Following its selection in November 2024 for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)’s “ Multicultural Campus Project Toward Social Impact” (*1), Hiroshima University held the kickoff symposium for the project on March 9, 2025. The event, titled “Town Development through Multicultural Coexistence: Collaboration Between Universities and Society”, was also part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Higashihiroshima City’s municipal incorporation.

1: This MEXT project aims to generate social impact, including the realization of a multicultural society, by promoting collaborative learning between Japanese and international students and encouraging them to propose solutions to domestic and international issues.

Under this initiative, Hiroshima University’s program, based on the Town & Gown concept, provides all students with fieldwork experiences addressing local issues in collaboration with Higashihiroshima and Kure cities. Approximately 78 participants—including university faculty and staff involved in the program, officials from Higashihiroshima City and Kure City, members of the Higashihiroshima City Council, students, and local citizens—attended in person, while 41 others joined online.

At the opening of the symposium, President Ochi stated, “We hope this event will serve as a platform to learn from pioneering multicultural town development efforts involving academia, industry, and government in other countries and regions, and to deepen discussions on university-society collaboration within this program.” This was followed by remarks from Mr. Hirotoku Takagaki, Mayor of Higashihiroshima City, and Mr. Makoto Okuno, Director-General of the Higher Education Bureau at MEXT.

Subsequently, Dan Vizzini, Senior Fellow at Portland State University, gave a lecture titled “University-Community Collaboration at Portland State University”. Tomoko Kitamura Nielsen, a cultural translator and journalist based in Denmark, delivered a talk on “The Quintuple Helix in Denmark and Its Practical Examples.” These lectures were followed by a lively Q&A session with the audience.

2: The “Quintuple Helix” model expands on the “Quadruple Helix” concept—industry, government, academia, and civil society working together—by adding “the environment” as a fifth key sector.