AbstractThe article is based on the results of the Public Opinion Research Laboratory of the Institute of History of the RAS obtained during field studies of 2010–2021 and analyzes key elements of the Far Eastern Federal District residents’ views of the countries of East Asia—China, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. The authors consider such basic elements of these notions as historical memory, economic and humanitarian needs of people, and external threats to regional and national security. It has been established that historical memory works selectively. With regard to China, it supports the uncertain feelings of Pacific Russians in the finality of resolving the border issue between the two countries, while Japanese territorial claims are primarily perceived through the prism of modern politics. However, neither one nor the other prevents the inhabitants of the region from being interested in history and culture of neighboring states, focusing their economic interests on interaction, first of all, with these three countries. It is China, Japan, and South Korea that they consistently view as major economic partners of Pacific Russia. The authors assess that the high level of development of these countries’ economies along with the uniqueness and attractiveness of authentic cultures, as well as positive assessments of the current state and prospects of bilateral relations en masse have become the forces of attraction that encourage the Far Easterners to give them their sympathies. At the same time, the countries of the Korean Peninsula receive much less attention in Pacific Russia, and their images are mostly neutral and vague. The authors also note that the stereotypes that were rooted in the minds of Russians more than a century ago (the refined culture of Japan and the poor, uncultured China) place these two countries on different floors in the rating of their sympathies: Japan was a stable and undisputed leader, while China, despite a noticeable rising popularity in recent years, along with South Korea remained in the middle. Finally, they conclude that a large proportion of the residents of the region, although they do not trust their Asian neighbors too much, are not only interested in economic interaction with the surrounding Asian world but are also psychologically committed to it.