News

On December 13–14, 2022, "THE Campus Live Japan" was held on Mita Campus. This is the first time the event was held in Japan. More than 150 people from across Japan attended, including university presidents and vice presidents, faculty, staff, and individuals with ties to higher education and academic publishers.

The theme was "Reimagining the future of Japanese universities in the post-pandemic world", with both days of the event featuring lectures by guest speakers who attended from Japan and abroad. Various sessions were held which considered current challenges and opportunities for Japanese universities. Each session generated many questions and comments from participants in the audience.

On the first day of the event, UK Government Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation George Freeman delivered the UK Government address, emphasizing the importance and significance of research cooperation between the UK and Japan, and introducing specific inter-government initiatives for the future. The insights that he offered reminded us that in a rapidly changing world, universities remain key players in each of the issues we face, including energy price hikes and inflation, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change.

President Itoh took the stage for the last session, the "University leaders panel: The challenges and opportunities of reimagining the future of Japanese universities in the post-pandemic world". During the panel, President Itoh and the leaders of two other universities exchanged their honest opinions on how they should face current challenges and actions that should be taken in response based on each university's mission and unique features. True to the event title "Campus Live", the expressions on each leader's faces and the comments they made in real-time gave us a glimpse of the difficulties and responsibilities involved in steering a modern university administration, as well as their passion for the students, facilitated by the magnitude that only an in-person, live event can deliver.

Please refer here for more details about the event.