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Never before has the Arctic attracted such attention.1 In the distant past, the Arctic was a zone of mystery and intrigue, alternately described as a dangerous and forbidding wasteland, enveloped in cold and ice and inhabited by sea monsters and ferocious tribes or as a pristine resource frontier, filled with untapped potential. But as European explorers struggled, risking and losing many lives in the process, to map and describe the vast northern region, outsiders became progressively less interested in the commercial possibilities of the Arctic and more attracted by the unique Inuit peoples, strange animals, and imposing landscapes of the frozen North.
A portrait of the Arctic as a zone of possibilities has now replaced those early images. The Inuit and the landscape still hold much fascination, and romantic visions of northern peoples sustain a vibrant artistic and cultural industry in the region. A small summer tourism sector draws on southern interest in northern peoples and Arctic landscapes. But it is other forces- the reduction of the icecap and the subsequent opening of the Arctic Ocean for navigation, and the identification of the Far North's immense resource potential-that has sparked renewed international engagement with the region. While some relatively minor questions of territorial boundaries remain unaddressed, to be settled under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the reality is that Arctic sovereignty has largely been settled, although it makes for a contentious debating point in some quarters.
Japan and the Contemplation of the Arctic
Japan has not been a North-facing country. While Hokkaido presents itself as a northern island and has latterly been connected with northern regionalism, the country's interest in northern matters has largely been limited to the long-contentious battle with Russia over the Sakahlin and Kuril islands. Unlike Europe, where Arctic imagery featured prominently in contemplation of northern regions, Japanese artists and writers paid comparatively little attention to the high latitudes. Following the Meiji Restoration (a late nineteenth century time of intense economic, political, and economic transformation in Japan), at a time when North Americans and Europeans were engaged in a scientific and adventuring exploration of the Arctic, Japan stayed on the sidelines. The Arctic was, for Japan and Asia, a distant and largely uninteresting area, devoid...