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The ceremony for presentation of the President’s Award for operational improvements in FY2009, sponsored by the Operational Improvement Project Promotion Headquarters, was held in Yasuda Auditorium on Friday, December 18. Applications were solicited from academic and administrative staff members for projects relating to operational improvement that they had initiated themselves.Altogether 90 applications were received.
After a rigorous screening process, President’s Awards were presented for overseas training (one award) and training in Japan (two awards), and three Managing Director’s Awards and three Special Awards were presented.
The presentations were followed by an address from University of Tokyo President Hamada, in which he told staff members that he appreciated the results of improvements they had made and hoped they would work better and better toward the top of the world in the field of operation improvement, as University of Tokyo is also aiming at the best university in the world.
Following the president’s address, presentations by the staff honored with awards concluded the ceremony, with initiatives to be undertaken in the following year very well received by the attendees. About 500 staff members participated in the award ceremony.

On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Berkeley and the University of Tokyo (UT) signed an agreement to enhance exchanges both for education and research purposes.

Both Berkeley and UT are well known as universities that provide education and conduct research at the highest levels in the world. For example, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ranked Berkeley as the third in the world, and UT at the top in the Asia-Pacific region (20th in the world) for the year 2009. UT is a national university and Berkeley a state university. Both provide high-quality education at relatively low cost based on the principle of public education. They share similar history and size: UT was founded in 1868 and Berkeley in 1869, and the number of students are approximately twenty-nine thousand and thirty-five thousand (undergraduate and graduate combined), respectively.

President Jun’ichi Hamada of UT said “It is highly significant that world best universities with same ideals of public education sign an agreement like this to promote exchanges. It is also very important for UT’s international strategies. Berkeley is ahead of UT in terms of internationalization, and we have a lot to learn from them. We will actively exchange information, and hope that we can eventually exchange students for taking each other’s classes.” Chancellor Robert Birgeneau is also excited about this agreement. “Berkeley is very interested in enhancing its relationships with Asian universities in Asia, and the University of Tokyo is a pre-eminent university in Asia. I strongly believe that collaboration with UT will be a cornerstone for our enhanced ties with Asia. I　am very excited about the developing partnership.”

Akihiko Tanaka, Executive Vice President for International Affairs, led the effort to sign this agreement. Hiroaki Aihara, Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Science, and Hitoshi Murayama, who holds a joint appointment of Director of IPMU and Professor of Physics in Berkeley, worked on actual negotiations and correspondences between the two universities.

IPMU will set up its satellite facility in the Department of Physics on the Berkeley campus based on this agreement. It is hoped that this satellite will eventually grow to a place for the entire UT community to interact with Berkeley scientists and students. Murayama says “This satellite will be a great foundation for exchanges and collaborations. IPMU policy requires its every full-time member to spend at least one month outside Japan every year, and the IPMU satellite will be an obvious place to visit.”

Currently in the first floor lobby of the General Administration
Building is an exhibition sponsored by the Graduate School of
Information Science and Technology.

The Graduate school of Information Science and Technology consists of five departments from 2001 and a new one from 2005; Department of Computer Science, Mathematical Informatics, Information Physics and Computing, Information and Communication Engineering, Mechano-Informatics, and Department of Creative Informatics.

This exhibition shows several researches which are easy to understand. For example: the system for interactive stuffed animals design, the digital public art, the humanoid robot, playing baseball robot and so on. Exhibition shows some real things include a small humanoid robot, movies to introduce our researches and panels to describe research details. Next January, we will introduce other research such as ultra high-speed networking.

We all hope you will meet our research on information science and technology.

On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, about 200 people attended a lecture by University President Junichi Hamada on the theme of “Tough students of the University of Tokyo”　at the Koshiba Hall, hosted by the Division for Counseling and Support (DCS). The lecture was part of a series of university-wide open research seminars running since October this year on the theme of “Nurturing personal toughness,” aimed at junior division undergraduate students and organized by the DCS.

http://dcs.adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Photo: Panel discussion

On Saturday, October 31, ‘The Second Japan-China-Korea Women Leaders Forum for Science & Technology: Bringing a Brighter Future to East Asia’ was held at the Sanjyo Conference Hall. The forum was organized by the University of Tokyo as part of a MEXT project, ‘Supporting Activities for Female Researchers’ (Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology).

