This study analyses contemporary trends in Japan’s foreign trade and FDI and provides an estimation of the intensity of Japan–Russia bilateral economic relations relative to major Northeast Asian (NEA) countries based on trade and FDI flows at the beginning of the 21st century. The study demonstrates that, despite their geographic proximity, economic cooperation between Japan and Russia is comparatively low and that Japan and Russia are not favoured partners in terms of trade or FDI. The results of bilateral trade and FDI intensity indexes calculations suggest no evidence that the situation is improving. However, a decrease in Japan’s trade and FDI intensities is observed in the majority of NEA countries since 2014. Despite the low general bilateral trade performance, Japan and Russia are leading partners in selected markets and have high dependency ratios in selected product groups. Positive trends in the development of bilateral relations in 2016–2017 as seen in the launch of the ‘eight-point cooperation plan’ and trade diversification, which led to a 14% trade growth in 2017, can give new impetus to the further development and strengthening of economic cooperation between Japan and Russia.