Annual Newsletter of the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University

S LAVIC-EURASIANR ESEARCHC ENTER NEWSNo. 24
April 2017

Message from the Director
I began to work as a director of the Slavic-Eurasian
Research Center at the beginning of February 2017.
Twenty-two years ago, I was a research fellow of thiscenter (at that time, the name of this center was the Slavic
Research Center), but I did not imagine that I would be adirector of this center in the future.
The third mid-term plan (FY2016–2021) started in2016. During this third mid-term plan, we will continue
in the recent directions of our joint projects at the SRC
focused on comparative research and border studies.
Comparative research will be conducted in the following
ongoing joint research projects: JSPS Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research A “Comparative Colonial History:
Sengoku Manabu
Colonial Administration and Center-Periphery Interactions
in Modern Empires,” “Comparison of Development Models for Major Regional Powers inEurasia: Russia, China and India,” JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B “Economic
Policies of Emerging Democracies in the Post-neoliberal Period,” and “Memoryscape of
War in Socialist Countries: The Soviet Union, China and Vietnam.”With respect to border studies, the Global COE Program “Reshaping Japan’s BorderStudies: Slavic-Eurasia and World” (FY2009–2013) has been succeeded by JSPS Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Research A “Reconstruction of International Relations through Border Studies”
and JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B “Russo-Chinese Relations: Researching
Rapprochement.” Additionally, for the next six years, the National Institutes for the Humanities have undertaken an initiative on Northeast Asia, in which five Japanese research
institutions are taking part, including the SRC. The SRC’s role, focused on politics broadly
speaking, also includes border studies, economics, and history. Our border studies program
has been socially active supporting the NPO “Japan International Border Studies Network(JIBSN).” The JIBSN connects workers in local governments and public-service corporations
across borders. The JIBSN won the Japan Consortium for Area Studies (JCAS) award forsocial collaboration in 2015. Especially worthy of note is the border tourism initiative, anattempt to revitalize local areas by leveraging border region attributes as a resource to attract
tourists. If nothing else, it has drawn wide attention as a practical form of social activism
when applied at Japan’s northern, southern, and western edges.

No.24 April 2017

Related to both comparative research and border studies, we also are conducting international joint research on comparative linguistics and welfare states in Slavic-Eurasia. In
addition, we are integrating various and different fields and disciplines including the naturalsciences to investigate largely unexplored areas, such as the Arctic. Hokkaido University
has been chosen to host the polar initiative and the SRC is playing its part as Russia and its
neighbors are a large part of the Northern equation.
In the area of education, i.e., the graduate program of Slavic Eurasian area studies at
the Graduate School of Letters, the SRC has made improvements, taking advantage of suchactivities at our university as summer institutes and the program with five universities in the
Russian Far East (RJE3).
Our center will continue to advance Slavic-Eurasian area studies together with ourcolleagues and friends around Japan and the world. I would be glad if you could assist ourcenter with your continuous support.

2016 Summer International Symposium“Russia’s Far North: The Contested Frontier”
The 2016 Summer International Symposium “Russia’s Far
North: The Contested Frontier”
was held on July 7–8, 2016 at
the Slavic-Eurasian ResearchCenter (SRC). This symposium
was designed on completion of
the Japan-Finland Bilateral Joint
Research Program of the JSPS
“Russia’s Final Energy Frontier:
Sustainability Challenges of theRussian Far North.” Since theresearch program started in 2014,
Japanese and Finnish researchers
A scene from the reception
including some staff from the
SRC have conducted a series of seminars in each country. Besides, the members of thismulti-disciplinary research program together visited the Russian Far North on-site twice:first Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in 2014, and second Salekhart and around Yamal-Nenets
Autonomous Okrug in 2015.
The political situations surrounding Russia have been ones of unrest during the research
program due to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Ukraine crisis. The economic sanctions
imposed by Western countries against Russia greatly affected offshore natural resource
development in the Arctic Russia. At the same time, the Northern Sea Route became morenavigable in the summer season because of the temperature rise by global warming. As aresult, a new possibility of more effective transportation between Europe and East Asia is
opening. Russia’s Far North has certainly become a spot attracting worldwide attention asa “contested frontier.”
The symposium was organized by members of the research program inviting in addition
advanced specialists in the field from other countries. The two-day program of the symposium
consisted of six sessions with three presentations each, followed by discussants’ comments andopen discussions. The first session was on energy and development, in which the geopolitical2

No.24 April 2017

situation as well as the circumstances of resource development in the Russian Arctic were
illustrated. The second session was on indigenous people and society. The massive tradeactivity of indigenous people within and over the range of regions was shown with vivid
examples. In the third session on maritime transportation, the most up-to-date information
about logistics in connection with the Northern Sea Route was provided. The fourth session,on the economy and the environment, had presentations examining the circumstances ofbusiness and environmental issues. The presentations in the fifth session on international
relations interpreted the latest situation of politics and military affairs in the Russian Far
North under the Ukrainian and Syrian crises. And, last but not least, in the sixth session on
image and representation, analyses of how the Russian Far North was imagined historically,
and is imagined in contemporary Russia, were presented.
On the day before the symposium, four young scholars who had been selected fromamong the general applicants talked on the results of their usual studies. Through the courseof the young scholars’ seminar and the symposium, a large number of people dynamicallyjoined the discussions. The discussion papers, dealing with issues of the common area fromvarious viewpoints, are now being prepared for publication in the near future. The results ofthe symposium are undoubtedly connected to the further research in progress.