The forum aimed to promote the exchange of information and discussion between attending female researchers and participants from the three neighboring countries, with the purpose of furthering the role of women among the leaders of the fields of science and technology.

After an opening address by University President Hamada, a welcome message by Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado and messages from distinguished guests, the speakers gave lectures on behalf of each country in three sessions and a panel discussion. Participants actively debated questions from the audience.

Sunday, October 25, 2009, under the joint sponsorship of the University of Tokyo and the University Sports Federation, and with the gracious support of Numazu City and the Numazu City Education Committee, the 33rd University of Tokyo Izu Heda Marathon took place, starting from the University’s Heda Dormitory in Nishi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

91 individuals (nine women and 82 men) participated in the full marathon, including 14 University of Tokyo alumni and seven residents of Numazu City, of whom 85 completed the course (including seven women). Ooi Hiroki (alumnus) finished in 2:54:47, winning the men’s section. Mizuno Junko (member of the University of Tokyo administrative staff) won the women’s section in 4:20:29.

The half marathon course was completed by nine individuals (of which three women) out of 11 entrants (of which five women). Five university members and six Numazu City residents took part. The men’s section was won by Enomoto Hiroshi (Numazu resident) with a time of 1:36:44, and the women’s section by Arai Hiromi (member of the University of Tokyo administrative staff) with a time of 2:10:58.

Many local residents cheered on the runners from the sides of the road along the course, making for a lively event.

Awarding certificates for first place at the closing ceremony

On Tuesday, October 20, the first 2009 President’s Awards were awarded to students of the University of Tokyo in a ceremony at the large auditorium of the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences. The President’s Award was instituted in 2002 and over the last eight years has been awarded to 106 individuals for outstanding academic achievements or for achievements that contribute to the image of the university.

Recipients of the first 2009 award
Center: University President Hamada
Left: Vice President Kojima
Right: Award Committee Chairman’s Representative Professor Amemiya

From 25 nominations, three individuals and two groups were recipients of the award.

Nishizono Ryota (Engineering, 3rd year)
Winner, all-Japan student road race and intercollegiate road race.

Kasai Yuki (Education, 4th year)
Winner of Amateur Ladies’ Shogi Championship; proposal and implementation of international exchange through Shogi.

Ando Iwao (Letters, 4th year)
Cycled 20,000km alone across Eurasia.

Group section

Presentation by the Graduate School of Law visiting classroom
Aimed at high school students and contributing to the revival of law education through the planning and implementation of a program for a constructive “law classroom”

Presentation by the Marine Research Club: Iotori Island
The achievements of 40 years of marine research and exploration activities on Iotori Island.

The award ceremony was a lively event attended by some 230 participants, including current university students, faculty and alumni. The ceremony was preceded by a performance by a string quartet from the Music Club Orchestra (group recipients of the second 2002 award), and followed by a rendition of the university song “Only one” by the Sports Supporters Club (group recipients of the first 2002 award). The ceremony closed on a high note with a cheer from the Sports Supporters Club.

President’s Award
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu01/h12_j.html (Japanese)

The University of Tokyo Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization has constructed a “Materials Science Beamline” at SPring-8. The new beamline aims to promote advanced materials science using high brilliance undulator radiation in the soft X-ray region between 250eV and 2keV. The construction was carried out with the support of the staff and researchers of SPring-8 and numerous other facilities, and thanks to their combined efforts the beamline has been available for experimental use since October.
The opening ceremony of the new beamline was held on October 9th at the Spring-8 Kamitsubo Hall. Among the 70 participants, there were executives from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (T. Kuramochi), Hyogo Prefecture (T. Ido), SPring-8 (T. Shirakawa), RIKEN (N. Fujishima) and the University of Tokyo (Y. Matsumoto, M. Oshima).
The new beamline consists of a polarization controlled undulator, a plane grating monochromator and three other experimental installations. All these apparatuses and the free-access beamport are available for cooperative use by users from institutions throughout Japan. Having the highest-quality undulator in the world, the beamline is expected to be extremely productive and to become one of the foremost international research centers in the field of materials science using synchrotron radiation.

