Mikhail Gorbachev’s Visit to Japan

     From May 11 to 17, 2005, Mikhail Gorbachev visited Japan. During the visit he attended a two-day conference organized by Nihon University. The first phase of the Conference “The World 20 Years After the Start of Perestroika” was held in Tokyo, where the central branch of the country’s largest university is based, and the second phase was hosted by the University’s Osaka branch. The guests of the conference reacted with keen interest to Mikhail      Gorbachev’s speeches, where he reviewed the changes the world has gone through under the impact of Perestroika and the current situation in the world politics.
     The opinions voiced in the discussions that took place widely varied in analysis of the current state of world affairs. Many speakers agreed that since the end of the Cold War by no means all the opportunities that had opened up in the international politics have been used to build a more stable and just world.
     Mikhail Gorbachev during his meeting with Yukiyasu Sezai, President of the Nihon University, discussed the prospects for development of links between the Gorbachev Foundation and the University. Yukiyasu Sezai expressed satisfaction with the academic ties his university had established with the help of Mikhail Gorbachev with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The Gorbachev Foundation was instrumental in signing an agreement on scientific cooperation between the Nihon University and the RAS last year.
     Mikhail Gorbachev also visited Okinawa, where he addressed the annual Ryukyu Forum, hosted by the newspaper publishing concern Ryukyu Shimpo.
     At the request of the hosts, Mikhail Gorbachev met a group of high-school students from several schools of Naha (capital of the Okinawa Prefecture). The meeting took place precisely at the time when the students at their history lessons were studying the topic “Perestroika in the Soviet Union.”
     During his visit Mikhail Gorbachev had a number of meetings with Japanese political figures and prominent businessmen.

Photo 1 and 2 Mikhail Gorbachev is addressing the Ryukyu Forum (Okinawa)
Photo 3 Mikhail Gorbachev is meeting high-school students on Okinawa.