Goto Masanori
Speakers at the Symposium (July 7–8, 2016)

Lassi Heininen (University of Lapland, Finland) “The Nexus of Resource Geopolitics, the Environment,
Security and Resilience in the World of ‘Wicked’ Problems”
Motomura Masumi (JOGMEC, Japan) “Perspectives of Oil and Gas Development in the Russian Arctic”
Liu Xu (Renmin University of China, China) “China’s Arctic Policy and Its Implication for China-Russia
Relations”
Arbakhan Magomedov (Ulyanovsk State University, Russia) “Russian Nationalism and Arctic Aborigines:
Growing Pressure to Indigenous Communities (Some Comparison with the North Caucasus)”
Goto Masanori (SRC) “Cutting through Channels: Local Entrepreneurship of Indigenous Actors in Arctic
Russia”
Tobias Holzlehner (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) “Hunters and Traders in a Fluid
World: Towards a Maritime Anthropology of Northeast Russia”
Furuichi Masahiko (Kyoto University, Japan) “Container Quick Delivery Scenario by the NSR/SCR-combined
Shipping: How Can the Arctic Shipping Be More Competitive in the Age of Mega-ships?”
Daria Gritsenko (University of Helsinki, Finland) “The Structuration Approach to Arctic Seaport Development:
The Case of Sabetta”
Otsuka Natsuhiko (North Japan Port Consultants, Japan) “Northern Sea Route Today and Future: How Arctic
Shipping Might Become Reality”
Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen (University of Helsinki, Finland) “Greening Regional Energy Policies in the Russian
Arctic? Encountering State Energopower in Archangelsk and Karelia”
Tokunaga Masahiro (Kansai University, Japan) “The Russian Arctic and Environmental Discourse”
Hanna Mäkinen and Eini Haaja (University of Turku, Finland) “Are Finnish Firms Willing to Explore theRussian Maritime and Offshore Industry?”
Alexander Sergunin (St. Petersburg State University, Russia) “Russia’s Arctic Strategies in the Wake of the
Ukrainian and Syrian Crises”
Pavel Baev (Peace Research Institute Oslo, Norway) “Examining the Sustainability of Russian Military-security
Policies and Programs in the Arctic”
Ohnishi Fujio (Nihon University, Japan) “Casting Dark Shadows: The Arctic Concert System and Its
Challenges”
Otto Boele (Leiden University, The Netherlands) “The Far North in Russia’s Fin-de-Siècle Imagination: The
Paintings and Writings of Aleksandr Borisov”
Dmitry Baranov (Russian Museum of Ethnography, Russia) “The Image of the Russian North in I. Bilibin’s
Creative Work”
Sergei Medvedev (Higher School of Economics, Russia) “Arctic Legacy as Symbolic Resource in Russian
Politics”

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No.24 April 2017

Speakers at the Young Researchers’ Seminar (July 6, 2016)

Jussi Huotari (University of Helsinki, Finland) “Oil and Gas Corporations in the Russian Arctic: Environment
Liability vs Social Responsibility?”
Oishi Yuka (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) “Disappearing ‘White Fish’ and Remaining ‘Black
Fish’ in the Lower Ob’ River and Its Tributaries”
Kaji Hiromi (University of Tokyo, Japan) “Stem Alternation and Suffix Allomorphy in Ewen”
Sun Mingrui (Shanghai International Studies University, PRC) “Environmental Situation of the Russian Arctic
Region and Its Solutions”

2016 Winter International Symposium “25 Years
After: Post-Communism’s Vibrant Diversity”
On December 8–9, 2016,
the Slavic-Eurasian ResearchCenter organized an annual wintersymposium titled “25 Years After: Post-Communism’s Vibrant
Diversity,” together with our
co-research project “Comparative
Economic Policies of Slavic-Eurasian States in the Post-neoliberal
Period.”The year 25 years before is1991. Many people remember
year 1991 as the year of thedisintegration of the Soviet Union,
The session about “Family and the State”
but this is not the only event of
this year. The former Yugoslavia also collapsed and disastrous civil wars started in 1991.
In addition, and maybe most people do not remember, the final “first totally free election ofparliament” in Eastern Europe was held in Poland in 1991. Judging from these facts, we cansay that the first stage of transformation of socialist regimes ended in this year.
In this symposium, we organized six sessions for discussing the diversity of the
post-communist world from a political, economic, linguistic, and border studies’ perspective.
This does not mean that that the socialist world was homogeneous or monolithic; mostresearchers, including myself, admitted the diversity of socialist countries at that time. But,
during the last 25 years, the diversity or variety of post-socialist countries has considerably
expanded for various reasons, such as East European countries’ accession to the European
Union, the rise of regional powers, including Russia, the curious coexistence of globalization
and anti-globalization, and so on. We have discussed various aspects of diversity in this
symposium from a comparative perspective.
On the first day, we held three sessions: “Transition or Not among Germany’s Neighbors,”“Socio-political Turning Points and Linguistic Change in Slavic Eurasia,” and “Comparisonof State Sector Reforms: Russia, China and India.” On the second day, we also held three sessions: “Family and the State in Post-Communist Societies,” “Corruption and Anti-corruptionin Eurasia,” and “Neoliberalism and its Foes: The Battle for Post-Communist Countries.” A
total of 76 people participated in this symposium.

Sengoku Manabu
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No.24 April 2017

Speakers at the Symposium (December 8–9, 2016)

