14 September 2017
September 13th, MGIMO welcomed the Leader of the Japanese Party Komeito, Natsuo Yamaguchi. During the visit, the Japanese politician has an interview with MGIMO’s management, gave a talk to students and faculty members of the university and answered their questions.
The Komeito Party is one of the main political forces in Japan, the third party in the parliament in terms of the number seats it occupies and it supports the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
The guest of honor was greeted by MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programs Andrey Baykov, by the Vice-Rector for Human Resources Vladimir Morozov, the Director of the Department of Oriental Studies Dmitry Streltsov and other faculty members. During the meeting, Andrey Baykov spoke about the training program the University offers to students specializing in Japan and East Asia. Natsuo Yamaguchi spoke about the goals and program of his visit to Russia, noting that he was invited by the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, in the framework of a program to develop inter-parliamentary relations between our two countries.
Following the meeting, Natsuo Yamaguchi gave a talk to an audience of students, faculty members and diplomats. After relating the history of his party and recalling the visits made by its leaders to the USSR and Russia, the politician spoke about the current political weight of the Komeito party in the political life of Japan. The guest also described the political views of his party, which upholds a centrist position and focuses on social issues such as education, gender equality, environmental protection, the development of small and medium enterprises... Regarding foreign policy, the party promotes peace and the refusal to use military force.
Concerning bilateral relations, the politician noted that cooperation between Russia and Japan was flourishing, as reflected by the positive outcomes of the meeting of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Vladivostok early September. Natsuo Yamaguchi also noted that the two countries’ collaboration on security issues in East Asia was successful and that they should work together to resolve, with the help of the Security Council, the issue of North-Korea.
— See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version
