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On March 10, 2014, the First Empowerment Informatics Symposium was held at the Tokyo International Forum. Organized by the Ph.D. Program in Empowerment Informatics, selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan as the leading Ph.D. educational program in 2013, this symposium welcomed about 70 participants including representatives of the Ministry, faculty from universities overseas, representatives from companies in Japan and around the world, new students entering the Program the following year, members of the general public, and University faculty and staff.

Following introductory remarks by Yuichi Ohta, Program Director, and Shino Inomata from the University Promotion Division of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Higher Education Bureau, Program Leader Hiroo Iwata gave the keynote speech and then four faculty members invited from universities overseas lectured.

These were followed by a panel discussion on the theme of “Training Global Human Resources: Expectations of the Enterprise,” by Program manager and University of Tsukuba Vice President Kazuhiko Shimizu, Prof. Yoshiyuki Sankai, Principal Investigator of the Center for Cybernics Research, and, from the business world, Masato Tsukada (NEC Corp.) and Ruriko Takano (Shiseido Co., Ltd.) After the symposium was finished an event was held for exchange of information among related parties, featuring lively exchange of opinions.

Events held prior to the symposium included a kick-off meeting between University faculty and staff and the visiting faculty members from universities overseas and representatives of companies in Japan and around the world, providing a meaningful opportunity for sharing the Program’s views on the positioning of educational and research activities in the leading program activities to be conducted over the coming seven years and for discussing future courses of action with interested parties from across Japan and around the world.