 Akimono-clad woman walks downSvetlanskaya Street inVladivostok, currently the capital ofPrimorsky Krai, c. 1910 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,321 (2022)[1][2][3] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Moscow,Primorsky Krai,Sakhalin Oblast | |
| Languages | |
| Russian,Japanese | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism,Shinto,Orthodox Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Nikkeijin |
Japanese people in Russia form a small part of the worldwide community ofNikkeijin (Japanese diaspora), consisting mainly ofJapanese expatriates and their descendants born in Russia. They count various notable political figures among their number.
The firstJapanese person to settle inRussia is believed to have beenDembei, a fisherman stranded on theKamchatka Peninsula in 1701 or 1702. Unable to return to his nativeŌsaka due to theTokugawa Shogunate'ssakoku policy, he was instead taken toMoscow and ordered byPeter the Great to begin teaching the language as soon as possible; he thus became the father ofJapanese language education in Russia.[4] Japanese settlement in Russia remained sporadic, confined to theRussian Far East, and also of a largely unofficial character, consisting of fishermen who, likeDembei, landed there by accident and were unable to return to Japan.[5] However, a Japanese trading post is known to have existed on the island ofSakhalin (then claimed by theQing dynasty, but controlled by neither Japan, China, nor Russia) as early as 1790.[6]
Following theopening of Japan,Vladivostok would become the focus of settlement for Japanese emigrating to Russia. A branch of the Japanese Imperial Commercial Agency (日本貿易事務官,Nihon bōeki Jimukan) was opened there in 1876.[7] Their numbers grew to 80 people in 1877 and 392 in 1890; women outnumbered men by a factor of 3:2, and many worked asprostitutes.[8] However, their community remained small compared to the more numerous Chinese andKorean communities; an 1897 Russian government survey showed 42,823 Chinese, 26,100 Koreans, but only 2,291 Japanese in the whole of thePrimorye area.[7] A large portion of the migration came from villages in northernKyūshū.[8]
The politics ofJapanese-Russian relations had a large influence on the Japanese community and the sources and patterns of Japanese settlement in Russia. The "Association of Corporations" (同盟会) was founded in 1892 to unite various Japanese professional unions; at that point, the Japanese population of the city was estimated at 1,000. It would later be renamed in 1895 as the "Association of Fellow Countrymen" (同胞会,Dōhōkai) and again in 1902 as the "Vladivostok Resident Association" (ウラジオ居留民会,Urajio Kyoryūminkai). They were often suspected by the Russian government of being used as intelligence-gathering tools for Japan, and having contributed to Russia's defeat in theRusso-Japanese War.[7] Though the Japanese residents' association in Vladivostok was officially disbanded in 1912 under pressure from Russia, Japanese government documents show it continued to operate clandestinely until 1920, when most Japanese in Vladivostok returned to Japan.[7] The initial landing of Japanese forces in Vladivostok after theOctober Revolution was prompted by the April 4, 1918 murder of three Japanese living there,[6][9] and theNikolayevsk Incident which occurred in 1920.[10]
After the establishment of theSoviet Union, some Japanese communists settled in Russia; for example,Mutsuo Hakamada, the brother ofJapanese Communist Party chairmanSatomi Hakamada, escaped from Japan in 1938 and went to Russia, where he married a local woman. His daughterIrina later went into politics after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[10]According to historian Tetsuro Kato, About 100 Japanese, including communists, went to live in the USSR during the 1920s, and 1930s. Many would be victims ofStalinist Purges.[11]
After the end of theRusso-Japanese War in 1905 with theTreaty of Portsmouth, the southern half ofSakhalin officially became Japanese territory, and was renamed asKarafuto, prompting an influx of Japanese settlers there. Japanese settled in the northern half of Karafuto; after Japan agreed to hand this half back to the Soviet Union, some may have chosen to remain north of the Soviet line of control.[6] However, the majority would remain in Japanese territory until the closing days ofWorld War II, when the whole of Sakhalin came under Soviet control as part of theUSSR's invasion of Manchuria; most Japanesefled the advancing Red Army, or returned to Japan after the Soviet takeover, but others, mainly military personnel, were taken to the mainland of Russia and detained in work camps there.[12] Furthermore, roughly 40,000 Korean settlers, despite still holding Japanese nationality, were denied permission by the Soviet Government to transit through Japan to repatriate to their homes in the southern half of theKorean peninsula. They were either told to take North Korean citizenship or take Soviet citizenship. Known asSakhalin Koreans, they were trapped on the island for almost four decades.[13]
FollowingJapan's surrender, 575,000 Japanese prisoners of war captured by theRed Army inManchuria,Karafuto, andKorea were sent tocamps inSiberia and the rest of the Soviet Union. According to figures of theJapanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 473,000 were repatriated to Japan after the normalisation ofJapanese-Soviet relations; 55,000 died in Russia, and another 47,000 remained missing; a Russian report released in 2005 listed the names of 27,000 who had beensent to North Korea to perform forced labour there.[14] Rank was no guarantee of repatriation; oneArmenian interviewed by theUS Air Force in 1954 claims to have met a Japanese general while living in a camp at Chunoyar,Krasnoyarsk Krai between May 1951 and June 1953.[15] Some continue to return home as late as 2006.[16]
Following the normalisation of Japanese-Soviet relations, a few Japanese went to Russia for commercial, educational, or diplomatic purposes. There is oneJapanese-medium school, the Japanese School in Moscow, founded in 1965.[17]
The2002 Russian census showed 835 people claiming Japanese ethnicity.[18] The2021 Russian census recorded 663 citizens who claimed to be ethnic Japanese orRyukyuans,[19] while 523 individuals stated that Japanese is their native language, including 162 in Moscow, 43 in Saint Petersburg, 31 in Primorsky Krai, 27 inMoscow Oblast, 22 inStavropol Krai, and 16 in Sakhalin Oblast.[20]
October 2023 figures from Japan'sMinistry of Foreign Affairs state that 1,003 Japanese nationals reside in Russia.[21]
TheJapanese School in Moscow is aJapanese international day school in Moscow.
There is apart-time Japanese school inSaint Petersburg, the St. Petersburg Japanese Language School, which holds classes at theAnglo-American School Saint Petersburg branch.[22]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help) Ancestry in Russia | |
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