On 19 July 2019, the kickoff meeting of the specialized section “Promotion of the industrial development of the Russian Far East” was held at Campus Innovation Center Tokyo of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Representatives of 6 universities engaging in collaboration projects with the Russian Far East actively participated in the discussion.

This specialized section was established on the basis of the 8-point Japan-Russia Economic Cooperation Plan, proposed at the 2016 Japan-Russia summit meeting, for developing human resources that would contribute to the promotion of the industrial development of the Russian Far East and its export base. 7 Japanese universities carrying out joint projects with the Russian Far East universities in environmental science, agriculture, management, economics and food science are members of this section.

The participants of the kickoff meeting discussed the obstacles they are encountering in collaboration with their Russian partners, shared the solutions they have worked out and their visions of the future development of the section. They also reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation between their respective universities for sharing experience and know-how with a view to further promoting collaboration within this section.