Kimura Goro Christoph (Sophia University, Japan) “Signs of Deterritorialization?: Linguistic Landscape at
the German-Polish Border”
Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast (Europa Universität Viadrina, Germany) “German-Polish Border from the System
Transformation until the Present-Day European Integration”
Martin Klatt (University of Southern Denmark) “The Danish-German Border Region: Caught between
Systemic Differences and Re-bordering: Difficulties of Integrative Cooperation in a Pacified European
Border Region”
Nomachi Motoki (SRC) and Wayles Browne (Cornell University) “Newly Recognized Old Languages:
Ausbau Languages and Their Changes after the Disintegration of Yugoslavia”
Tomasz Wicherkiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland) “The (Minority)Languages ofPoland: Dynamics of Contacts and Changes after 1989”
Ilya Matveev (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) “Privatization
That Never Was: Politics of State-owned Sector Reform in Russia since 2009”
Marukawa Tomoo (University of Tokyo, Japan) “Regional Unemployment Disparities in China”
Fukumi Atsushi (University of Hyogo, Japan) “Power Sector Reform in India: Current Status and Issues”
Jolanta Aidukaite (Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania) “Support to Families with Children in theBaltic States: Pathways of Expansion and Retrenchment from 2004 to the Present”
Sengoku Manabu (SRC) “Coping with a Declining Birthrate: Comparing Eastern Europe with Japan”
Igarashi Noriko (Tenri University, Japan) “Elderly Care in Post-Soviet Russia”
Alexander Kupatadze (King’s College London, UK) “Exploring the Variation in Political-Criminal Nexusof Post-Soviet Eurasia”
Dina Sharipova (KIMEP University, Kazakhstan) “Informal Exchanges in Education in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan”
Aburamoto Mari (SRC) “The Politics of Anti-Corruption Campaigns in Putin’s Russia: Power, Opposition
and the All-Russia People’s Front”
Peter Rutland (Wesleyan University, USA) “Neoliberalism and Its Alternatives: Looking Back at 25 Yearsof Transition in Russia”
Pavol Baboš (Comenius University, Slovakia/SRC) “Different, Yet the Same? Neo-liberalism in the Czechand Slovakian Economic Policies”
Yoshii Masahiko (Kobe University, Japan) “Neo-liberalism or EU Conditions: Economic Policies in the
CEECs and Balkan Countries”

Association for Borderlands Studies Japan
Chapter (ABSj) Officially Approved
The Eurasia Unit for Border Research (UBRJ) had enjoyed close relations with Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS), one of the largest academic communities of borderstudies all over the world. The unit leader, Akihiro Iwashita, served as the ABS President
in 2015–2016. He also took an initiative to establish the ABS Japan Chapter, which is anumbrella organization for ABS members in Japan with the intention of expanding to Eurasia
in the future. The ABS Board of Directors approved of its establishment in April 2016 at
the ABS annual conference in Reno. Japan-based members of ABS had already shown theirintention to create the Border Studies Japan Chapter and tentatively elected Naomi Chi(Graduate School of Public Policy, Hokkaido University and UBRJ member) as its chairin November 2016, who officially became the head of ABSj on this occasion. ABSj kicked
off its activity by hosting the very first ABSj Seminar on November 27, 2016, at the Tokyo
Office of Hokkaido University. It is without a doubt that the UBRJ took a leading role ininstitutionalizing the academic community of border studies in Japan.

Iwashita Akihiro

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No.24 April 2017

Border Studies Summer School Relaunched
The Eurasia Unit for Border Research (UBRJ) relaunched the BorderStudies Summer School within theframework of the Hokkaido Summer
Institute, which was held on July
25–29, 2016 at SRC. The Graduate
School of Public Policy (HOPS) was
the co-organizer of the school. The
predecessor project of UBRJ, Global
COE Program “Reshaping Japan’s
Border Studies,” held the analogous
summer school in 2010–2013 FY.
Naomi Chi (HOPS), making use ofher past experiences and personal
Attentive students
connections in the border studies
community all over the world, and devised the following program. We invited four distinguished scholars from abroad as lecturers.
Border Studies I: Invitation to Border Studies I

Day 1: July 25, 2016
1. Introduction to the course: Overview, ice breaker (Naomi Chi, HOPS & Akihiro Iwashita, SRC)
2. Theoretical Framework on Border Studies I: Overview and application (Alexander Diener, the Universityof Kansas)
3. Theoretical Framework on Border Studies II: Philosophical Approach to Bordering (Diener)
4. Borders and International Relations I: Borders in East Asia (Iwashita)
Day 2: July 26, 2016
5. Borders and International Relations II: “The Land of No Smiles” (David Shim, University of Groningen)
6. Borders and International Relations III: Unrecognized states in Eurasia (Shinkichi Fujimori, SRC)
7. Borders and International Relations IV: Economic Development of the Russian Far East and North(Shinichiro Tabata, SRC)
8. Movie showing “Hafu”

Border Studies II: Invitation to Border Studies II

Day 3: July 27, 2016
1. Borders and Migration I: Case study of Europe (Paul Fryer, University of Eastern Finland)
2. Borders and Migration II: Case study of East Asia (Chi)
3. Borders and Culture: Migration and Foodscapes (Joni Virkkunen, University of Eastern Finland)
4. Borders and Environment: Case Study of Central Asia (Tetsuro Chida, SRC)
Day 4: July 28, 2016
5. Borders and Diversity: The Ainu Indigenous People and Japanese Indigenous Pol icy (Chisato Abe, NPO“Ainu Indigenous Peoples Film Fest”)
6. Wrap up session: Student Presentations
Day 5: July 29, 2016
		 Study Tour to Ainu Museum, Tobiu Art Community (Shiraoi Town) and Noboribetsu Onsen

Fifty four people, including lecturers, students and auditors, from 21 countries participated in this summer school. Participants were exposed to various topics related to borderstudies: theoretical aspects, territorial disputes, migration, economy, border representations,rights of indigenous people and transboundary environmental problems. At the same time, we
also rode on the strength of SRC and geographically covered a vast area of Slavic-Eurasianworld: Northeast Asia, Central Asia, Russian Arctic region, Ukraine and “Donetsk People’s
Republic” etc. Domestic as well as foreign students actively engaged in discussions and group6

