Osaka University Co-Creation Festival 2018: Osaka University Symposium - "Future society created through collaboration in industry, government, academia, and citizens" held

To commemorate the opening of the Co-Creation Bureau at Osaka University, Osaka University started the Osaka University Co-Creation Festival in order to deepen exchange with the region and corporations. As the first part of the Festival, the Osaka University Symposium at Hotel Hankyu Expo Park entitled “Future society created through collaboration in industry, government, academia, and citizens" to which some 450 individuals were in attendance, making for a lively event.

President NISHIO Shojiro greeted attendees by saying, "As a designated national university corporation, we want to further strengthen 'co-creative activity with society' which OU puts emphasis on." A video message from MEXT was also played at the event, and Executive Vice President OGAWA Tetsuo spoke about the significance and activity of the Co-Creative Innovation Bureau.

Following this, a keynote speech entitled "Our Dreams Make Us Stronger" was given by KAWABUCHI Saburo, Captain (Supreme Advisor) of the Japan Football Association. Mr. Kawabuchi spoke about some tough times around the time that the Japanese Professional Football League (J-League) was started, and expressed his empathy for OU, saying, "Osaka University's motto of 'Live Locally, Grow Globally' matches closely with J-League's philosophy." Later, Mr. Kawabuchi and President Nishio held a discussion.

After a short break, in part 2 of the symposium, 4 activity reports were delivered (“Expo Future Conference,” “Creative Island Lab Nakanoshima,” “Multilingual Emergency Alert System”, and “Demonstration Experiments of Pedestrian Traffic Flow and Student Ventures”) with messages of encouragement by three guest organizations.

President Nishio (left) and Captain Kawabuchi (center) enjoy a discussion facilitated by Associate Executive Director Yoneda (right)