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2017.2.22 Wed
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Osaka University Symposium held

On Monday, February 20, the Osaka University Symposium was held at the Osaka International Convention Center. Despite the inclement weather, some 400 individuals attended the symposium, which was much more than the original capacity of 350.

The topic of this year's symposium was "Towards a Favorable Environment for Co-creation: Aiming for a Kansai Where Women Can Thrive" and attendees investigated what the university, corporations, and research institutes should do in order to expand a positive spiral in which women can thrive from Settsu to Osaka and all throughout Japan through collaboration between industry, university, and government.

At the start of the symposium, greetings were given by MASAKI Masato (Deputy Director General, Science and Technology Policy Bureau, MEXT) and AIZAWA Masuo (Advisor, Japan Science and Technology Agency). Both gave powerful voices of support for these endeavors.

Later, Osaka University Visiting Professor MURAKI Atsuko delivered a lecture entitled "Why Success for Women Now?" in which she talked about worldwide trends regarding success for women and trends in policies in Japan, all while mixing in a bit of humor and her own experiences. Following this, MURAO Kazutoshi (Representative Director and President, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation) gave a lecture entitled "Women's Points of View Changing Companies," covering topics such as the current state of promoting success of women in Kansai and reform within NTT West by a business improvement team comprised of women. Mr. MURAO also mixed in a bit of his own humor while talking on specific topics.

Afterwards, following an explanation by NISHIO Shojiro (President, Osaka University), YONEDA Yoshihiro (Director General/Project Leader, NIBIOHN), and SAWAI Katsuyuki (Executive Officer, Daikin Industries, Ltd.) of vision and endeavors for the promotion of the "Initiative for Realizing Diversity in the Research Environment (Collaboration Type)," to which Osaka University was selected, a panel discussion was held which included Prof. MURAKI and Mr. MURAO as well.

At the panel discussion, various discussions were held on the possibility of promoting the success of female researchers through collaboration between these three institutions, specific endeavors in response to questions from the audience regarding how to promote the awareness necessary for the success of women, and the intent of the panelists to spread these endeavors from Kansai to the rest of Japan.


Those in attendance gave their thoughts on the event, such as "I learned a lot from the numerous specific examples. I want to implement these in my own company," and "I would definitely like for them to spread the kind of innovation that creates diversity from Osaka."

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