From Saturday, October 10, until Saturday, November 7, a total of five lectures in the University of Tokyo Open Lecture Series
titled "Water: Culture and Science" is being held at Yasuda Auditorium.
An audience of more than 1,100 filled the auditorium to capacity for the first lecture on Saturday, October 10.

Left: Welcome speech by University President Jun'ichi Hamada
Right: The lecture in progress

Professor Hiroo HAMAGUCHI

Professor Shigeo MURATA

Associate Professor Ryo YOSHIDA

At the University Museum, the reconstructed skull and pelvis models of the newly announced Ardipithecus ramidus fossils are on special display from October 2 to October 31. The 4.4 million-year-old Ar. ramidus was first announced in 1994, but until now, its whole-body features were largely unknown. In the October 2 issue of Science (special issue), a surprisingly complete (for a fossil) skeleton and other remains of Ar. ramidus and evidence of its paleonenvironmetal habitats were revealed in 11 research articles. The displayed reconstructions and related research are a part of this international collaboration, and the methods, results and insights gained are detailed in these papers. In contrast to Australopithecus species (known from around 4 to 1 million years ago), Ar. ramidus had a fully grasping big toe and did not have as advanced an adaptation for bipedal locomotion. It retained some structures effective in quadrupedal hindlimb propulsion, and seems to have preferred woodland to forested environments. Ar. ramidus represents a newly recognized early stage of human evolution that preceded the Australopithecus stage. It also provides new and profound insights into the last common ancestor of modern African apes and humans. The skull reconstruction was based on micro-CT based digital data, and led by researchers at the University Museum. The pelvic reconstruction was a collaborative effort of researchers from the Kent State University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University Museum the University of Tokyo.

The 48th Seven Universities Athletic Meet opened on Saturday, July 4, this year under the auspices of the University of Tokyo. After a vigorous competition over a total of 41 events, the Meet closed with the final table tennis match on Saturday, September 26. The closing ceremony was held from 1600 on that same day, attended by President Hamada and Vice President Kojima.
Kyoto University were the overall champions, followed closely by the University of Tokyo in a nail-biting finish. This year’s dynamic and vigorous competition was outstanding in all sports, and bodes well for a healthy championship in future years.

Currently in the first floor lobby of the General Administration Building is an exhibition sponsored by the Institute of Oriental Culture. The exhibition was designed to introduce the Institute’s research activities, library holdings, and documents via panels and images. Showcased here are

1) a Pali-language Tripitaka in Roman Script, donated by the Dhamma Society, Thailand;
2) a portion of the Qianlong Era (18th-c.) Woodblock Printing of the Tripitaka; and
3) Dry Photographic Plates, held by the Academy of Oriental Culture until it merged with the Institute of Oriental Culture in the aftermath of WWII.

We are pleased to be able to share this small sample of our Institute of Oriental Culture which pursues general research on Asia’s past, present, and future.

http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/front.shtml

Seven faculties and research centers (the Graduate School of Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Ocean Research Institute, Earthquake Research Institute, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe), collaborating through the Science Promotion Committee and motivated by the principle that family support and involvement is essential to promoting the involvement of women in science, prepared this event under the title of "Understanding science with the family."

On August 12, an event entitled "Look to the future: a visit to the antimatter laboratory and teatime with female researchers" was held under the auspices of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe. In both events attendees could tour laboratories where research is carried out and talk to female researchers and ask questions about their work. From now until December, five faculties and research centers will hold events, culminating in a combined event in Yasuda Auditorium on December 13.

This program of events was selected by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) program for the Support for Study of Science & Technology (Fostering the next generation leaders in science and technology). From next year, we hope to expand this program through collaboration with a wider range of faculties and research centers.

