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 Exchange of March 15, 1999.
The Russian-Japanese Youth Forum is one of the main events of the Russian-Japanese Youth Exchange Plan for 2020 approved by the Russian-Japanese Commission on Youth Exchange.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to hold the forum online from December 1 to 2, 2020.
The main goal: development of Russian-Japanese youth cooperation.
The key topics of the forum: "The contribution of young people to the development of sister-city relations between cities and regions of Russia and Japan", "Russian-Japanese youth exchange in the field of sports", "Areas of cooperation and specific proposals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic", "The role and prospects of the Russian-Japanese youth exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic".
The participants: students of educational institutions of higher education, young professionals and representatives of youth public associations from Russia and Japan aged 18 to 30 years and interested in the development of Russian-Japanese youth cooperation on the topics of the forum, representatives of organizations assisting the development of Russian-Japanese youth cooperation. In total 58 people participated there.
The key results: The first day program included the presentation on "Russian-Japanese youth cooperation" as well as the introductory reports on the topic "Cooperation between Russia and Japan in new conditions" presented by the forum participants Maria Ruban and Masami Tanimoto. The first session of the forum’s working sections also took place on such topics as "The contribution of young people to the development of sister-city relations between cities and Regions of Russia and Japan", "Russian-Japanese youth exchange in the field of sports", "Areas of cooperation and specific proposals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic" and "The role and prospects of Russian-Japanese youth exchange in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic".
The forum experts were the Director of the Japan Information Center, the head of the Department for the Development of International Cooperation and Education of Orenburg State University L. Dokashenko, the First Vice-President of the Russian Student Sports Union R. Olkhovsky, the Representative of the Center for Global Education, the teacher at Kindai University D. Eckford, the professor at the Faculty of Economics at Kobe Gakuin University, the director of the Center for International Exchanges Y. Okabe.
As part of the program of the second day of the forum the second session of working sections was held. Following it the participants proposed ideas for achieving the best results of cooperation between youth of both countries in a pandemic. In particular, the students and experts noted the importance of regular exchange of information about the culture and history of two countries as well as the daily lives of young Russians and Japanese, in order to get rid of stereotypes and improve mutual understanding. Joint research and joint study of Japanese and Russian languages online, holding online events for students and schoolchildren including youth exchange in the field of sports and youth exchanges within the framework of sister city relations, maintaining a joint blog, conducting online excursions and online competitions on various topics were proposed as possible formats for youth cooperation in a pandemic.
