On October 6, 2006, in the prime of his creative powers, Professor Igor Alexandrovich Latyshev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, suddenly passed away.

For almost 50 years after graduating from the Japanese department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, he studied the history, politics, and social problems of Japan. From his pen came a number of fundamental monographs, including such as "The internal policy of Japanese imperialism on the eve of the war in the Pacific", "The state system of Japan", "The Ruling Liberal Democratic Party", "The Attempt on the Kuril Islands", " Russia and Japan. In the impasse of the territorial dispute 2000-2004", " Russian Kuriles. History and Modernity", "How Japan stole Russian gold", " Putin and Japan. Whether there will be concessions", "Japan, Japanese and Japanese Studies". I. A. Latyshev was the executive editor of collective collections on the problems of Soviet-Japanese relations. He actively participated in international symposia and scientific conferences devoted to the complex problems of relations between our country and Japan, where I. A. Latyshev always adequately defended the national interests of Russia. He loved his homeland and served it honestly as a journalist, scholar and educator of the younger generation of Orientalists.

The fate of I. A. Latyshev as a recognized specialist in Japan both here and abroad was very successful for him. At the first "introductory" stage, for 15 years, he studied Japan not in the quiet of classrooms and libraries and not in the narrow framework of one research topic, but in the thick of real Japanese reality and on a wide range of topical issues, including historical, political, social and cultural studies. During 15 years of three-time stay in Japan as a correspondent of the then leading Soviet socio-political newspaper, he was a member of the Soviet Union.-

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According to the official newspaper Pravda, he was able to visit different parts of the country, almost in all prefectures, and meet hundreds of its inhabitants, representing the most diverse social strata of Japanese society. While working as a journalist, he constantly felt the practical benefits of everything that he wrote and published on the pages of this newspaper. More than 800 articles and notes published under the signature of I. A. Latyshev were intended not for a narrow circle of specialists,but for a large number of ordinary readers. It can even be said that according to the publications of I. A. Latyshev about Japan, public opinion was formed in relation to our Far Eastern neighbor for more than one generation of Soviet people.

During the second, "academic" stage of his activity, which lasted almost 40 years for I. A. Latyshev at the leading Oriental center of our country - the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences/RAS, the scientist prepared and published 15 monographs and about 100 scientific articles on problems of Japanese history, politics and bilateral relations of the USSR/Russia and Japan. He made a great contribution to domestic Japanese studies. The works of I. A. Latyshev were translated into Japanese more than once, and the scientific community of the land of the Rising Sun was well acquainted with them.

I. A. Latyshev will also be remembered by Russian Japanese scholars as a good organizer of studying Japan in our country. For many years, he headed the Japan Department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was the chairman of the Section on the Study of Japan, the Scientific Council for the Coordination of Oriental Studies. He directed his efforts to unite domestic Japanese scholars, to strengthen their contacts with each other. Extensive scientific and organizational work helped I. A. Latyshev to become more familiar with many Soviet Japanese scholars, to delve deeper into the essence and goals of their activities related to the activation of cooperation with Japan, and to better understand their pros and cons as researchers.

I. A. Latyshev noted with regret that in the last 15-20 years of the "perestroika" period, scientific articles with reviews of the previous activities of domestic specialists in Japan, which became widespread in the 1950s and 1980s, began to appear less and less. After all, it was during the Soviet period that the country published incomparably more books on Japan than in any of the countries of Western Europe, and, in any case, no less than in the United States. He was very saddened by the practical absence in recent years of any mention of the great contribution of Soviet Japanese scholars to the development of Oriental studies in the Soviet Union, of course, except for the publication of obituaries. He was very worried that in the context of the change in the socio-political and economic system in our country in the 1990s, Russian Japanese scholars began to gather less and less often at conferences and symposiums to discuss scientific problems. I. A. Latyshev understood that the disunity of scientists in science always leads to a weakening of their mutual contacts, to a loss of professional cohesion, and this type of community is necessary in any branch of knowledge to ensure the continuity of generations. It is all the more important for orientalists, whose training in all countries takes more than a decade.

An important distinguishing feature of I. A. Latyshev's work as a Japanese scholar was that he never considered his profession as a personal occupation, divorced from the practical tasks of the development of our country. He always linked the study of Japan to the defense of the national interests of both the Soviet Union and present-day Russia. In his numerous books and articles, the scientist put these interests above all else. He never blindly repeated the instructions of Foreign Ministry officials, if they were wrong from his point of view. After all, it is known that even in the Russian Foreign Ministry in the 1990s, there were influential people who were ready to "strengthen good neighborliness" between Russia and Japan by making unilateral concessions to its territorial harassment. I. A. Latyshev, however, was always guided by his civic duty and his own understanding of the national interests of the state. It is precisely the differences in these fundamental issues with a number of domestic Japanese scholars that have seriously overshadowed the last years of I. A. Latyshev's research activities.

