From September 8-10, the University of Cologne hosted a symposium in connection with the 150th anniversary of exchange between Japan and Germany under the theme “The Future of Premodern Studies in a Rapidly Changing World.” The symposium featured a wide variety of roundtable discussions, workshops, and presentations that mentioned the recent disaster in Japan, providing a valuable opportunity for exchange with the University of Cologne and many other institutions.

The University of Cologne, a school that has devoted much energy to exchange with Japan, invited JIU, Hitotsubashi, Ochanomizu, Keio, Sophia, Kansai, and other Japanese universities with whom they have exchange agreements to this year’s symposium. Namikawa Katsuhiko, Josai Educational Corp. Head of Management and Paul Schalow, Director of JIU’s Faculty of Internal Humanities All-English program attended the symposium on behalf of Chancellor Mizuta.

Having just established an academic exchange agreement in March of 2010, JIU and the University of Cologne have already launched their exchange program, with one JIU student studying at the University of Cologne at present and the second class of U of C exchange students currently preparing to come to JIU.     Upon JIU’s most recent visit to the University of Cologne, with Japanese language and culture having become a matter of course, the group was able to reaffirm their expectations for expanding exchange with the U of C even further into more diverse fields.