UTokyo President’s Log

We held UTokyo’s 23rd Homecoming Day, where alumni and their families, fans of UTokyo and people from the neighboring community gathered on campus to enjoy the festivities.

This year’s celebration was packed with more programs than usual, including the UTokyo 150th anniversary countdown event “Sports and the University of Tokyo,” and our campus was teeming with activity. I participated in several events and was very happy to be able to interact with many people, including through singing our school song, Tada Hitotsu (The Only One), with alumni and friends of the university.

We held an event featuring a special lecture by President Akinwumi Adesina of the African Development Bank Group, who spoke about the significance of the partnership between Africa and Japan, and the importance of youth empowerment and entrepreneurship development aligned with the goals of TICAD 9 (the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development).

The lecture was followed by “UTokyo Africa Evening #2,” a meetup for international students from African countries, where members of UTokyo’s African Student Union and a student interest group on Africa reported on their activities. The event provided an opportunity for members of our community to come together and deepen exchange through their shared interest in Africa.

We held the 2024 University of Tokyo Shokumon Award ceremony to honor this year’s recipients of the annual award presented to individuals, corporations or organizations who have contributed significantly to the development of UTokyo’s activities through donations, volunteer work, corporate-sponsored research programs and other forms of support. We have entered the 23rd year in presenting this award, established in 2002.

At the ceremony, four of this year’s recipients were in attendance, and I had the privilege of personally presenting the award to them.
I wish to reiterate our gratitude for the generous support we have received, and we are determined to continue our effort in living up to expectations.

I visited the Tokoro Research Laboratory in Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido, and toured the off-campus facility affiliated with the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology.

During my visit, I also met with the people of the city of Kitami, where the facility is located. I expressed our gratitude for their long-standing support of UTokyo’s activities in Tokoro, including our excavation work at archaeological sites in the area, and exchanged views on further strengthening our ties in the future.

I attended the ceremony commemorating the 125th anniversary of the University of Tokyo Hokkaido Forest, established in 1899 in the city of Furano in Japan’s northern main island Hokkaido. As part of the University of Tokyo Forests, an institution attached to the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the forest has grown alongside the local community, with whose members I was able to celebrate this milestone.

Prior to the ceremony, I visited and planted a commemorative tree in the University of Tokyo Hokkaido Forest.

We welcomed Sir Richard Roberts, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, to the Hongo Campus.

At his special lecture event titled “The Path to the Nobel Prize,” held at Koshiba Hall, I had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with the Nobel laureate, where we exchanged views on a variety of topics.

We co-hosted the Global Commons Forum, an event addressing the impending crisis facing the global commons — the stable and resilient Earth system sustaining our lives — and featuring global leaders in this field from academia, industry and government.

For my closing remarks, I sat down with UTokyo students attending the forum and talked about the prospects for a better future by reflecting on the day’s discussions.

I attended the Science and Technology in Society forum 2024 with global leaders from business, government, universities and other educational institutions, who had gathered for the international conference in Kyoto. I seized the opportunity to exchange views with other participants on a wide range of topics, from global issues to potential collaboration with UTokyo.

In addition to the University Presidents’ Meeting, which I attended with my counterparts from around the world, I partcipated as a speaker in the plenary session, titled “Basic Science, Innovation and Policy,” in which I engaged in discussion with Japan’s Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Minister Toshiko Abe and expert panelists from abroad.