No.24 April 2017

Collective photo at the entrance of Hokkaido University Museum
work. At the final “wrap-up session” all participants collaborated and worked together to makea collective presentation about “how the world would be like in 2030.” We also organized ashort tour of the Hokkaido University Museum, which reopened on July 25 and invited theparticipants to see the exhibition of “border tourism” at the UBRJ booth.
Moreover, our participants joined the study tour to Shiraoi and Noboribetsu Town on
July 19. We visited the Ainu Museum, where we were exposed to the Ainu, the indigenous
people of Hokkaido. Also, participants got to take a glimpse of “border art” at the Tobiu
Art Community, which is led by a distinguished artist of Hokkaido, Mr. Kineta Kunimatsu.
During the summer school, we held several dinners and parties after the lectures, which
deepened our friendship as well as established personal connections.
The organization of the summer school has an important meaning: an “investment for the
future.” We are confident that many of the participants will take a leading role in the global
community of the “border studies” in the near future, with whom UBRJ will continuously
collaborate with. We sincerely would like to thank all the participants in the “Border Studies
Summer School 2016” for an intense and stimulating time together. We also appreciate all
the staff who were involved in the organization and logistics of the summer school. The SRC
and HOPS will host another summer school on July 12–19, 2017, which will focus on borderissues in Northeast Asia. The Northeast Asian Area Studies project (NIHU) will co-organize
next year’s summer school.

Chida Tetsuro7

No.24 April 2017

Nomachi Motoki Awarded
the Japan Academy Medal and JSPS Prize
Associate Professor Nomachi wasawarded the 13th Japan Academy Medal and
FY2016 JSPS Prize.
The JSPS Prize is meant to recognize at
an early stage in their careers young researchers with fresh ideas who have the potential to
become world leaders in their fields, while
helping to enhance their opportunities to advance their research and make breakthroughs.
On the recommendation of the JSPS PRIZE
Selection Committee held on October 31,
2016, the Japan Society for the Promotionof Science (JSPS) has chosen 25 young
researchers, who are expected to become
future trailblazers of scientific research inJapan, as recipients of the FY2016 JSPS Prize.
Dr. Nomachi was elected for his research on“Typological Studies in Slavic Morphosyntax
and Its Diachronic and Areal Changes: With
Special Reference to Kashubian.”
Prof. Nomachi (second from the left)
The purpose of the Japan Academy Medwith his parents and Prof. Huszcza
al is to give formal recognition to outstanding
young researchers, while encouraging them in their future work. Awardees are selected fromamong the annual recipients of the JSPS Prize. Six scholars, including Dr. Nomachi, were
elected as recipients of the 13th Japan Academy Medal at the 1105th General Meeting heldon January 12, 2017.
A ceremony in which both the JSPS Prize and the Japan Academy Medal was awarded
was held on February 8, 2017 at the Japan Academy.

Tabata Shinichiro

Our Staff (FY2016)
Ieda Osamu: Professor, Environment of Eurasia; Area Studies on Eastern Europe, HungarianStudies
Iwashita Akihiro: Professor, Eurasia Border Studies; Russian Foreign Policy and Sino-Russian Relations
Koshino Go: Associate Professor, Russian and Belarusian Literature
Naganawa Norihiro: Associate Professor, Modern History of Central Eurasia; Islam in
RussiaNomachi Motoki: Associate Professor, Slavic Linguistics; General Linguistics
Sengoku Manabu: Professor, Comparative Politics and Political Economy; Welfare Politics
of Central and East European Countries; Director of the SRC
Tabata Shinichiro: Professor, Russian Economy and Comparative Economic Studies
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No.24 April 2017

Uyama Tomohiko: Professor, Modern History and Politics of Central Asia; Comparative
Imperial History; Modern History and Politics of Central Asia; Comparative Imperial
HistoryDavid Wolff: Professor, Russian, Soviet, and Emigre History; Siberia and the Far East; Cold
War; Northeast Asian Region Construction
Yamamura Rihito: Comparative Economics; Russian Industry and Agriculture

Assistant Professors
Aburamoto Mari: Comparative Politics, Contemporary Russian Politics
Chida Tetsuro: Russian History; Central Asian Area Studies; History of Geography
Kato Mihoko: International Relations, Russia’s Foreign Policy, Regionalism in East Asia
Kikuta Haruka: Contemporary Social Changes in Central Asian Sedentary Society
Takahashi Minori: International Relations, Area Studies (Denmark, Greenland, and theArctic)Takahashi Sanami: Russian Orthodoxy in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Culture

Foreign Visiting Fellows 2016 (June) – 2017 (July)
Jolanta Aidukaite: Welfare System of the Three Baltic States after the Post-Soviet Period
Alexander Alexandrov: Leo Tolstoy in the Media World of the Russian Empire (1900s –early 1910s)
Pavol Baboš: Neoliberalism and Support for Democracy in Post-communist Europe
Bojan Belić: Languages of Vojvodina: What to Expect When You’re a Minority
Bruce Grant: The Donkey Wars: Satire, Free Speech, and Political Imagination in the Muslim
Caucasus
Marcin Kaczmarski: The Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road: Between
Competition and Cooperation
Nikolay Mitrokhin: Pro-Russian Separatism in East and South Ukraine: How “City Freaks”
Took Control of the Donbas and Crimea
Stephen Wheatcroft: Food and Demographic Problems in the Urals, Siberia, the Russian
Far East and East Asia, 1929–60
Zbigniew Wojnowski: Building Capitalism in the Socialist Bloc: Music Industry in Soviet
Eurasia, 1976–1991

Research Fellows
Anastasia Fedorova: Japanese Cinema, Soviet Cinema, Transnational Cinematic Exchange
Goto Masanori: Cultural Anthropology; Cultural and Economic Agency in Russia
Kamitake Kieko: Russian Music History from the End of the 19th Century to the Early
20th Century
Aleksandra Kuklina: Japan-Russia and China-Russia Resource Diplomacy after the End of
the Cold War
Souno Fumoto: Cultural Anthropology; Bazaar Trade in Uzbekistan

Library and Information Service Staff
Osuga Mika: Research Associate, Publications
Tonai Yuzuru: Associate Professor, SRC Head Librarian9No.24 April 2017

Ongoing Cooperative Research Projects
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Excluding “Grants-inAid for JSPS Fellows” and “Grants-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results Scientific Literature)”

