Annual Newsletter of the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University		SRC Home
	No.3 , December 1995	back to INDEX>>

As reported in the previous edition of the Slavic Research Center News, the comprehensive research activities called "Priority Research Project", headed by SRC's Shugo Minagawa, started in April 1995. Under the main theme, "Changes in the Slavic-Eurasian World: Conditions for Existence and Coexistence," it is now organized into 19 research projects. Of these, 9 main projects had been planned in advance and engage five or six members each.

The rest are decided by open competition among Japanese Slavic scholars. The research teams of the two categories and their leaders are as follows:

Main research projects (area-wide topics):

1. Political reforms and the process of their institutionalization (S. Minagawa, SRC)
2. Systems of regional governance and its political culture (I. Ieda, SRC)
3. Evolution of inter-regional and inter-national cooperation (T. Hayashi, SRC)
4. Empirical analysis of enterprises in the period of economic transition (R. Yamamura,SRC)
5. Empirical analysis of the structural changes in the economy and its circular flow (S. Tabata, SRC)
6. Problems and prospects of inter-regional economic cooperation (A. Nishimura, Hitotsubashi University)
7. Ethnic problems and conditions for ethnic coexistence (K. Inoue, SRC)
8. Historical perception of regions and their unification (T. Hara, SRC)
9. Social identity in Russian literature (T. Mochizuki, SRC)

Research projects by open competition (specialized topics):

1. Social changes and regional politics in the Russian Far East during the transition period (W. Fujimoto, Osaka University)
2. Cooperation of the peripheral states of European-Russia (H. Momose, Tsuda University)
3. The changing of economic structure and problems of foreign workers in the Russian Far East (S. Aramata, Hokkaido University)
4. Case studies of privatization of workers' self-management enterprises in the former Yugoslavia (H. Fujimura, Shiga University)
5. Transformation of the economic system and the environment in the Russian Far East (Y. Genga, Okayama University)
6. Transformation of ownership and management in rural areas of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia (S. Okada, Kochi University)
7. Potentialities of economic development in the Russian Far East and the role of Japan (K. Miyamoto, Osaka Prefectural University)
8. The market economy and industrial relations under the new management system in Poland , (K. Kasahara, Rikkyo University)
9. The Russian school system and its curriculum in transition (S. Tokoro, Hokkaido University)
10. Ethnic problems in the Caucasus in a historical perspective (S. Kitagawa, Hirosaki University)

The groups have held individual or joint workshops and seminars, some of them with the participation of invited research associates. Papers describing their work-in-progress have been published in a series. The executive directorate of the Priority Research Project organized an international seminar in July 1995 and will hold similar activities at least twice a year through March 1998. It has also set up the project "Russian Far East" (headed by Wakio Fujimoto of Osaka University) to coordinate research on that region.

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