The Role of “Affective Attachment” of President of Russian Federation to Japanese Culture and Its Influence on Russian Foreign Policy (2000-2019)

This research studies the "affective attachment" of Russian President to Japan and its role in Russian foreign policy towards this country. We suppose that "attachment" could be measured through Putin's habits, ideas and emotions related to Japan. The most important "habit" related to Japan is judo training, that we consider as point of "epiphany" that stimulated interest to Japan per se and formed the ideas that the President suggests using in international politics, such as respect to the partner and elderlies, priority of evolution over revolution and some others. At the same time Putin suppose several ideas characterizing Russian-Japanese relations, including "natural partnership" and broadening of cooperation. Moreover, Putin supports Personal relations with three Japanese - Y. Mori, S. Abe, and Y. Yamashita. Due to their common attempts, Russia and Japan realize cultural and humanitarian exchanges and interact in the energy sphere, but the issues of peace treaty and the Kuril Islands remain unresolved. This shows that the "affective attachment" is significant factor in bilateral relations, but not the main one. Both Russia and Japan follow their national interests while making decisions related to territory and security.