The city of San Jose (California, U.S.) delegation visited Okayama University on April 10.
They came to Okayama City to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between San Jose and Okayama.

The delegation included 29 individuals such as five City Council members having Mr. Raul Peralez who attended the Okayama University Silicon Valley Office Opening Ceremony in November 2015 as an official guest, Dr. Ruth D. Huard, Dean of the College of International and Extended Studies and the Faculty member of San Jose State University (SJSU), Mr. Joe Hedges, International Affairs Manager at the Office of Economic Development, the members of the San Jose-Okayama Sister Cities, and the citizens & staffs of the city of San Jose.

Councilmember Mr. Sergio Jimenez and President of the Okayama University, Professor Hirofumi Makino gave welcome remarks, and Professor Makino stated the long history of SJSU with Okayama University and our recent initiatives of Silicon Valley Office and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Especially, our newest SDGs has been taken on the 17 SDGs, and Professor Makino ensure that the city of Okayama and Okayama University are on the path to achieve sustainability as the City of San Jose has been doing the similar 17 SDGs now, but ranked as number one last year among US cities.

Professor Makino in his remarks, said, “We would like to strengthen the collaboration with you, especially SJSU, to achieve our vision of establishing a ‘fruitful academic capital’. In our mutual histories, SJSU and Okayama University has signed an interuniversity agreement in 1974 and a student exchange agreement in 1999. Also, Mr. Hedges, International Affairs Manager of the city of San Jose helped to establish the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems at Okayama University last year.

Mr. Daiji Takeuchi, Executive Director/Vice President for Research provided the overview of Okayama University. Mr. Atsufumi Yokoi, Vice Executive Director/Senior University Global Administrator, and Professor Mitsunobu Kano, Vice Executive Director, both informed the delegation about the university’s efforts to make itself more globally relevant and attractive and to help achieve SDGs. Professor Masaharu Seno, Dean of the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems explained the forms of collaboration between Okayama University and City of San Jose.

Lastly, during their visit, David Cruz, who is the exchange student from SJSU gave the brief presentation to the delegation and shared the great time with them.

The delegation’s visit has led to closer ties between Okayama University, SJSU, and the City of San Jose. Okayama University will continue to enhance cooperation in academic exchanges, human resources development and other areas with the City of San Jose and San Jose State University.