Scientific Research A
Headed by Tabata Shinichiro: “Comparison of Development Models for Major Regional
Powers in Eurasia: Russia, China and India” (2015–18).
Headed by Ieda Osamu: “Destruction and Reconstruction of Human and Natural
Environments in Post-catastrophe Areas: Chernobyl, Ajka, and Fukushima” (2015–17).
Headed by Iwashita Akihiro: “Reconstruction of International Relations through BorderStudies” (2014–17).
Headed by Uyama Tomohiko: “Comparative Colonial History: Colonial Administration
and Center-Periphery Interactions in Modern Empires” (2013–17).
Scientific Research B
Headed by Sengoku Manabu: “Economic Policies of the Emerging Democracies in the
Post-neoliberal Period” (2016–19).
Headed by David Wolff: “Russo-Chinese Relations: Researching Rapprochement”(2015–18).
Headed by Koshino Go: “Memoryscape of War in Socialist Countries: The Soviet
Union, China and Vietnam” (2013–16).
Headed by Nomachi Motoki: “A Comprehensive Study of the Slavic Micro Literary
Languages after the Revolution of Eastern Europe” (2013–16).
Headed by Hara Teruyuki: “Modern History of the Sakhalin Island (Karafuto), as a
Borderland Colony” (2013–16).
Scientific Research C
Headed by Goto Masanori: “Anthropological Study of Entrepreneurship in Post-Socialist
Countries” (2014–16).
Headed by Itani Hiroshi: “Characters and Social Influences of the ‘Hokushin’ (advanceto the north) Theory in the Empire of Japan: In the Cases of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands”(2014–16).
Headed by Naganawa Norihiro: “Revolutionary Empire: A Biography of Karim
Khakimov (1892–1937)” (2013–16).
Headed by Komoto Yasuko: “An Examination of ‘Lamaism’ Visual Materials in Modern
Japan” (2012–16).
Challenging Exploratory Research
Headed by Nomachi Motoki: “Language Change in Banat Bulgarian in Serbia and Its
Current Situation” (2016–18).
Headed by Koshino Go: “Mixture of Russian and Chinese Cultures in North-East
Eurasia: Memory and Representation” (2016–18).
Headed by Ieda Osamu: “New Historical Approaches to Slavic Eurasia between
Emerging Eastern Europe and Imperial Japan” (2015–17).
Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists A
Headed by Takahashi Minori: “Self-government and Climate Change: ‘Autonomy inExternal and Internal Relations’ in Greenland” (2014–17).
Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists B
Headed by Aburamoto Mari: “Political Regime and Elections in Contemporary Russia:
Politics of Electoral Integrity” (2016–18).
Headed by Takahashi Sanami: “Canonization and Veneration of Saints in the Russian10No.24 April 2017

Church through International Relations” (2015–17).
Headed by Chida Tetsuro: “Environmental History of the Aral Sea Basin after the WorldWar II: Human Activities and Ecological Crisis” (2013–16).
Research Activity Start-up
Headed by Kamitake Kieko: “The Role of Media on Self-awareness of Russian Music”(2016–17).
Headed by Kikuta Haruka: “Glocalization of Gender through Immigrant Laborers inCentral Asian Muslim Societies” (2015–16).
Other Project
Headed by Tabata Shinichiro: “Russia’s Final Energy Frontier: Sustainability Challengesof the Russian Far North” (2014–2016) (Funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science and the Academy of Finland).

Visitors from Abroad
Daria Gritsenko (University of Helsinki, Finland), June-July 2016: The Structuration
Approach to Arctic Seaport Development: The Case of Sabetta.
Tian Hongmin (Shanghai Normal University, PRC), September-October 2016: Imagesof China in Contemporary Russian Literature.
Feng Anquan (Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, PRC), October-November 2016: Economic Development of the Russian Far North and East.

Guest Lecturers from Abroad
Tuyara Gavrilyeva (North-Eastern Federal University, Russia) “Comparative Analysis
of Trends in the Development of the World Northern Cities and Russia,” January 25, 2016.
Kornelia Ichin (University of Belgrade, Serbia) “От авангардного взрыва — квоенному,” January 27, 2016.
Tulkin Atamurodov (University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Uzbekistan) andSanjar Kholbaev (University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Uzbekistan) “Transformation and Sustainable Development in Uzbekistan,” February 4, 2016.
Kseniia Galiaeva (Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) “Unreal
Estate: Dacha as Semiosphere,” February 19, 2016.
International Seminar: “Current Change from Cooperation into Confrontation?: Security
Environment in the Arctic Region”: Andreas Østhagen (Norwegian Institute of Defence
Studies) “Arctic Security: A Tale of Two Worlds?”; Rob Huebert (University of Calgary,
Canada) “It Never Really Was about Cooperation...: The Impact of the Core Security Needsof the Great Powers on the Arctic”; Katarzyna Zysk (Norwegian Defence University
College) “Russia and the Arctic: Territory of Dialogue and Militarization”; Marc Lanteigne(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) “Musings of a Near-Arctic State: China’s
Circumpolar Strategies,” February 27, 2016
Aleksandr Duličenko (Tartu University, Estonia) “Литературные микроязыки: новая
языковая категория в современном славянском мире,” March 14, 2016.
Workshop & Seminar: “New Approaches to the Medieval Slavic Texts”: Alexandre
Bobrov (Institute of Russian Literature, RAS) “Новозаветные апокрифы в версиях
Ефросина Белозерского”; Anisava Miltenova (Institute of Literature, Bulgarian Academyof Sciences) “Medieval Texts with a Multilingual Tradition: Apocrypha,” March 15, 2016.
11No.24 April 2017