At Lake Yamanaka, in Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture, a major renovation of the University of Tokyo Yamanaka Naito Seminar House was successfully completed in time for the reopening ceremony on Monday, July 27, 2009.

The reopening ceremony was attended by representatives of the Rinnai Corporation, sponsors of the renovation, including Chairman Naito Susumu and President and Mrs. Naito Hiroyasu, Yamanakako Village Governor Takamura Tadahisa, and representatives from the local community. The University of Tokyo was represented by university president Hamada Junichi, vice presidents Kojima Norimichi and Tanaka Akihiko and other university members.

After the ceremony, the first “Naito School” was held over two days, with Chairman Naito and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Professor Kobayashi Yasuo giving lectures which were listened to by President Hamada and many other attendees.

Starting from the special summer period July 29 (Wednesday) to August 27 (Thursday), the Yamanaka Naito Seminar House is now open for year-round use as usual.

The College of Arts and Sciences held a four-day camp called‘UT Environment Camp: Thinking about Humanity between the Sea and Sky’on Naoshima, Teshima and Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea from 4 August through 7 August. The camp was organised by the Komaba Organization for Educational Development (KOMED) of the College of Arts and Sciences with the sponsorship of Benesse Corporation. It was designed as a part of UT outreach activities of liberal arts education to high school students.

Twenty-one high school students from both Japan and abroad took part in the camp. They attended the lectures on environmental issues, visited the industrial waste treatment facilities on Teshima, and studied modern artworks in Naoshima that had been installed to revitalize local communities. What’s new to the program was Inujima’s Seirensho Museum which features remains of old copper factory.

Twenty-one high school students engaged in discussions with the lecturers and dialogues among themselves to develop their own thoughts on environment issues and modern arts. On the last day, a special lecture was given by Mr. Soichiro Fukutake, the President of Benesse Corporation.
They spent exciting four days that could hardly be experienced in their high-school lives.

On Thursday, August 6 on the Hongo Campus and Friday, August 7 on the Komaba Campus, some 7,200 visitors to Hongo and 2,200 visitors to Komaba experienced the the “University of Tokyo Open Campus for High School Students.”
On the first day of the Open Campus at Hongo, visitors experienced education and research activities at university through example lectures at the faculties and tours of research laboratories. Consultations with current students, campus tours, a special program for female students and tours of the General Library and the General Museum were highly successful.
On the second day on the Komaba Campus, after an introduction to the campus and outline of the university, students took part in demonstration lectures, informal discussions with current students and tours of research facilities.

President Junichi Hamada, Executive Vice President Akihiko Tanaka and Executive Vice President Norimichi Kojima visited Peking University, China from July 20 to 21. They discussed future academic exchange between Peking University and the University of Tokyo with President Zhou Qifeng, newly appointed as president last year, and other members of Peking University. The signing ceremony was held for the renewal of the Agreement on Academic Exchange between the two universities, in place since 1985.

We hope our demonstration provides a good feeling about the scientific mission of Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) and how we are doing in building up this new institute which started in October 2007. In preparing the demonstration, we could make panels and video without much difficulty. However, since our institute is new, we do not have any interesting material for display. Since our research objects are the universe and elementary particles, we could not think of any detector instrument that can fit in the place. So we decided to make a demonstration of how the star was created in the early universe based on computer simulation. This research is actively pursued at IPMU. We hope you are intrigued by the demonstration. You are welcome to visit us at Kashiwa Campus if you want to know more.

On July 1st, the “Town Hall Meeting between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Todai Students” was held at Koshiba Hall at Hongo Campus with about 160 students attending. The Secretary-General touched on various topics including climate change, nonproliferation, the current economic crisis, and reform of the United Nations under the theme “United Nations: Facing Global Challenges”. After his speech, he answered questions from students. Even though there were a lot of questions, the Secretary-General answered them respectfully.

