D. V. KIBA

Candidate of Historical Sciences

Komsomolsk-on-Amur State Technical University

Keywords: Russian-Japanese Youth Exchange Commission, Japanese-Russian Youth Exchange Center, Russia-Japan Society

Cooperation with Japan is important in the context of Russia's development of relations with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Our state cannot afford to stay away from the implementation of international projects and cultural programs of the Asia-Pacific Region1. Given the growing role of the regional Powers in international politics, Russia should acquire and maintain strong partnerships, especially with those countries with which it has accumulated a rich historical experience of bilateral communication.

Of particular importance in relations between Russia and the Land of the Rising Sun are humanitarian contacts designed to promote the development of economic and political cooperation between the two countries. Understanding the partner culture by young people leads to the emergence of a generation that respects traditions and is familiar with the national specifics of the country. Thus, youth interaction is an effective means of constructive dialogue between Russia and Japan.

In the 1990s, the legal framework for humanitarian cooperation between the two countries was formalized, and an agreement was signed on cooperation in the field of youth policy. During an official visit to Russia in November 1998, Prime Minister of Japan K. Obuchi stated the need to expand youth exchanges between the two countries. As a result, in 1999 an agreement was signed on the establishment of the Russian-Japanese Commission for Youth Exchanges.²

The commission is small in number. From Russia, it included representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Committee for Youth Affairs and the Ministry of General and Vocational Education. In Japan, the members of the commission were appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In May 1999, the Commission's secretariat, the Japan-Russia Youth Exchange Center, was established to conduct organizational and technical work in Japan, and the Coordination Bureau under the State Committee for Youth Affairs of the Russian Federation was established in Russia.

YOUTH EXCHANGE CENTER

The Japanese-Russian Youth Exchange Center works in three directions: visits of youth delegations, sending Japanese language teachers to Russia, providing scholarships and grants to young scientists.

Participants in youth exchanges were most often Russian students, journalists, scientists and educators, athletes, representatives of cities and regions (see Table).

The Center holds meetings of representatives of youth organizations of the two countries. For example, in 2011, at the Okean Children's Center in Primorsky Krai, young Japanese met their peers from the Khabarovsk, Sakhalin, and Vladivostok branches of the Russia-Japan Society. The second leg was held in Tokyo on ³.

In 2013, a group of representatives of Russia-Japan branches visited Japan. Russians and members of Japanese public organizations discussed the following questions: What can you learn from Japan? What can you learn from Russia? What activities can contribute to the two countries ' complementary development and deeper understanding of each other?

It should be noted that not only government agencies, but also public organizations in Russia and Japan are interested in such events. Thus, a meeting of Japanese and Russian youth in March 2013 was organized by the Information Portal about Japan in Russian and the Yapo Society.-

Table

Russian participants of exchange programs

Source: Youth Invitation and Referral Program http://www.jrex.or.jp/ru/report.html

research institutes - countries of Eurasia"⁴. Meetings of Japanese-Russian Student forums were held in Moscow (2006, 2012), Hokkaido (2007), Belgorod (2008), Yamanakako (2009), and Sendai (2013) ⁵.

Assessing the various forms of youth cooperation between Russia and Japan, it should be noted that its scale is only 1/25 of the Japanese-Chinese youth relations and needs to be further developed. ⁶

EFFORTS OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Youth exchanges are also organized by Japanese non-governmental organizations and Russian private educational institutions. An example of such cooperation is the joint work of Japanese language schools in a number of cities in the Far East and the Japanese Hippo Family Club, an international linguistic non-governmental organization that has hundreds of branches in Japan, as well as in the United States, Mexico, and Korea. Members of the club consider learning multiple languages as a means of obtaining the status of a "person of the world" - not a citizen of a particular state, but a representative of a transnational group.⁷ The club offers exchange programs in 22 countries around the world.

Cooperating with Russian Japanese language schools, the club sends children's delegations to Japan, with children living in the families of Hippo Family Club members. In turn, Japanese children come to the Far East and live in Russian families.⁸

The program of youth and family exchanges was first implemented in Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai, in the late 1990s. In a letter from members of the Hippo Family Club, which came addressed to the head of Nakhodka, it says:"...Russia is our invaluable neighbor. We hope that our friendship and exchange program will last forever..."⁹

Since 1999, the Khabarovsk School of Foreign Languages "Generation 2000" has joined the exchange program. The Japanese visited Russia in the summer, but in winter they came only to Primorsky Krai. In 2010, a Japanese delegation visited Khabarovsk Krai for ^the first time10.

Director of the school "Generation 2000" V. A. Boyko introduced the exchange program to the Japanese language school "Three Steps" in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. For the first time, young Komsomol members went to Japan in 2008, lived with their families, and got acquainted with the sights of Tokyo. The first youth group from Japan visited Komsomolsk-on-Amur under the exchange program in 2010. The next visits were held in 2011-2013. ¹¹

In 2012, the Linguistic School of Amursk, Khabarovsk Krai, joined the exchange program. Families hosting guests usually maintain friendly relations with them afterwards.

Thus, the Hippo Family Club and Russian private language schools have become effective participants in"public diplomacy".

TWIN CITIES AND YOUTH INTERACTION

Youth contacts are also carried out within the framework of cooperation programs between the regions and twin cities of Russia and Japan. In the context of the economic crisis and insufficient funding, external relations have played an important role in the life of a number of regions and cities. Many of them have signed bilateral cooperation and twinning agreements with neighboring countries, including Japan.

The closest twinning relations are established between the cities of the Far East and Japan. The Far Eastern region acts as a contact zone between the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and Russia. The most developed links are between Sakhalin Oblast and Hokkaido, Khabarovsk Krai and Niigata Prefecture, Primorsky Krai and Osaka, Fukui, Shimane and Tottori prefectures.