Kristian Feigelson (Sorbonne-Nouvelle University/IRCAV, France) “Filming the Terror
in USSR,” March 23, 2016.
Robert Greenburg (University of Auckland, New Zealand) “Asserting the Position of
the Humanities and Social Sciences: Perspectives from the USA and New Zealand,” March
28, 2016.
Robert Greenburg (University of Auckland, New Zealand) “Making Linguistic Analysis
Impactful: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research on the Slavic Language,” March 29,
2016.
Evžen Kočenda (Charles University, Czech Republic) “Trade in Parts and Components
across Europe,” May 19, 2016.
Svetlana Vasil’eva (Buryat State University, Russia) “Сохранение, трансляция
духовного и материального наследия старообрядцев: семейских в условиях
трансформации российского общества”; Sergei Taranets (Ukrainian Academy of
Sciences) “Старообрядчество в социокультурном пространстве Российской империи
конца ХVІІ – начала ХХ века,” May 28, 2016.
Svetlana Vasil’eva (Buryat State University, Russia) “Государственная модернизация
старообрядческих институтов Байкальского региона в имперский, советскийи постсоветский периоды”; Sergei Taranets (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences)“Старообрядчество на территории Украины в конце ХVІІ – начале ХХ века,” May 31,
2016.
Diliara Usmanova (Kazan Federal University, Russia) “Археографические экспедицииКГУ и традиции казанской восточной археографии в ХХ столетии,” June 8, 2016.
Jason Wittenberg (University of California at Berkeley, USA) “Contemporary Political
Trends and Historical Legacies: Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey,” June 22, 2016.
Daria Gritsenko (University of Helsinki, Finland) “Unveiling Russian Media and Foreign
Policy Perceptions of the Arctic,” July 11, 2016.
Andrijana Cvetkovikj (Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia in Japan) “Macedonian Cultural Heritage, Language and Cinema,” July 20, 2016.
International Symposium: “Standard Language Ideology in the Slavic Lands”: Tore
Kristiansen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) “Late-Modern Sociolinguistic Change
and the SL/SLI Complex”; Curt Woolhiser (Brandeis University, USA) et al. “Round Table:
Minority Languages’ Standardization”; Christina Kramer (University of Toronto, Canada)“Language Ideology in Macedonia: Language Laws, Changing Orthographies, and the New
Pravopis”; Marko Stabej (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia) “Standard Language Ideologies
in Slovenia”; Grace E. Fielder (University of Arizona, USA) “Recalibrating the Norms in aStandard Language Culture: The Case of Bulgarian”; Robert Greenberg (University of Auckland, New Zealand) “The Role of Language Ideology in the Standardization of the Newest
South Slavic Languages: Bosnian and Montenegrin”; Mark Richard Lauersdorf (Universityof Kentucky, USA) “Standard Language Ideology in the Slovak-Speaking Region of Central
Europe: Controlling Space and Time, Form and Function”; Laada Bilaniuk (University ofWashington, USA) “The Affective Dimension of Standard and Non-Standard Language Use
in Ukraine”; Curt Woolhiser (Brandeis University, USA) “Standard Languages and Standard
Language Ideologies in Post-Soviet Belarus,” August 5–6, 2016.
Andrey Gubin (Far Eastern Federal University, Russia) “Russian New Oriental Diplomacy: Peculiarities in New Upheavals,” August 24, 2016.
«Специальный Семинар: Восприятие русской литературы в современной Китае»Хоу Вейхун (Исследовательский институт иностранной литературы при Академии
обществе нных наук, PRC) “Современная литература”; Сюй Лэ (Исследовательский
институт иностранной литературы при Академии обществе нных наук, PRC) “Чехов”;
12No.24 April 2017Хоу Дань (Исследовательский институт иностранной литературы при Академии
общественных наук, PRC) “Гоголь,” September 13, 2016.
Sergii Geraskov (Donetsk National Technical University, Ukraine) “Japan’s Image in
Ukraine: Myths and Reality,” October 3, 2016.
Dmitrii Strel’tsov (Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russia) et al.
“Northern Territorial Issue: Rethinking the Recognition and the Relationship between Russia
and Japan,” October 6, 2016.
Ilja Viktorov (Stockholm University, Sweden) “When Monetary Power Autonomy
Matters: Political Economy of the 2014–15 Financial Crisis in Russia and Its Macrofoundations,” October 11, 2016.
Sanja Vulić (University of Zagreb, Croatia) “Latest Dialectological Observation of theLanguage of Faust Vrančić: Lexis in the Focus,” November 4, 2016.
Feng Anquan (Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, PRC) “Sino-Russian Economic Cooperation: Current Situation and Future Issues,” November 8, 2016.
Erika Rondo et al. “Refugee Wave of 2015–2016 in Germany and State Policy ofIntegration,” November 14.

European Researcher in Japan
Pavol Baboš (Institute for Forecasting, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia/
Foreign Fellow, 2016–17)
In October 2015 I submitted an application for visiting
fellowship at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, because
it was recommended as one of the best places with some of
the best experts on Central Eastern Europe. At that time I wasdeveloping ideas about why democracy in post-communist
countries started to fail. So I formulated my research proposal
around those ideas.
Before I knew the results Poland held its parliamentaryelections, which brought to power the Law and Justice party,
which is now dismantling the pillars of liberal democracy in the
country. And by the time I could travel to Japan my own country,
Slovakia, witnessed the elections that put an extreme right, andsome would even say fascist political party in the parliament. Allof this meant that there will be a lot of new studying impulses.
The author
Being in Japan helped me in many ways to proceed withmy work. The advantage of being a visiting researcher meant that I had no administrative
duties and no teaching, which in turn provided enough time for research. Being a European
researcher in Japan also meant 7–8 hours difference, so the time for research was mostly
uninterrupted by modern communication technology that otherwise connects the world easily.
Simply, the telephone did not ring all the time and emails were not beeping every minute.
The real environment at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center’s exceeded all expectations.
I found a well-equipped and stocked library, which is far from a matter of course in underfunded East European public universities. I have been very lucky to meet other colleagues,
both the SRC researchers as well as other visiting scholars that I could discuss my workwith and thus improve my ideas further. Especially helpful were the events facilitated ororganized by the SRC. As part of my fellowship, I had an opportunity to be part of a seminar13

