The article presents a non-traditional approach to evaluation ofJapan’s soft power in the context of its humanitarian cooperation with East Asianstates (primarily, China and South Korea) and also Russia. The characteristicfeatures of current Japan’s soft power and the historic prerequisites for thedevelopment the Japanese foreign policy of this sphere are analyzed. In theauthor’s opinion, there is no alternative of Japan’s soft power to hard powercurrently employed by other countries of East Asia. The article stresses thesuccesses of Japanese policy of simulating the inflow of foreign tourism andanalyzes the reasons for the steady growth in the number of tourists arriving inJapan. Recent statistics shows the predominance of Chinese and South Koreansamong foreign guests, both tourists and expats, with the mostly negative attitudeto China and South Korea among the Japanese citizens. The deterioration of thedemographic situation in Japan is also marked: the percentage of foreigners isgrowing, which prompts the Japanese to adjust. The article highlights humanitarian cooperation between Japan and Russiain the Cross-year Year of 2018, which was initiated by the country’s leaders toboost contacts in a broad range of areas. It indicates a decline in the bilateraltrade in the past five years and points a low level of mutual tourism. There aredifferent reasons for Russia and Japan for insignificant number of touriststravelling to the partner country. The antipathy of most Japanese toward Russiais a negative factor for bilateral relations. In conclusion, the author elaborateson the possible ways of enhancing the Russo-Japanese relations in the contextof the highlighted issues. The article’s objective is to inform experts working in relevant areas aboutsuccessful Japanese projects with the aim of borrowing some useful Japanese practices of soft power and outbound tourism in relations with other countries.This experience could be beneficial for Russia.