Abstract <p>Based on the NOAA climate datasets, NEAR-GOOS project long-term oceanographic surveys, and observational data from Roshydromet coastal hydrometeorological stations, regional features of interannual changes in the salinity of the upper 1000-meter layer of the Sea of Japan in the recent two decades of the modern warming period characterized by the intensification of the global hydrological cycle are considered. The results made it possible to describe the three-dimensional spatial structure of salinity and salt content in various layers of the sea water column and to evaluate the relationship of these changes with the characteristics of moisture regime and water exchange with adjacent sea areas and with the phases of the dominant regimes of the natural variability of various climatic parameters. In general, there is a desalination trend for most of the study area water column.</p>