No.24 April 2017at Waseda University in Tokyo, and also to be part of a panel at the SRC’s symposium devoted
to post-communism in Europe. During those events I could confront my ideas and researchwith many other colleagues and their expert opinions, which no doubt contributed to better
understanding of post-communist problems.
I will briefly introduce the main problem of post-communist Europe, which could bein a single sentence called the deviation from liberal to illiberal democracy. Three of four
Visegrad countries experienced a single-party government recently. In Hungary and Poland
the single-party government is still in office. While it is quite common in many countries
like the USA or Great Britain, it is rather unique in Central and Eastern Europe for two main
reasons: proportional electoral rules and heterogeneous structure of society, which together
produce a multi-party system with a need to form coalition governments. However, once in
office, the parties that formed a government attempted to meddle with many other institutions
to strengthen their power position.
In Hungary, Mr. Orban and his party Fidesz has more or less successfully attempted tocross all the abovementioned lines. Fidesz changed electoral rules before the 2014 elections
by lowering the number of seats in the parliament and thus increasing the number of MPs
voted in a single-member districts in one round, which clearly favors the biggest party. Fidesz
also changed the constitution, replaced management in the public broadcasting company, andonly recently a businessman close to Mr. Orban has bought the publishing house of the mostcritical newspaper in Hungary (Nepszabadsag). Mr. Orban himself has voiced his admiration
to other than democratic regimes and in an infamous speech in summer 2014 he stated that
democracy does not necessarily mean a liberal one.
In Poland, after coming to power in October 2015, the new government of the Law andJustice party has introduced laws that, according to its critics, limit the independence of themedia. Moreover, the government triggered a constitutional crisis when it took steps that
undermined the ability of the Constitutional Tribunal to function. The Polish governmenthas been locked in a battle over control of the 15-judge tribunal since winning last year’s
election. The new government rejected five judges appointed by the previous parliament andinstead chose its own replacements, and later refused to publish a tribunal decision finding that
action was largely unconstitutional. The government’s efforts to impose new legal restrictions
on the tribunal were also ruled unconstitutional, but that decision has also been ignored. In
addition to the constitutional tribunal issues, the new Polish government also replaced the
management of public broadcasting, which was perceived as taking control of the national
TV and Radio broadcasting, and also executed purges of the intelligence services and police.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliamentary group leader for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), and a former prime minister of Belgium from1999–2008, said that the measures Warsaw is taking are not only anti-liberal; they are above
all anti-democratic and contrary to the principles of the rule of law signed by Poland uponits EU accession.
The visiting fellowship at the SRC allowed me to study the reasons of the anti-democratic
turn of Eastern European elites and why it is tolerated by the people. Preliminary findings
suggest that globalization is to blame. Long years of globalization and trade liberalization
brought consequences to ordinary people in the form of sharp job competition and constantthreats to thier well-being. People blame established political elites for decisions that allowed
the consequences come this far and increasingly more people are prone to vote for anti-establishment parties with clear program that it incompatible with liberal democracy. In the year
2016 we witnessed a few of the real word examples, the Brexit referendum being the mostnotable effort to reverse globalization. The challenge for political science therefore remains toinclude globalization effects on individual lives into studying political attitudes and behavior.
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No.24 April 2017

Crows, Frogs, and I: A Summer in Sapporo
Bojan Belić (University of Washington, USA/Foreign Fellow, 2016)
If one has never visited Sapporo in mid-June,then one has never witnessed rows and piles ofgarbage bags left by orderly humans continuously
being attacked by disorderly crows; they sometimes even turn their beaks and claws on the orderly
humans themselves. And if one has never had thechance to live in mid-June Sapporo immediately
to the north of the Hokkaido University campus,
right across the street from the Horse Track andthe Crop Farm, then one has never fallen asleep tothe tune of the never-ready-to-doze frogs; they hidein the bamboo springing from the canal bordering
the farm. In 2016, I was honored to be invited by
Hokkaido University’s Slavic-Eurasian ResearchCenter (SRC) to spend two months in Sapporo
as a foreign visiting scholar, living and working
there between June 15th and August 15th. I saw
the attacking crows, I heard the hidden frogs, andI loved it all.
Before my 2016 trip to Sapporo, I had previAlmost like on top of the world.
ously visited the city in early February of 2015. I
My friend’s bicycle is now mine!
heard talks on Slovak and Kashubian matters anddelivered a talk of my own at the SRC; I went to the Sapporo Snow Festival; and I dined in the
famous Sapporo Biergarten restaurant. My second visit was a chance to experience Sapporo
in the summer. On the first day I went to work, poplar fluff welcomed me to a beautiful
campus. Those were the same poplars that would, as much as they could, protect me fromlate-June showers and July’s merciless sun. On that same day I also walked by Ono Pond,
covered in lotus, delightedly inviting children with their grandparents, college students with
their notebooks, and random tourists with their cameras. And then eventually, as I entered theSRC, I ran into—of all people—Osuga-san, with whom I had previously been communicatingby mail and email. Her helping me with everything continued, only now in person. In a few
short days, I met most of the SRC faculty, as well as the SRC General Office personnel. In
addition to being ready to accommodate all of my whims, Tagata-san and Nakajima-san werealso so kind as to accompany Dr. Nomachi and me to the July 30th Hokkaido Nippon-Ham
Fighters baseball game. Already, after those few short days, I knew that leaving it all behindin mid-August would not be easy, as indeed it wasn’t.
I came to the SRC with the plan of continuing to collaborate even more closely withmy colleague, Dr. Nomachi, on various issues related to both Slavic majority and Slavic
minority languages. During my two-month tenure, Dr. Nomachi and I were honored to visit
the esteemed Dr. Nagayo at Waseda University in Tokyo, deliver talks at Kyoto University
on the latest developments regarding what used to be the Serbo-Croatian language, andwelcome to Sapporo renowned scholars from Europe, North America, New Zealand, andJapan, who participated in the international symposium, “Standard Language Ideology in
the Slavic Lands.” With all the work I was able to accomplish in those two months at the
SRC, I became convinced that the Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program is an extremely15No.24 April 2017

