A group of best students from top Japanese universities, including the Tokyo State University, universities of Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tsukuba, as well as several other prestigious Japanese high schools visited the Skolkovo’s technopark.
As Sugahara Sachiko, head of the student delegation and representative of the Japan-Russia Youth Exchange center said, the delegation was invited to Russia by the Russian Federal Youth Organization (Rosmolodezh).
“These young people are the leaders of student societies and public organizations of their universities”, Sugahara Sachiko said in a perfect Russian
To visit Russia and to take part in this program young people had to pass an open selection process, when among the key selection criteria was their social activity in universities.
The program of student exchange between Russia and Japan is of a big status in the country and is being supervised in Japan by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
This year the program of the visit included top Russian universities, scientific organizations, as well as legislative institutions of Russia.
“We have already visited different types of organizations and I think we got a better understanding on what the Russian society is,” Sugahara Sachiko said.
Ehara Shunji, student of the Okuma School of Public Management, Waseda University, said that it was his second trip to Russia. “First time I was at Khabarovsk, about two years ago, during the spring vacation, visited my farther, who works there as an interpreter. It was very interesting, especially when we went ice-fishing there,” Ehara Shunji said.
The student said that before coming to Russia he never heard about Skolkovo, but while he was getting ready for the trip he read Japanese press on Russia and made it clear for himself, that there “will be a Russian Silicon Valley there”.
Ehara Shunji was quite impressed with what he saw at the Skolkovo’s technopark, and with the presentation, which Vizerra demonstrated to the guests.
“It’s the best place to acquire technologies, as there are such moderns stylish buildings here”, the student made a conclusion. The representative of the Waseda’s school of public management also said that there are, indeed, quite many mutual political issues between Russia and Japan, but there are a lot of in common too, a lot of mutual interests, which can foster cooperation between the two countries. And space programs are one of them.
“Particularly, Russia has huge experience in space exploration and Japan actively develops now its space program, and I believe we have tremendous perspectives for cooperation in this area.”