This paper tests rival explanations of the root causes of the Far East's economic crisis of the 1990s. One explanation predicts a long-run decline in the region's population from the Soviet level, while the other implies the preservation of that level. Changes in population will parallel changes in employment, which will in turn be determined by the labor demand of the local economy. The region's future specialization is deduced by applying the findings of economic geography to the realities of the Far East. International data on the relative size of various sectors are used to evaluate future labor demand.