On October 24 the first Russian-Japanese online youth forum on the topic “Partner Cities” organized by MIREA – Russian Technological University acting as the Russian-Japanese Coordination Bureau for Youth Exchanges together with the Japanese-Russian Center for Youth Exchanges (Japan) with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan was held.
The forum was held under the auspices of the Year of Russian-Japanese interregional and twinning exchanges 2020-2021.
The forum was attended by students, young employees of city administrations and representatives of youth public organizations united in 6 teams representing partner cities or regions: Volgograd – Hiroshima, Leningrad Region – Kyoto Prefecture, Severo-Kurilsk – Nemuro, Vladivostok – Shimane Prefecture, Kholmsk – Kushiro, St. Petersburg – Osaka.
For three days participants discussed the living conditions in their cities – the current situation and development prospects in such areas as culture and organization of leisure time, proposals for young people and environmental protection.
The program of the first day included acquaintance with the possibilities of Russian-Japanese youth cooperation, video presentations of cities prepared by the participants and introductory reports by experts.
On the second and third days, during the foresight session participants exchanged the experience of their cities, formulated the main development trends and created the image of the “City of the future”. It is a city with clean air and water bodies, a large number of parks, “clean” energy sources, electric vehicles, a waste collection and recycling system. There are also residents who consciously choose an environmentally friendly lifestyle and are actively involved in environmental protection. It is a city that is attractive to young people for its inclusive and barrier-free environment, the use of IT technologies for development, but with the preservation of live human communication.
The forum started on October 22. At the opening of the forum participants were greeted by the Director of the Department of State Youth Policy and Educational Activities of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Denis Ashirov and the Head of the Department of Japanese-Russian Exchanges of the Department of European Countries of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan Wataru Ishikawa.
Denis Ashirov emphasized: “The development of youth exchanges is one of the priority tasks within the framework of the Year of Russian-Japanese interregional and twinning exchanges 2020-2021 and an integral part of Russian-Japanese relations in general. It is necessary to maintain a constant and direct dialogue between young people, to increase the level of youth participation in the development of their cities and the development of sister cities. We hope the forum will become a traditional platform for solving these problems.”
Wataru Ishikawa pointed out: “I hope this forum will give impetus to the further development of mutual understanding between Japan and Russia and will facilitate the emergence of various “bridges” between our countries. New challenges in the form of the coronavirus pandemic still do not allow us to communicate face to face at the same level as before, so we continue to exchange online. Despite this, the importance of mutual exchange and understanding between youth of our neighboring countries, Japan and Russia, remains unchanged, and we are very pleased that today we can host this event online with the participation of many representatives of partner cities.”
The forum experts were the Chairman of the Committee on Youth Policy and Interaction with Public Organizations of St. Petersburg Bogdan Zastavny, an employee of the Department of International Relations, Business and International Promotion of the Bureau of Economic Strategy of the Government of Osaka Keisuke Yamada, the Secretary General of the International Center for Wetlands of St. Kushiro Yoshikatsu Kikuchi.
The Russian-Japanese Coordination Bureau for Youth Exchanges and the Japanese-Russian Youth Exchange Center decided to hold the second Russian-Japanese Youth Forum on the topic “Partner Cities” in 2022.
Recall that Russian-Japanese youth cooperation is carried out in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Japan on the establishment of the Russian-Japanese commission on youth exchanges dated March 15, 1999.
