UTokyo President’s Log

I attended the ceremony marking the completion of KAJIMA HALL: Lecture Room No. 15, the newly renovated historical lecture space in the Faculty of Engineering/Graduate School of Engineering.

The original lecture room was designed by renowned architect and former UTokyo President Yoshikazu Uchida and completed in 1935. In the spring of 2020, the year marking the 85th anniversary of the lecture room’s completion and 25 years since its last renovation, the university received a donation from major construction company Kajima Corp. to design and build a state-of-the-art research and education base incorporating advanced technology, while carrying on the heritage of the historical space.

We will endeavor to utilize this space for demonstration experiments of cutting-edge research and as a venue that can accommodate a variety of lecture formats.

I attended the fifth annual U7+ Alliance of World Universities Presidential Summit hosted by Keio University in Tokyo. The international university alliance was launched at Sciences Po, or the Paris Institute of Political Studies, in 2019, when France held the presidency of the Group of Seven organization of leading industrial countries. The U7+ Alliance of World Universities comprises more than 50 universities from over 20 countries, including the G7 and other countries.

I chaired the “Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression” session, in which we discussed the roles and responsibilities of universities in various contexts and settings around the world.

We held the presentation ceremony of the University of Tokyo President’s Award for Students. This award presented by the president recognizes individuals or groups who have attained outstanding academic achievement, demonstrated excellence in extracurricular activities or gained recognition in various social activities, thus serving as role models for other students and contributing to enhance the university’s reputation.

We are very proud of the winners for their involvement in distinctive, wonderful activities.

UTokyo concluded a comprehensive agreement for research collaboration and cooperation with Teikyo University in Tokyo.

After signing the agreement, Teikyo University Chairman and President Yoshihito Okinaga and I discussed the future prospects of this partnership between our institutions.

I attended the graduation ceremony for Round 27 of the University of Tokyo Executive Management Program (UTokyo EMP).

I presented certificates in person to all 24 graduates.

We will continue to draw on UTokyo’s extensive academic resources to enhance the program and cultivate the next generation of leaders who will contribute to society in the future.

We welcomed John Hennessy, president emeritus of Stanford University in the U.S. and current director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars and chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. We organized a special talk event on the Hongo Campus, in which President Emeritus Hennessy and I held a dialogue session.

Following our conversation, in which President Emeritus Hennessy introduced the Knight-Hennessy Scholars graduate-level scholarship program at Stanford University and we covered topics such as career development and industry-academia collaboration, we engaged in a lively exchange with the undergraduate and graduate students attending the event.

I attended a symposium organized to announce internally and externally the implementation of UTokyo Gender Equity Initiative #WeChange, a campuswide scheme aimed at developing female leaders, and to discuss our vision for the future.

I participated as a panelist in a discussion with essayist and UTokyo visiting researcher Keiko Kojima and President Yasuko Sasaki of Ochanomizu University, on nurturing female researchers into global leaders.