Professors from Japan will teach students of St Petersburg University
Law students studying Japanese language have started their lessons with professors from Japan. The foreign colleagues arrived in St Petersburg to give lectures on administrative, criminal and procedural law.
The admission to the educational programme ‘Laws (with advanced study of Japanese language and the law of Japan)’ started in St Petersburg University in 2018. Today it is a very popular training programme. There were 38 applicants for the entry competition for a state-funded place in 2019, and the admission grade point average reached 288.
Apart from the law of Russia, students learn the law of Japan and Japanese language. Teachers from the major Japanese Universities are hired to teach ‘foreign’ subjects. This enables students to not only obtain first-hand information, but also to communicate with native speakers. At present, it is the first and only bachelor’s programme in Russia that studies systematically the law of Russia and Japan. It is provided in three languages.
Learning Japanese language, let alone Japanese law, is a very complex process. And all the students are highly motivated.
Professor of Criminal Law of Kyoto University, Tanako Takayama
Professor Takayama stated that despite the fact that the modern law system of Japan was borrowed from Europe, both traditional Japanese culture and Japanese mindset have an immense influence on rule-making and implementation of laws. ‘To become a good lawyer who would provide legal aspects of relations between the countries, one should not only know certain legal regulations, but also comprehend the cultural and traditional background,’ the professor underlined.
To facilitate such an approach for the students, experts in various fields of study are engaged in the educational process: lawyers, linguists, political analysts, area studies specialists, economists, and sociologists.
I reckon that on graduation we will have a new generation of lawyers with a unique expertise. I look forward to fruitful cooperation between universities and the countries.
Professor of the Graduate School of Law of Nagoya University Katsuya Ichihashi
The largest employers and legal business representatives are involved in the educational process from the initial development of the educational programme to the organisation of practical trainings. Thanks to the interdisciplinary of the programme the future graduates will be able to choose the area that caters best for their professional interests. Experts anticipate a constant demand for specialists in the field on the labour market. ‘Japanese businesses are becoming more and more attracted to the Russian market. New projects are appearing not only in the Far East, but also in other regions of the country. Hence, there is a mutual need with both Russian and Japanese companies looking for mutual interests and defining targets for investments. Our educational programme is aimed to train lawyers capable of working successfully within the Russian legal system as well as implementing comprehensively the unique competence they acquired through learning Japanese language and the law of Japan,’ said Ilia Vasiliev, associate professor of St Petersburg University, the academic advisor of the programme.