18 January 2012 METROPOL Group was visited by a Japanese Parliament delegation consisting of 9 deputies from both chambers of the Japanese Parliament who were in Moscow with an official visit. The delegation was led by General Secretary of the Parliament Association of Russian-Japanese Friendship, former Minister of Economy Y. Hatiro, and most of the deputies represented the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. As part of the visit, the Japanese Parliament Member met with the founder of METROPOL Group, Deputy of the 6th Duma Federal Assembly M.V. Slipenchuk, with the participation of State Duma Deputies B.L. Reznik and V.I. Lysakov from the Russian side. The meeting was devoted to renewal of regular contacts between Parliament members of the two countries, which had been suspended a few years before,  The Japanese side congratulated M.V. Slipenchuk on his election to the State Duma and wished him to participate as actively in the Russian-Japanese Inter-Parliamentary cooperation, as he used to do in establishing bilateral financial and economic ties as General Director of IFC METROPOL.