On 9 June 2009, at the University of Tokyo’s Yasuda Auditorium, a symposium was held in memory of Professor Emeritus Yoji Totsuka, who died last year. The symposium was jointly organized by the University of Tokyo and the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, with the collaboration of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, International Center for Elementary Particle Physics and the Physical Society of Japan.
While Professor Totsuka was a specialist in neutrino research, he was well-acquainted with, and showed deep insight into other fields. Despite being held on a weekday, many eminent persons were among the audience, including Professor Emeritus Masatoshi Koshiba, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and who was also among the speakers, and Professor Emeritus Makoto Kobayashi, recipient of last year’s Nobel prize.
The symposium began with a greeting from Professor Junichi Hamada, president of the University of Tokyo, and a memorial lecture by Professor Koshiba, Professor Totsuka’s former teacher, and was followed by talks from Professor Eugene W. Beier from the University of Pennsylvania, who collaborated with Professor Totsuka on research, and Professor Yoichiro Suzuki from the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research. All the speakers related their reminiscences of Professor Totsuka and his research at the Kamiokande and Super-Kamiokande facilities.

University of Tokyo Institute for Cosmic Ray Research homepage

Professor Emeritus Koshiba relating memories of Professor Emeritus Totsuka

Professor Eugene W. Beier

On Wednesday, 3 June 2009, the University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics and Faculty of Law and the Yomiuri Shimbun jointly sponsored the Global Leadership Studies Commemorative Symposium. This program, designed to foster leaders active in the international arena, has been offered since April 2009. The Commemorative Symposium welcomed former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as speaker, and President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata as commentator. Yasuda Auditorium was packed with nearly 1,200 students for Mr. Annan’s speech on “The Global Economic Crisis and Africa: The Role of Africa’s Partners.” President Ogata praised Mr. Annan’s contribution to the peace process in Kenya. This was followed by a question and answer session with students, chaired by Professor Shinichi Kitaoka, chief executive of the Global Leadership Studies Program, in which both Mr. Annan and President Ogata spoke on international issues and their personal experiences as global leaders. Over the next three years, the program will invite prominent first-class entrepreneurs from Japan and around the world to lead lectures and exercises.

On Sunday, May 31, the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) celebrated the 60th anniversary of its foundation.
On Thursday, May 28, at the Komaba Research Campus Convention Hall, lectures and celebrations to commemorate the anniversary took place attended by University of Tokyo President Hamada, several university vice presidents, and the participation of alumni of the IIS.
Professor Emeritus Hiroshi Hara, Professor Emeritus Hiroyuki Sakaki, and Executive Vice President Masafumi Maeda made a series of very interesting lectures on the campus, research and organization of the IIS.
The anniversary celebrations coincided with the groundbreaking ceremony for the start of the renovation of Building 60 on the Komaba Research Campus, the publication of a book detailing the last ten years of activities at the IIS and a “60 year commemorative special issue” publication.

Institute of Industrial Science
http://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.html

The Komaba Campus welcomed two hundred parents of Komaba freshmen. After the new Komaba parents were greeted by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in room 1323, they took a 90-minute campus tour led by faculty members. The participants enjoyed visiting the clock tower, library, classrooms, and dining hall while talking closely with professors.
Some of the visitors had come from as far away as Kyushu.

i love komaba website:
http://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ilovekomaba/

Lecture by the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

The second G8 University Summit was held on 18 and 19 May, 2009, in Turin, Italy.

The summit was attended by 21 university presidents and representatives from the G8 member countries, 11 university presidents and representatives from non-member countries, and nine representatives from organizations related to higher education. Discussion focused on the theme of “Promotion and Implementation of Sustainable and Responsible Development through Education.” The University of Tokyo was represented by President Hamada, Vice President Tanaka and President Emeritus Komiyama, who exchanged opinions with other university leaders.

President Hamada presided over the Economics sub meeting held on 18 May, presenting the content of the discussion to the main meeting on 18 and 19 May.

The final meeting ratified the G8 University Summit Turin Declaration, based on the content of the two days of discussion, the “Torino Declaration on Education and Research for Sustainable and Responsible Development.” Further, it was decided that the next G8 University Summit would be held in Canada.