Within the framework of friendly relations between cities, various events are carried out. More than 30 years of cooperation kindergartens - "Friendly guys" Poronaisk on Sakhalin and "Wakaba" Kitami. These cities exchanged children's sports delegations, annually exchanged drawings between schoolchildren, and organized exhibitions of children's works.

In 2005, Kushiro Municipal Institute signed a contract with the Institute of Economics, Law and Informatics of South-Sa-

halinska about the exchange of student delegations ¹².

Khabarovsk Krai is an active participant in youth exchanges. The city of Kamo in Niigata Prefecture and Komsomolsk-on-Amur exchange children's delegations every year13. In 1997, the first trip of schoolchildren to Kamo14 took place. Japanese people visited the Far Eastern city in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Khabarovsk schoolchildren regularly submit their drawings to the international competition held in Niigata. Every year, children's delegations travel to Niigata under the "Habatake-21" program, designed to accommodate schoolchildren aged 10-11 years living in families.

Since 2010, mutual sports exchanges have been launched between Khabarovsk Krai and Hyogo Prefecture. In 2012, a delegation from Khabarovsk participated in a children's environmental symposium in Toyama Prefecture as part of the project of the Association of Regional Administrations of Northeast Asian Countries*¹⁵.

Over the past four years, he has stepped up his contacts with the twin cities of Japan and Vladivostok. In 2009, a delegation of students and teachers from more than 20 schools of the Japanese twin city arrived in the city. 16 In 2012, the First International Youth Festival of Twin Cities was held under the motto "Looking to the Future".

* * *

In conclusion, we will highlight the factors that contribute to the interaction of young people in Russia and Japan:

- Activities of the Japanese-Russian Youth Exchange Center, the Japanese Hippo Family Club;

- activities of individuals and public organizations;

- movement of twin cities of Russia and Japan;

- territorial proximity of Russian regions and the Land of the Rising Sun;

- establishing direct air links between the cities of the two countries.

Interaction and cooperation between city administrations is also facilitated by the activities of Russian representative offices in Japan: in Osaka, Sapporo, and Niigata.

It should be noted that both Russian and Japanese youth are interested in further cooperation, primarily from a cultural and educational point of view. The younger generation, interacting, enriches spiritually, learns to understand each other. Young people develop such qualities as patriotism, tolerance, and respect for the traditions and culture of other countries. This creates a solid foundation for rapprochement between Russia and Japan.

* The Association of North East Asia Regional Governments is an international organization founded in 1996 by the regional administrations of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation. Promotes the joint development of North-East Asia, implements exchanges and cooperation projects in the economic and humanitarian spheres.

^{Shumeiko A. A.} 1 Chlenstvo Rossii v APEC i chelovecheskiy kapital [Russia's membership in APEC and human capital]. Human, social, and cultural sciences. 2012, N IV - (12). (Shumeyko А.A. Chlenstvo Rossii v ATES i chelovecheskiy capital // Uchenye zapiski KnAGTU. Nauki о cheloveke, obshchestve i culture. 2012, N IV-(12) (in Russian)

² Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Japan on the establishment of the Russian-Japanese Commission for Youth Exchanges http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/spd_md.nsf

³ The youth of Russia and Japan like each other - http://www.molodmos.ru/news/ news_ull/news/molodezhrossii__yaponii_n ravitsya_drug_drugu/?region=world

⁴ Meeting of Russian and Japanese youth / / Information portal about Japan -http://info-japan.ru

⁵ Japanese-Russian Student Forum - http://www.jrex.or.jp/ru/report.html

^6th Annual Meeting of the Russian-Japanese Commission on Youth Exchanges-http. / / jpn. rs. gov. ru / node / 344

^{Chad Nilep.} 7 Articulating a transnational family: "Hippo Family" language learners in Japan and the USA. Arizona State University. 1997, p. 3.

⁸ Famiri kurabu sankasha. Tokio. 2012, p. 13 (Hippo Family Club. To the participant. Tokyo. 2012, p. 13).

⁹ Thanks from the Japanese club -http://www.nakhodka-city.ru/news.aspx?id= 17201〈=

¹⁰ Japanese people will celebrate the New Year in Russian - http://habarovsk.moigorod.ru/news/ 2146415135/Yaponcy_Vstretyat_Novyi_God _Po-russki/

¹¹ Materials of the personal archive of the director of the Japanese language school in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, S. A. Shmeleva.

¹² Information note on the interaction of the twin cities of the Sakhalin Region and Hokkaido Prefecture http://akoils.ru/index.html_div=64&mparent =64&id=267.html

^{Tosi Exiro.} 13 Nin gen no fureai va sekai ni kokke nai / / Rossiya no omoi de. 2008, nasu (Communications of people in the world without borders / / Memories of Russia. 2008, summer).

^{Kochi Ao.} 14 Hajimeni / / Rossia no omoi de. 2006, nasu (Kochi Ao. In the beginning // Memories of Russia. 2006, summer).

¹⁵ Calendar of major international events in 2012 held in the Khabarovsk Territory or with the participation of representatives of the region - http://gov.khabkrai.ru/invest2.nsf/ AllNewsRus/7F6F3D2BA69F989DCA2579A 0001B13C

¹⁶ Japanese schoolchildren in Vladivostok became international goodwill ambassadors - http://old.vlc.ru/inter/ru/news/ 2009/10.htm

¹⁷ The First International Youth Festival of Twin Cities under the motto "Looking to the Future" opened in Vladivostok today- http://old.vlc.ru/inter/ ru/news/2012/06.htm

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