# List of ambassadors of Russia to Japan

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Japan is the official representative of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to the Prime Minister and the Government of Japan.
The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia in Tokyo. There are consulates general in Osaka, Niigata, and Sapporo, and a consulate in Hakodate. The post of Russian Ambassador to Japan is currently held by Nikolai Nozdrev [ru], incumbent since 19 January 2024.

## History of diplomatic relations

The first official representative of Russia to Japan was Yevfimiy Putyatin in the early 1850s. Putyatin arranged the signing of the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855 which established diplomatic contacts between the two nations, and the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858. Consulates were set up in several Japanese cities, and with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, restrictions on contact with foreign nations were further relaxed. The first consulate was opened in Hakodate in 1858 by Iosif Goshkevich. A consulate in the Imperial capital of Edo, later Tokyo, was first established in 1872 by consul Yevgeny Byutsov [ru], and further developed into the embassy under his successor Karl von Struve. Relations were interrupted with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, but were re-established after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth.
After the February Revolution in 1917, contacts were maintained between Japan and the Russian Provisional Government, and the diplomatic mission continued to function, albeit without accreditation, after the October Revolution later that year. The Japanese government established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1925. The Soviet Union fought the brief Soviet–Japanese War towards the end of the Second World War, and afterwards refused to sign the Treaty of San Francisco, which normalised relations between Japan and the former allied powers. Full diplomatic relations were not resumed until after the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. Diplomatic relations continued throughout the twentieth century, and since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, ambassadors have been exchanged between Japan and the Russian Federation.

## List of representatives (1871 – present)
### Representatives of the Russian Empire to Japan (1871–1917)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination |
| Yevgeny Byutsov [ru] | Chargé d'affaires and Consul General | 1 January 1871 | 15 May 1873 |
| Karl von Struve | Chargé d'affaires and Consul General (before 3 December 1874) Minister-Resident (3 December 1874 – 1 July 1876) Envoy (from 1 July 1876) | 15 May 1873 | 12 January 1882 |
| Roman Rosen | Interim Chargé d'affaires | 22 November 1877 | 12 August 1879 |
| Mikhail Bartolomey | Envoy | 12 January 1882 | 30 November 1882 |
| Aleksandr Davydov [ru] | Envoy | 10 April 1883 | 20 November 1885 |
| Dmitry Shevich [ru] | Envoy | 28 January 1886 | 28 July 1892 |
| Mikhail Khitrovo [ru] | Envoy | 28 July 1892 | 30 June 1896 |
| Alexey Shpeyer | Interim Chargé d'affaires | 25 February 1896 | 6 November 1897 |
| Roman Rosen | Envoy | 4 February 1897 | 18 November 1899 |
| Alexander Izvolsky | Envoy | 18 November 1899 | 24 October 1902 |
| Roman Rosen | Envoy | 1902 | 28 January 1904 |
| Russo-Japanese War – Diplomatic relations interrupted (1904–1905) |||||
| George Bakhmeteff | Envoy | 1906 | 1908 |
| Nikolai Malevsky-Malevich [ru] | Envoy | 1908 | 1916 |
| Vasily Krupensky [ru] | Envoy | 1916 | 3 March 1917 |

### Representatives of the Russian Provisional Government to Japan (March 1917 – unaccredited after October 1917)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| Vasily Krupensky [ru] | Ambassador | 3 March 1917 | 1921 | |
| Dmitri Abrikosov [ru] | Chargé d'affaires | 1921 | 1925 | |

### Representatives of the Soviet Union to Japan (1925–1991)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination |
| Viktor Kopp | Plenipotentiary Representative | 25 February 1925 | 31 January 1927 |
| Valerian Dovgalevsky | Plenipotentiary Representative | 5 March 1927 | 21 October 1927 |
| Alexander Troyanovsky | Plenipotentiary Representative | 14 November 1927 | 24 January 1933 |
| Konstantin Yurenev | Plenipotentiary Representative | 29 January 1933 | 16 June 1937 |
| Mikhail Slavutsky [ru] | Plenipotentiary Representative | 27 July 1937 | 29 September 1939 |
| Konstantin Smetanin | Plenipotentiary Representative (until 9 May 1941) Ambassador (after 9 May 1941) | 29 September 1939 | 28 May 1942 |
| Yakov Malik | Ambassador | 28 May 1942 | 9 August 1945 |
| Soviet–Japanese War – Diplomatic relations interrupted (1945–1956) |||||
| Ivan Tevosian | Ambassador | 30 December 1956 | 30 March 1958 |
| Nikolai Fedorenko | Ambassador | 15 June 1958 | 16 July 1962 |
| Vladimir Vinogradov | Ambassador | 16 July 1962 | 3 April 1967 |
| Oleg Troyanovsky | Ambassador | 3 April 1967 | 17 April 1976 |
| Dmitry Polyansky | Ambassador | 17 April 1976 | 11 February 1982 |
| Vladimir Pavlov [ru] | Ambassador | 11 February 1982 | 27 February 1985 |
| Peter Abrassimov | Ambassador | 27 February 1985 | 13 May 1986 |
| Nikolai Soloviev [ru] | Ambassador | 13 May 1986 | 7 August 1990 |
| Lyudwig Chizhov [ru] | Ambassador | 7 August 1990 | 25 December 1991 |

### Representatives of the Russian Federation to Japan (1991 – present)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination |
| Lyudwig Chizhov [ru] | Ambassador | 25 December 1991 | 6 September 1996 |
| Aleksandr Panov | Ambassador | 6 September 1996 | 25 December 2003 |
| Alexander Losyukov | Ambassador | 2 March 2004 | 28 December 2006 |
| Mikhail Bely [ru] | Ambassador | 28 December 2006 | 20 February 2012 |
| Yevgeny Afanasiev [ru] | Ambassador | 20 February 2012 | 29 January 2018 |
| Mikhail Galuzin [ru] | Ambassador | 29 January 2018 | 25 November 2022 |
| Nikolai Nozdrev [ru] | Ambassador | 19 January 2024 | |