No 1 (2023)

In response to Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, Japanese government imposed large-scale sanctions that affected financial, trade, economic, energy, political and humanitarian spheres of Russian-Japanese cooperation. The negotiations on the peace treaty between Moscow and Tokyo were also suspended. Unlike in 2014, Japanese anti-Russian sanctions in 2022 caused heavy crisis in Russian-Japanese relations. The reasons of the Tokyo’s tough response included the scale of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the harsh reaction to Russian operation of Japan’s leading international partners, including the United States, European Union, Great Britain, Australia and a number of Asia-Pacific nations, desire of Japanese leadership to warn China that its possible military actions in Taiwan Strait or around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea will meet Tokyo’s serious resistance. Another reason of severe worsening of Russian-Japanese relations in 2022 was the essential end of the rapprochement between Moscow and Tokyo in 2013–2020 with unsatisfactory results for the Japanese side. During this period, Russia and Japan could not sign a peace treaty despite the efforts of the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who intended to solve the long-standing territorial dispute between Russia and Japan by establishing personal ties with the Russian president Vladimir Putin and promoting economic cooperation between the two nations. This approach proved to be unpromising and was criticized in Russia and Japan. The future of the peace treaty talks between Moscow and Tokyo will depend on whether the negotiating parties are able to lower the level of political and diplomatic confrontation and adopt their claims to the new realities of the changed international environment.

The article is devoted to the study of bioethical problems of China’s demographic policy. One of the main instruments of birth control in the country for 30 years was artificial termination of pregnancy – abortion. Because of this, contradiction between the political course of the state and the traditional, rooted in society, moral principles and values arises. Population policy has become a harsh method of restricting the reproductive rights and freedom of private life of the Chinese population. The current situation determines relevance and necessity of studying China’s demographic policy from the point of view of bioethics. Thus, the article discusses background for approval of the policy “One family – one child”; the implications of this policy, such as the bioethical issues of medical termination of pregnancy and selective abortion in China; transformation of the traditional institution of the family; moral and ethical status of the second child; the problem of the prohibition of surrogate motherhood; gender imbalance; increase in illegal services in the field of medical and reproductive technologies.Bioethical aspects of modern Chinese demography; socio-cultural changes in Chinese society due to a long period of birth control policies are analyzed. The reasons for the low efficiency of modern state measures to stimulate childbearing are considered.

The digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is becoming an important challenge and an aim for economic growth and development in different countries. Digital transformation enhances competitive advantage, improves business efficiency and ensures economic growth of companies worldwide. Considering that the SMEs in Japan account for over 99,7% of the total number of enterprises, the digital transformation of SMEs is becoming an important instrument for the Government of Japan to ensure economic growth of the national economy. SMEs have limited resources and capabilities and this fact creates a number of barriers to implement the digital transformation. These barriers include the limited financial resources, companies’ management, technological, digital security barriers, and others. In the case of small and medium-sized companies in Japan, most of the barriers are related to management and business culture of SMEs. Since the Japanese government has high expectations for SME productivity, competitiveness and economic contribution as drivers of economic growth and national competitiveness, in such an environment, the support of the government is becoming the basis and an essential condition for SMEs to advance along the path of digital transformation. The government support measures are aimed at training SME personnel, upgrading the skills of managers and owners, and providing consulting services to implement the digital transformation. In addition, the Government of Japan provides tax deductions for companies to implement the digital transformation, encourages companies to employ the electronic document management systems, and ensures the cybersecurity improvements for business community

The paper highlights the modern problems of sustainable development of protected areas with the living indigenous peoples on the example of the Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in northern Tanzania. NCA for 30 years (since 1959) has been a unique long-term experiment to maintain a stable coexistence of wild animal populations and the Maasai community practicing traditional methods of cattle breeding. Options for the development of NCA are discussed, taking into account new challenges, such as the growth of the population of Maasai people and livestock and the need to expand the area of the NCA strictly protected zone.

The interviews conducted by the authors among the young Maasai of Ngorongoro have demonstrated that this the most advanced group of young people can be characterized by the specific combination of traditional and modern trends as regards to the future life plans, access to modern technical means, attitude towards the traditions and trends on the blurring of the stereotypes of reproductive and sexual behavior including information on the self-protection against malaria and COVID. One of the acceptable solutions for the provision of the sustainable development of Ngorongoro conservation area could be the relocation of the part of the Maasai population for the decrease of the competition for resources with the wildlife and the control of the abundance of the Maasai cattle.

In the study, the authors consider the territorial and administrative structure of the Philippine’s Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and the factors of its transformation at the present stage in the context of the importance of the religious institution in the economic and social life of society. The purpose of a comprehensive study is to identify the economic, social, territorial and institutional aspects of the RCC’s activities in the Philippines and to identify the areas on which it has a significant impact. The model of relations between the RCC and the state in the Philippines is not typical for the Asia-Pacific region. This fact allows the authors stating that the experience of their implementation may be relevant for solving issues related to the formation and development of the confessional space of Russian regions, including the Far East, in social and economic aspects. For an objective characterization of the elements of the confessional space in the presented study the mathematical and statistical tools were used. By analyzing the available data published in English, the main directions of the project activities of non-profit Catholic organizations in the field of economic and social development of the country were identified. The authors reveal that the RCC actively implements activities in the field of social responsibility at the regional and local levels by allocating its own funds, labor resources, providing for the use of its buildings for religious and other purposes for organizing and holding socially significant events, in many ways contra-typing state functions. Finally, the authors conclude that the RCC in the Philippines is an influential institution that plays a significant role in various areas of the country’s economy and contains prospects for expanding the field of its activities in the mentioned direction