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The present article deals with the information on the biography of the famous publicist, journalist and scientist Ivan Svit. The scientist's contribution to the study of Japan's history and Ukrainian-Japanese relations, as well as the direct participation of Ivan Svit in Ukrainian-Japanese life in the Far East, was investigated. Ivan Svit became interested in Japan in the summer 1918 as he was living on its territory during this time. There he was able to master the basics of the Japanese language. Shortly after that, the researcher was working on the steamboat that plied between the Japanese archipelago and Vladivostok. Throughout the intervention of the Japanese forces in Siberia in 1918–1922, Ivan Svit was actively publishing in various periodicals the information regarding the representatives of the Japanese occupation. Also he was gathering the information for the future studies of this period. During 1929–1932, Ivan Svit was a subeditor of the separate page entitled «Ukrayinske zhittya» in the famous Chinese weekly periodical «Gun-bao». While working in this newspaper, Ivan Svit got acquainted with N.Gungji, K.Fukui (authorized persons of the Japanese administration), T.Takahata (representative of the transport department of Harbin), professors Kitagava and Shimamura, who provided him with the newest and the most complete information for the periodical. In 1932 the researcher became an editor of «Manchzhurskiy visnik» which contained a large number of articles on the subjects of Japanese studies. Also, during this period, Ivan Svit published his works concerning Ukrainian-Japanese cooperation at the expense of Ukrainian National Colony. During 1941–1949 the researcher was living in Shanghai and totally devoted himself to the scientific work, for instance, he became a kind of a mediator between S. Lewinsky, A.Dibrova and V.Odinets, who were working on the publication of the Ukrainian-Japanese dictionary in 1944. The year 1951 is characterized by the beginning of the «American Period» of the life of the scientist and it was marked by an extremely great amount of work concerning the Ukrainian-Japanese relations in the Far East. Most of works on the Japanese studies were compiled in the monograph «Ukrainian-Japanese relations 1903–1945». It was published in 1972 and became the most complete research on this subject in the domestic and even world scientific literature. A famous Japanese historian, political scientist and specialist of Slav languages and literature Kazuo Nakai noted that he could find the «Ukrainian-Nippon dictionary» only in the personal archives of Ivan Svit in 1980 when he had an appointment with the Ukrainian scientist. A lot of encyclopedic editions were cooperating with the scientist in order to write the topics related to the Far East, Japan and Ukrainian-Japanese relations. This article gives a detailed list and analysis of scientifi c works where the subject of Japanese studies was represented. Keywords: Ivan Svit, Japan, Ukrainian-Japanese relations, Ukrainian diaspora, Harbin, Shanghai. ; У пропонованому дослідженні подано короткі відомості з біографії відомого публіциста, журналіста та науковця Івана Васильовича Світа. Простежено внесок ученого в дослідженні історії Японії та україно-японських відносин, а також безпосередню участь в україно-японському житті І.Світа на Далекому Сході. Опубліковано перелік наукових робіт дослідника, в яких відображено японознавчу тематику. Ключові слова: Іван Світ, Японія, україно-японські зв'язки, українська діаспора, Харбін, Шанхай.