well-conceived arrangement for foreign scholars interested in studies of the former Soviet andEast European countries to spend time in Sapporo, enabling them to dedicate their attention
to various research projects, as well as avail themselves of the close proximity of Japanesescholars with similar interests.
Within the SRC’s comfortable confines, I enjoyed my continuing work on language-related issues of the Bunyev ethnolinguistic community of northern Serbia. This resulted in mydelivering a paper entitled “Bunyev among Bunyevs: The 5W1H of the Bunyev Language
Question” at the Symposium. At the same event, I also delivered a paper, “Standard Language
Ideology without a Standard? The Varying Views of the Standard (Serbian) Language in
Present-Day Serbia,” which came out of my ongoing examination of the general notion ofstandard language and the particular notion of standard Serbian language. I was also able
to expand on my anthropophilosophical notion of glottocommunicability as I prepared todeliver a talk at Kyoto University under the title of “Where Once There Was Serbo-Croatian:
A proliferation of language names in what used to be the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” The time spent in Japan also allowed me once again to enjoy the company of Dr.
Nagayo of Tokyo’s Waseda University, with whom I have been in close contact ever since
I first visited Japan in 2014. His wise, boundless, generous advice is something I appreciate
most sincerely. I similarly reconnected with Dr. Mitani of the University of Tokyo and Dr.
Hashimoto of Hokkaido University. All of this was indeed possible thanks to the SRC’s
Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program.
If one has not had a chance to experience Sapporo in the summer, then one has notseen the attacking crows and heard the hidden frogs the way I have. If one has never cometo the oh-so-vibrant Sapporo, the way I did in the summer of 2016, then one has not had thepleasure of getting to know many Sapporoans; they accept with open minds. My friendships
with Koji-san, Shun-san, and Yusuke-san continue to grow. If one has not yet considered
the possibilities that the SRC’s Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program has to offer, then one
should certainly consider them soon.

Publications (2016)Эльза-Баир Гучинова. Рисовать лагерь: Язык травмыв памяти японских военнопленных о СССР (Sapporo: SRC,
2016) (in Russian).
The book sheds new light on the traumatic experience ofJapanese POWs in the Soviet Union, based on visual materials
such as pictures, caricatures, and illustrated diaries created bysoldiers themselves.

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No.24 April 2017

Alexander Izotov, “Soviet Identity Politics and Local Identity
in a Closed Border Town, 1944–1991,” Slavic Eurasia Papers, no. 8(Sapporo: SRC, 2016) (in English).

Abe Kenichi, ed., “Perspectives on Contemporary East European
Literature: Beyond National and Regional Frames,” Slavic EurasianStudies, no. 30 (Sapporo: SRC, 2016) (in English and Polish).

Uyama Tomohiko, ed., “Modern Eurasian Empires and Today’s World,” Comparative
Studies on Regional Powers, no. 4 (Tokyo: Minerva Shobo, 2016) (in Japanese).
Ozawa Minoru and Naganawa Norihiro, eds., “Northwest Eurasia as a Historical Space:
Pre-Modern Russia and Its Neighboring World,” Slavic Eurasian Library, no. 12 (Sapporo:
Hokkaido University Press, 2016) (in Japanese).
Slavic Studies, no. 63, 2016, refereed journal in Japanese with summaries in English
or Russian.
Acta Slavica Iaponica vol. XXXVII, 2016, refereed journal in English and Russian.
Eurasia Border Review vol. 6, no. 1, 2016, refereed journal in English.
Japan Border Review, no. 6, 2016, refereed journal in Japanese with summaries inEnglish.

The Library
The library is maintaining and expanding our web gallery of old maps and photos mainlyon the Russian Far East, as we mentioned here in 2013 and even earlier. In March 2015,
we added two photo albums on North Sakhalin around 1920 to the gallery and, in October
2016, we added two more photo albums on the Siberian expedition of the Japanese Armyand Navy from 1918 to 1921, geological maps of Okha by Japanese engineers, and several
maps of Sakhalin in the first half of the 20th century.
The URL of the gallery is http://srcmaterials-hokudai.jp/

Tonai Yuzuru

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No.24 April 2017

Contents
Message from the Director.................................................................................... p. 1
2016 Summer International Symposium “Russia’s Far North: The Contested
Frontier”.......................................................................................................... p. 2
2016 Winter International Symposium “25 Years After: Post-Communism’s
Vibrant Diversity”............................................................................................ p. 4
Association for Borderlands Studies Japan Chapter (ABSj) Officially Approved.... p. 5
Border Studies Summer School Relaunched.......................................................... p. 6
Nomachi Motoki Awarded the Japan Academy Medal and JSPS Prize...................p. 8
Our Staff (FY2016).................................................................................................. p. 8
Ongoing Cooperative Research Projects.............................................................. p. 10
Visitors from Abroad............................................................................................ p. 11
Guest Lecturers from Abroad............................................................................... p. 11
Essay: European Researcher in Japanby Pavol Baboš.............................................................................................. p. 13
Essay: Crows, Frogs, and I: A Summer in Sapporo
by Bojan Belić................................................................................................ p. 15
Publications (2016)............................................................................................... p. 16
The Library............................................................................................................ p. 17

Slavic-Eurasian Research Center
Hokkaido University
Kita-9, Nishi-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0809 Japan
Telephone: (81) 11-706-2388
Facsimile:(81) 11-706-4952
E-mail: src@slav.hokudai.ac.jp
Internet home page:
http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/index-e.html

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