At the same time, the scientist always believed that his work, his works would serve as an incentive for young Japanese scholars to write detailed and balanced books and articles on the problems of our relations with Japan, its domestic and foreign policy, since these scientific topics are difficult to fully exhaust.

I. A. Latyshev devoted all his energy and knowledge to his favorite business in life-studying Japan, forming truly good-neighborly and versatile relations with our Far Eastern neighbor.

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The bright memory of Igor Alexandrovich Latyshev as a major Russian scholar of Japanese studies in the second half of the XX - beginning of the XXI century, as a kind and caring teacher - "sensei" will always remain in the memory of his students and colleagues.

FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES

MAIN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF I. A. LATYSHEV

Domestic policy of Japanese imperialism on the eve of the Pacific War. 1931-1941. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1955. p. 232.

Gosudarstvennyi stroi Jap'i [The State System of Japan], Moscow: Gosyurizdat Publ., 1956, p. 94.

Constitutional question in post-war Japan. Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow: IVL, 1959. p. 230. - The same: Tokyo: Tokosein, 1962. p. 274. In English.

Japan in the Days of Political Storms: several pages of Recent History, Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1962, p. 62.

Svyazi monopoliy s gosudarstvennom i politicheskim apparatomom Yaponii [Relations of monopolies with the state and political apparatus of Japan]. Doklady posledatsii SSSR [Reports of the USSR delegation]. Moscow: Izd. vostochny lit. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1963. 11 p. - The same in English.

Anticommunism in the ideology and politics of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan / / Anticommunism in the service of the Japanese Reaction: Propaganda and Politics of enemies of communism in Japan, Moscow, 1965.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and its Politics / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Peoples of Asia, Moscow: GRVL, 1967, p. 338.

The ruling party of Japan is the Liberal Democratic Party (Nihon no Shihaito Seito-Jiyu Minshuto). Soviet Criticism of the Liberal Democratic Party (Sorenpo no Jiminto Hihan), Tokyo: Ed. Shionoya Seiji Keizai Kenkyukai, 1968. P. 205. In English.

Japanese Bureaucracy / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Peoples of Asia, Moscow: GRVL, 1968, p. 112.

Auth.: Reactionary Nationalist Tendencies in the policy of the Ruling Circles of Japan; New Foreign Policy Concepts of the Japanese Ruling Circles // XXVIII International Congress of Orientalists (Canberra, January 6 - 12, 1971). Papers Presented by the USSR Delegation. Moscow: "Nauka" Publishing House, Central Department of Oriental Literature, 1970.

The face and underside of the" economic miracle " of Japan. Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow: GRVL, 1970, p. 54.

Japan of our days (Journalistic notes) / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow: GRVL, 1976, p. 191.

Material and spiritual costs of education in Japan. 1982. Moscow, 1983. pp. 210-224.

Gosudarstvennyy stroy [The State System] / / Japan of Our Days, Moscow, 1983, pp. 45-57.

The role of the Emperor in the system of domination of the ruling circles of Japan / / Ruling Circles of Japan: the mechanism of domination. Moscow, 1984. pp. 176-189.

Semeynaya zhizn ' jap'tsev [Family life of the Japanese]. Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow: GRVL, 1985, p. 288.

Attempt on the Kuril Islands. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: Press, 1992, p. 228.

Who sells Russia and how. Chronicle of Russian-Japanese Territorial Trade (1991-1994), Moscow: Paleya Publ., 1994, p.218.

Russian Kuriles: History and Modernity. Collection of documents on the history of the formation of the Russian-Japanese and Soviet-Japanese borders, Moscow, 1995, p. 181 (sovm. with others)

How Japan stole Russian gold, Moscow: Techinformpress, 1996, p. 96.

Ways of movement of Russian gold bars. Siberian Expedition and banks (Rosia Kinkai no Yukikata. Shiberiya Shuppei to Ginko), Tokyo, Shindoku Shesya, 1997. p. 142. In English.

Japan, Japanese and Japanese studies. (How Soviet-Japanese and Russian-Japanese relations developed and were covered in the press in the second half of the XX century). Moscow: Algorithm, 2001, p. 823.

Russia and Japan are at an impasse in a territorial dispute. 2000-2004. Moscow: Algorithm Publ., 2004, p. 304.

Putin and Japan. "Will there be any concessions?" Moscow: Eksmo, 2005, p. 416.

Event, the significance of which cannot be belittled..! / / The sixtieth anniversary of Victory over militaristic Japan, Moscow, 2006, pp. 5-13.

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