D. Streltsov’s monograph (Streltsov D.V. Japan: Political Modernization of the Heisei Era. Moscow, AIRO-XXI, 2013, 296 p.) is devoted to the processes of Japan’s political modernization in the Heisei epoch opened in 1991 with the accession of Akihito, today’s Emperor, to the throne. The author analyzes the tasks Japan faces under the conditions of transition to the new paradigm of societal development, as well as the role of the institutional, socio-political, socio-economic and other factors in the country’s political development in 1990 2010. Japan has now to be looking for answers to questions far from simple: is it advisable to go on following the postwar model of development, or are new methods to be worked out and applied – new methods of political, economic and social direction and regulation, better corresponding to the fundamental changes called forth by globalization of the world processes? The monograph is, in its way, the summary result of the many years of the author’s work in the research of the political processes in Japan, of the system of the state government of the country.