The Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Japan) held the first coordinators’ meeting of the Russian-Japanese educational program ”Training of leaders in sustainable ecology, culture and development in the Far East and the Arctic” (East Russia-Japan Expert Education Program RJE3). The program was supported with the grant from the Japanese government up to October 2019. Russian partner universities of the program are Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok), North-Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk), Pacific (Khabarovsk) State University, Sakhalin State University and Irkutsk State University. At the meeting the Irkutsk University was presented by the Rector Professor A. Arguchintsev, Professor of the Department for World History and International Relations S. Kuznetsov and Associate Professor Y. Elokhina.

The program objective is training of highly-qualified specialists and experts in the following areas:

• Environmental Protection;
• Cultural diversity;
• Soil and production;
• Development of regional resources;
• Management of protection against disasters (natural disasters).

The full-scale launch of the project is planned for the summer of 2015. The program is flexible enough; it is open for graduate, post-graduate and doctoral students proficient in English (or Japanese) language.  The Hokkaido University and the Russian partner universities will offer internships, training courses and summer practices for young people in the above areas.

ISU meanwhile intends to cooperate in history, international relations and archeology but topic extension is possible, especially in environmental areas. The program provides for issuing certificates with possible subsequent transition to double degree.