Executive Vice President NAKAMURA Chiharu and Prof. YUI Kiyomitsu of the Graduate School of Humanities participated in the 9th Forum on International Cultural Industries, 2012 New Year, China held on Jan. 7 and 8 in Beijing. The two-day event was hosted by Peking University under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of China.

The Forum is held once a year with an aim to promote communication between the government, the enterprises and the academy in the industrial field under its initial concept of 'blend of learning and reality, an innovation in strategy and development' with a focus on the development of theory and practice in the cultural industry.

Dr. NAKAMURA gave a keynote speech in the Main Forum held on Jan. 7. He gave a detailed introduction of the cultural industry in Japan, the current state and future vision of industry-university-government partnership within the Japanese cultural industry. He also introduced the international strategy and activities undertaken by Kobe University in regards to industry-university-government collaboration.

On Jan. 8, Prof. YUI delivered a speech titled, "Construction of Internationally Cooperative System in Education for Cultural Industries" in Forum V which focused on Talent Cultivation. He used Japanese pop culture to illustrate the development of Japanese cultural industry; he also suggested the possibility of forming an international cooperative education system for cultural industry based on inter-university collaborations.

China Network TV (CCTV) broadcasted short summaries of the Forum in its daily news section.