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Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)

Update:Feb. 9, 2015

The Two Town Campuses

Shin-Kawasaki Town Campus
Open Seminars for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration in Business

Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)
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Inside the “Shin-Kawasaki Forest of Creation” area, adjacent to the Shin-Kawasaki (K2) Town Campus, is the “Kawasaki Business Incubation Center” or KBIC, which Kawasaki City established in January 2003. Industry-academia-government collaboration is facilitated here, and there is numerous research conducted jointly between Keio University and corporations as well as research projects being developed for commercialization. The KBIC includes the Global Nano Micro Technology Business Incubation Center (NANOBIC) where the 4-University Nano/Micro Fabrication Consortium—between Keio University, Waseda University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the University of Tokyo—as well as related industries, are driving forward with research.

At the K2 Town Campus, in cooperation with Kawasaki City, open seminars that mainly target local businesses and talks/workshops related to business development are held several times a year, with the aim to developing industry-academic-government collaborative businesses that are based on research results. On August 28 this year, Professor Kohei Ohnishi was invited to lecture on real-world haptics, which included a demonstration of the technology (image 1), and in view of its practical application in businesses, an enthusiastic exchange of opinions took place among the participants.

Further redevelopment plans are underway close to the campus around the Shin-Kawasaki and Kashimada stations, and it is anticipated that the area will become a research hub that offers more comfort and convenience. At the core of this hub, the K2 Town Campus is conducting research projects which are gathering huge interest from Japanese and international researchers and industries, and are paving the way for the future.

Tsuruoka Town Campus
Recruiting Local High School Students as Research Assistants and Special Research Students

Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)
image 2

To transform Tsuruoka City into a “bio-town of the world,” the campus is also engaged in furthering exchange with the local communities. Through the recruitment of students from the neighboring Tsuruoka Chuo High School as “research assistants,” and local high school students interested in bio-technology as “special research students,” the institute is offering opportunities to become involved with leading-edge research under the guidance of the TTCK researchers.

“This is a ground-breaking endeavor. Our underlying hope is to change Japanese high school education, which is focused heavily on university entrance examinations. When the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) just opened, a similar kind of undertaking was proactively carried out with the introduction of the self-recommended admission system. We also advise the special research students to opt for the self-recommended admission system—not limited to Keio University—based on what they have gained through the research experiences at TTCK,” explains Professor Masaru Tomita, Director of the Institute of Advanced Biosciences.

The institute also offers the “summer bio-college” program in which high school students from Keio’s affiliated schools go to Tsuruoka and learn the basics of bio-technology, as well as the “spring science camp” (organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency) targeted at high school students from all over the country. At the last “Bio Summit in Tsuruoka,” an annual summer event jointly organized by Yamagata Prefecture, Tsuruoka City, and IAB, 162 high school students from 50 schools in Japan presented their research projects (image 2).

In order to nurture potential “Nobel Prize-winning bio-researchers,” TTCK is guiding and supporting high school students through regional collaboration.

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Keio University Branches Out Within and Beyond Japan

Keio’s Base in the Kansai Area, the Keio Osaka City Campus

Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)

Keio University has a deep relationship with Osaka—this is where Yukichi Fukuzawa was born and where he later studied under Ogata Kōan at his Tekijuku. The campus was first established in 2008 as the Keio Osaka Riverside Campus inside the Dojima River Forum; it was later moved and expanded in May 2013 to the Grand Front Osaka Knowledge Capital in the city’s Kita Ward, and renamed Keio Osaka City Campus. It aims to be Keio’s hub for not only alumni exchange and lifelong learning, but also for industry-academia-government cooperation involving various research institutes and corporations who have offices inside the Knowledge Capital.

Urawa-Kyoritsu Campus and the Medicinal Plant Garden

Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)

The Urawa-Kyoritsu Campus is one of Keio Faculty of Pharmacy’s facilities. In 1966, before merging with Keio University, the Kyoritsu College of Pharmacy established the Urawa Campus in the former Urawa City (present Midori Ward in Saitama City), complete with its own medicinal botanical garden and athletics grounds. It integrated into Keio University in 2008. The campus covers a vast area surrounded by the nature of Musashino, and the highlight of the campus is the medicinal plant garden. There are around 600 types of medicinal plants grown here to familiarize people with herbs that are essential to the study of pharmacy. There is also a greenhouse in the almost 3500 m2 garden, which is open to the public on weekdays during the period from March to November.

Promoting Human Exchange and Keio’s Knowledge and Expertise in London

Yoshinori Suzuki, London Office Administrative Clerk
Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)
Keio University Branches Out: Campuses Established Through Regional Collaboration and Domestic and Overseas Bases (3)

Keio opened its London office in November 2006 inside the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) London Office. Located in central London, the office is working toward strengthening Keio’s international presence by promoting the university’s various educational and research exchange activities with Europe’s leading universities and institutions including those already in partnership with Keio.
 
Functions of the London Office includes providing local support for Keio students who participate in short-term study abroad programs (organized by the Keio University International Center) during the spring and summer seasons. The office communicates with the host universities—Oxford University, University of Cambridge, and Sciences Po in Paris—to ensure that the students’ study abroad experience proceeds smoothly and safely.

In addition, the office coordinates the university’s public relations efforts in Europe, and as part of the student recruitment activities, it organizes the Experience Japan Exhibition held annually in November in London to promote study abroad in Japan. The 2013 fair revealed that there is a great deal of interest in Japan, with around 700 visitors from within and outside the UK.
 
With its base in London, one of the “hub cities of the world,” where vibrant interactions of diverse cultures are constantly taking place, Keio University will continue to promote human exchange, as well as its knowledge and its expertise.

*This article appeared in the 2014 autumn edition (No.284) of “Juku”.