The five-month Russian arts festival, to run till November 5, will feature classical opera and ballet productions by the nation's flagship Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters, as well as folk music and dance performances by troupes such as Beryozka and gigs by Russian pop star Yulia Savicheva.
Some of the latest films will be screened, including Alexander Sokurov's, Taurus and Karen Shakhnazarov's The Rider Named Death, as part of a vast film program also featuring Russian animated movies, which have traditionally enjoyed wide popularity in Japan.
Fine arts exhibitions will include a show that attempts to establish links between Russia's imperial Romanov dynasty and contemporary Japan.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin, now on a routine visit to Japan, will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the festival, likely to become an annual eventgiven the level of interest it drew after its launch last year.
The organizers include the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Federal Agency for the Arts and Film, which have been working in partnership with the Russia-Japan friendship society.
