On November 15, 2011, Liu Zhen Wan, Party Secretary of China’s Dalian University of Foreign Languages was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Chancellor Mizuta Noriko at Josai’s Kioicho campus.

The degree honors Secretary Liu for his long-standing efforts in fostering relations and cultural understanding between Japan and China and his significant contributions in the area of academic exchange between Josai and Chinese universities.

Secretary Liu has long been worked on the cutting-edge of the tourist industry, re-branding Dalian as the “City of Romance,” making him one of the forerunners of the worldwide branding movement in tourism. As a result of his superb leadership, Dalian was named one of the top three tourist destinations in China, receiving exceptionally high marks from the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Having established an academic exchange agreement with Dalian University of Foreign Languages in March of 2008, Josai and JIU have hosted many exchange students from DLUFL, and the two universities continue to work to expand their relations.

As both schools possess a Faculty of Tourism, the two departments plan to collaborate on a Japanese-Chinese Tourism Dictionary to serve as a bilingual guide for tourism related terminology. The dictionary is scheduled for publication in 2013.

After receiving his honorary doctorate, Secretary Liu gave a short acceptance speech in which he remarked, “Josai and Dalian’s close-knit relations have made us like brothers. I’m very honored and thankful to receive this doctorate which I feel is not simply a testament to my personal accomplishments but a reflection of my university’s great accomplishments as well. From now on, I will always consider Josai to be our sister institution and myself as a fellow student of Josai.”

In commemoration of their academic exchange, Josai will donate 200 Japanese cherry trees to Dalian to be planted around the periphery of the pond on their new Lunshun campus. With each coming Spring, they can now look forward to the sight of cherry blossoms which is sure to enhance the beauty of their campus even further.