Second G8 Summit website:
http://www.g8university.com/pagine/pagina.aspx?&L=EN

First G8 Summit website:
http://g8u-summit.jp/

A special lecture by Professor Toshihide Maskawa was given at the auditorium in Komaba-I campus on Saturday 9 May. A capacity audience of 650 people greatly enjoyed a stimulating talk by one of the 2008 Nobel laureates in physics.

Professor Maskawa’s lecture was preceded by an address from Professor Susumu Yamakage, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and a short introduction to elementary particle physics by Associate Professor Yoshio Kikukawa. His entertaining lecture style meant that the lecture of more than an hour, in which Professor Maskawa spoke about his own research in elementary particle physics, passed in next to no time. The lecture covered specialist content in places, but this was mostly concerning other researchers, and his comment that all-night discussions with friends is vital in research brought many nods of agreement from the audience.

In the lively post-lecture question and answer session questions ranged from why Professor Maskawa chose his field of study, to the future of the field of research in elementary particles.

Monday, April 27, the Royal Society hosted a reception to open the Todai Forum, attended by about 120 participants. Individual forums were held at partner universities, City University London hosting the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for "Human Security and Business", Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge hosting the School of Engineering for "The role of nuclear energy in sustainable development", and Manchester Metropolitan University hosting the Faculty of Economics for "Disability and Economy."

From The University of Tokyo, about 70 students, academic and administrative staff from three graduate schools and faculties accompanied President Hamada and Vice President Tanaka, and deepening academic exchange with students and researchers at the United Kingdom's top universities.

Friday, April 17, at 2pm in the Fukutake Learning Theatre, President Hamada held his inaugural press conference and inaugural briefing as university president, expressing his ideas about university management and outlining his intentions for his presidency, asserting that the aim was “to move the woods,” and “to become a cornerstone of human knowledge supporting humanity.”

After the conclusion of the press conference, a lively debate continued in the UT Cafe (Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies Fukutake Hall 1st floor).

The university entrance ceremony for 2009 was held at the Nippon Budokan on Monday, April 13.
The ceremony was attended by about 3,100 new students as well as some 5,300 parents and other interested persons.

Message from the President

This exhibit consists of a selection of nineteenth century nishiki-e prints (colored news illustrations) from a collection bequeathed to the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies (one of the precursors of the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies) by its founding director, Hideo Ono. The samples chosen for this exhibit all depict scenes associated with the theme of “Spring”. Those on display during the month of March are from the Edo era, while those shown in April are from the early Meiji era. Viewers of these items should gain an impression of how the season of cherry blossoms (sakura) was represented in the media of the nineteenth century. Part of the Ono Collection can also be seen by visiting the newly refurbished exhibition room located inside the Socio-information and Community Studies Archive (on the first floor of the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies Main Building). Explanations of these exhibits can be obtained from the newly installed ubiquitous terminals developed as part of Center for the Study of Ubiquitous Computing Infrastructure (a 21st Century COE project based at the III). All those interested are very welcome to visit.

Also currently on display are panels introducing the diverse educational and research activities currently taking place at the III, scenes from the annual exhibition of graduate student work (iii exhibition), and promotional material relating to the film “Blue Symphony” produced by the Industrial Partnership Program in Digital Contents Creation. All visitors are warmly invited to take this opportunity to experience some of the diverse research endeavors currently underway at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies (III).

Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies
http://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/

Students successfully passing The University of Tokyo entrance examination (early term schedule) and The University of Tokyo latter term preliminary stage selection were announced on Tuesday, March 10.

