Japanese troops and forces of the Red Army border guards and the NKVD started trading shots across the frontier as early as June 1935. The battles at Nomonhan in the summer of 1939 were the climax of years of aggressive actions by Kwantung Army units essentially out of control of the IJA General Staff. In fairness though, it is doubtful that the Soviets were entirely innocent victims in some of the clashes.
The bloody nose administered by Zhukov on the Khalkin Gol left a huge impression on the Japanese high command and drove both a military and political imperative to keep the Soviet Union neutral at all costs.
Always found it a bit odd that, after Corregidor, American ground forces defeated the Japanese in virtually every engagement but the senior Japanese generals were openly contemptuous of the United State's fighting ability. Yet the Russian's, whom were defeated time and again in 1904-05 were seemingly held in fear and awe after the disaster at Nomonhan by these very same officers.
Excellent English language book on the subject is Nomonhan; Japan against Russia, 1939 by Alvin Coox.
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