On November 8, a meeting with the newly appointed the Consul General of Japan in Khabarovsk, Mr. Masanori Fukushima, and Vice-Consul Manabu Morodomi was held at North-Eastern Federal University. The meeting was attended by Vice-Rector for Natural and Technical Sciences Anatoly Nikolayev, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation Vladlen Kugunurov, as well as faculty staff.

“Mr. Fukushima was appointed the Consul General of Japan in Khabarovsk three weeks ago. He shared his vision of further cooperation with NEFU. He noted that first of all he would like to increase the exchange of students. He expressed his wishes to strengthen international relations between our countries. And he was pleasantly surprised that at the present time three students from Japan are studying at our university”, said Elena Rufova, the department head of NEFU Institute of Foreign Philology and Regional Studies.

Anatoly Nikolayev shared with the guests about cooperation and projects with Japanese institutions, with Hokkaido University in terms of studying climate change and joint master’s program with the Institute of Natural Sciences NEFU. Vladlen Kugunurov told about the international summer school of Russian “Siberian Summer school - Nature. People.Culturе”. Including agreements with Japanese universities, under which NEFU students have the opportunity to travel to Japan for language and scientific internships. Svetlana Petrova, the department head of the Faculty of Philology, told about cooperation with Sapporo University and about the planned departure of the department staff to Japanese universities under a grant from the Russian World Foundation.

“In the cross year of Russia in Japan - Japan in Russia, a lot of events took place, including Matsuri festival of Japanese culture organized in May with the support of the general consulate, the Yakut regional branch of the Russia-Japan Society and NEFU Department of Oriental Languages ​​, where about three thousand people participated. On December 2 of this year, the university will host the first international exam to measure the level of proficiency in Japanese. Previously, our students could pass this test only in Moscow or St. Petersburg”, said Elena Rufova.

After the meeting, the guests expressed their willingness to provide all possible assistance in the implementation of the projects planned by NEFU. They told about international grants announced by the Japanese government, in which students and teachers can participate. In turn, the students of the Department of Oriental Languages ​​and Regional Studies of NEFU IFPRS were interested in exchange programs, the possibility of submission without going to Khabarovsk. “In general, the meeting was held on a positive note. The Consul General asked students about the features of studying Japanese”, said the department head.