On Tuesday, February 24, 2009, from 13.30 in the School of Engineering Faculty Room, the “Ideal Education Symposium: a university pursuing new education and activities ? aspiring to the ideal education” was held.
At the symposium, President Komiyama lectured on the theme of the “university pursuing new education and activities”, Project Professor Fujiwara Takeo of the Center for Research and Development of Higher Education lectured on “The Ideal Textbook”, Project Assistant Professor Otaki Yurina of the Center for Research and Development of Higher Education lectured on “Avoiding Copyright Infringement”, Project Associate Professor Mima Hideki of the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Center for Knowledge Structuring lectured on “The Evolving Textbook”, Assistant Professor Steven Kraines of the Organization for Interdisciplinary Research Projects and the Science Integration Program (Human) lectured on “Reading the Cutting-edge of Life Research”, Professor Miyake Naomi, Vice President of the Consortium for Renovating Education of the Future and the Graduate School of Education lectured on Expectations of the Consortium for Renovating Education of the Future. Through these and other lectures The University of Tokyo’s approach to education reform was presented, and the symposium saw a rich debate on these and related topics.

On Tuesday, February 17, at Yayoi Auditorium Ichijo Hall, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton participated in a lively Town Meeting attended by 270 University of Tokyo students.
Before the meeting, University President Komiyama and Executive Vice President Asashima, in consultation with student representatives, presented a commemorative gift to Secretary Clinton. The Town Meeting was managed by University students, beginning with a welcome address by University President Komiyama and followed by a speech by Secretary Clinton, who then took questions from students, kindly answering each in detail.

On Saturday, February 7th, a public symposium "Global Warming: From Discussion to Action - Towards Realization of a Low-Carbon Society - " was held at the Yasuda Auditorium (in cooperation with Nikkei Inc.).  1,062 participants attended the conference.

First, a video message from Dr. Pachauri, the chair of IPCC, was screened, which was followed by lectures by President Komiyama, Prof. Matsuhashi (Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo), and Prof. Ikkatai (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University).  In the later session, a panel of representatives from the academia, industry, government, and media, and so forth, discussed "how Japan can achieve a low carbon society."

Website of the 4th Public Symposium by IR3S

On the occasion of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 held in Davos, Switzerland (28 January-1 February), The University of Tokyo and Keio University hosted the “Todai Keio Reception 2009” at the Central Sporthotel on 29 January. President Komiyama and Keio University President Anzai opened the reception with brief welcome speeches and Ambassador Kitajima (permanent representative of Japan in Geneva) proposed a toast. Approximately 190 people attended the reception, including government, company and university officials.

On Friday, January 16, the third meeting of the “Kashiwa International Campus Town Support Committee” was held at the Palace Hotel, Chiyoda Ward. The Committee was established in December 2007 by The University of Tokyo and Chiba University in cooperation with industry, to promote the development of the area between Kashiwanoha Campus Station and The University of Tokyo’s Kashiwa Campus as the “Kashiwa International Campus Town”. This third meeting was attended by Committee Chairman Mogi Yuzaburo, Chairman and CEO of Kikkoman Corporation and the other members of the Committee; Chiba Prefectural Governor Domoto, Kashiwa City Mayor Honda, and Nagareyama City Vice-Mayor Ishihara as observers; and University of Tokyo President Komiyama and Chiba University President Saito. After a report of recent activities, the members of the Committee offered insightful comments on The University of Tokyo Kashiwanoha Station Campus and Chiba University Kashiwanoha College Link Program.

The meeting adjourned, agreeing to establish a “Kashiwa International Academic City Research Group” (tentative name) under the aegis of the Committee for the promotion of urban development.

The National Center Test for University Admissions for fiscal year 2009 was held on the 17th and 18th January. About 10,000 examinees took the test at The University of Tokyo on the Hongo and Komaba campuses and at other locations.

Several items from the time of the old education system First High School (Dai-ichi Koutou Gakkou, abbreviated as “Ichikou”), the predecessor of The University of Tokyo College of Arts and Sciences, are on display in the General Administration Building. These items include several measuring instruments from the period when western science and engineering was being introduced to Japan, including Stanislas Petit’s “Le Praticien Industriel” which was used as a teaching aid for instruction of mechanical drawing (viewable online at http://gazo.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/petit/).

We hope that this will provide you with an opportunity both to experience a moment in history, and to see education and research of The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences and the development of the principle of late specialization in education.

New Year’s greetings by President Komiyama