Kobe University

Executive Vice President Mizutani gives keynote speech at the University of Hong Kong

June 19, 2019

On May 30, Professor Fumitoshi Mizutani (Executive Vice President in Charge of Planning, Human Resources and Labor Management) gave the keynote speech at a forum hosted by the University of Hong Kong titled “International Forum: Cultural Power, Business and Creative Industries in East Asia”.

The forum began with welcoming speeches from Professor Richard Y. C. Wong (Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong), Ms. Mari Takada (Political/Economic Affairs Consul, Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong), Dr. Dixon Heung-wah Wong (Professor of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Hong Kong / President of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong), and Dr. Max Wai-lun Wong (Assistant Professor of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Hong Kong). Executive Vice President Mizutani gave a keynote speech titled “Change and Reform of Public Utilities in Japan: Focusing on Cultural Background and Management in the Railway Industry”. The event brought together many participants involved in research on Asia’s public goods, cultural heritage and historical documents. As well as researchers and students from the University of Hong Kong, the attendees from Japan included Professor Tamotsu Aoki (Former Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs), Dr. Yutaka Mino (Director General of Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art), and Professor Yoshihiko Shiratori (Kobe University Graduate School of Humanities).

In addition to an inter-university academic exchange agreement, the University of Hong Kong and Kobe University have also concluded faculty-level academic exchange agreements and memoranda of understanding for student exchange between the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Arts and our University’s Faculty of Letters, Graduate School of Humanities, Faculty of Global Human Sciences, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies and Graduate School of Human Development and Environment. Both sides are continuing to enhance this collaboration, with the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law and Kobe University’s Graduate School of Law concluding a memorandum of understanding for student exchange in 2016. We look forward to further strengthening our ties as a result of this visit.

(International Affairs Planning Division)