japanese Foreign Minister S. Okita issued a statement of support for Washington's policy of curtailing the detente process. The Japanese Foreign Ministry developed a secret report stating that Japan should join sanctions against the Soviet Union and build up its armed forces in order to more evenly distribute the" defense burden " of the Western world1 . It was stated that Japan's role in the global military strategy of the United States would increase. In solidarity with the US administration, the Japanese government reduced political contacts with the USSR and decided to curb the development of economic cooperation, cultural and tourist ties. Following the United States, Japan refused to participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. One of the Japanese Sovietologists, H. Kimura, recognized: "Even if the Afghan events had not occurred, sooner or later Japanese-Soviet relations would have reached a dead end, because the positions of Japan and the USSR, as before, were radically different: the USSR demanded the conclusion of a" Soviet-Japanese treaty on good-neighborliness and cooperation " without any restrictions. The only thing that made sense for Japan was to negotiate a "peace treaty" on the condition of the return of the four northern islands... The fact that Afghanistan itself, which had concluded the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation with the Soviet Union, was the object of military intervention by the USSR, helped strengthen Japan's determination to finally abandon the conclusion of the ... Read more