UTokyo President’s Log

I attended an event which took place at the headquarters of CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in Paris. The event was about collaboration between the French national research organization and UTokyo.In October 2022, CNRS and UTokyo established the International Research Center (IRC) to promote international cooperation and exchange. In addition to UTokyo, five other universities around the world — the University of Arizona and the University of Chicago in the U.S., the University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo) in Brazil, the University of Sherbrooke (Université de Sherbrooke) in Canada, and Imperial College London in the U.K. — have an IRC.

On October 28, a bilateral meeting between CNRS and UTokyo was held, during which the two parties reported on their joint research and event-related activities, and exchanged views on key research areas for the future.On the following day, representatives from the universities where an IRC has been set up gathered for a meeting. I also took the stage at the roundtable to discuss global scientific cooperation and international talent development.

I attended the opening ceremony of the University of Tokyo GATEWAY Campus. In October 2023, UTokyo concluded a 100-year industry-academia collaboration agreement with East Japan Railway Company (JR East) to achieve planetary health that will create ways to lead a fulfilled life a century into the future. In May 2024, Maruha Nichiro Corporation joined the JR East - UTokyo partnership.

Making the most of TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, an experimental site to lead a fulfilled life a century into the future, we are committed to contributing to the creation of sustainable and fulfilling future through collaboration among industry, government and academia.

We held UTokyo’s 24th Homecoming Day. The event is for alumni, their families, fans of UTokyo and people from the neighboring community to gather on campus. With this year’s theme dubbed “Welcome Back, Connection and Ginkgo Festival,” Homecoming Day took place with great enthusiasm.

There were more than 130 programs on campus, and the atmosphere was even more vibrant than usual. Although it was a limited time, I communicated with a lot of people who came to the event. I would be very happy if the event helped everyone feel even closer to UTokyo.

We held the 2025 University of Tokyo Shokumon Award ceremony. The award was presented to individuals, corporations or organizations who have contributed significantly to the development of UTokyo’s activities through donations of personal assets, volunteer work and assistance, and corporate-sponsored lectures and research programs.

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 would like to express our gratitude one more time for the generous support we have received. We are also determined to make further efforts, so that we can make the most of the support offered and contribute to creating a better society.

I attended the annual general meeting of the Science and Technology in Society forum 2025 (STS forum). Based on the memorandum regarding collaboration and cooperation which was signed with the STS forum in May 2024, UTokyo has been contributing to creating summaries of each session using generative AI.

In this acadmic year, UTokyo planned a plenary session together with member universities of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). We discussed the theme of “AI and the Future University: Strategic Leadership, Culture, Diversity and Global Equity”.

I attended the High-Level Event of the HFSP Science Summit Japan 2025 organized by the Human Frontier Sceince Program (HFSP), which promotes innovative international joint researches in the field of life sciences.

The all-day event was held at the Yasuda Auditorium. Prominent researchers, including 10 Nobel Prize laureates, exchanged their opinions through panel discussions. I also spoke at a session titled “Life Sciences in the 21st Century – Where Will You Take Us?” as a moderator and discussed with the Nobel Prize laureates the future of life sciences. I hope that the participants will make use of the inspiration gained through this event for their future learning and research.