Dr. Martin Tomčo, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Japan paid a courtesy visit to University of Toyama

On May 18, Dr. Martin Tomčo, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Japan, Dr. Ondřej Svoboda, Commercial and Economic Section of the Embassy of Czech Republic, Ms. Eri Murata, Commercial and Economic Section Assistant of the Embassy of Czech Republic, and Dr. Ilona Müllerová, Vice President of Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) paid a courtesy visit to President Saito of University of Toyama (UT).

The purpose of this visit was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Joint Statement towards Strategic Partnership between Japan and the Czech Republic, as well as the 20th anniversary of academic exchange between CAS and UT, and to discuss future academic exchange between the two countries.

In his welcome address, President Saito mentioned the exchange agreements with the Academy of Arts Architecture & Design in Prague and University of West Bohemia in addition to CAS, and called for the importance of further strengthening the international exchange between each institution. Then, the Executive Vice President Ikeda, Prof. Matsuda of School of Sustainable Design, Prof. Tsujiai of School of Art and Design, and Associate Prof. Hatada of School of Science of UT gave a presentation on the outline of UT and its academic exchange achievements, lively exchanging opinions on the future cooperation between Japan and the Czech Republic.

After the courtesy visit, Prof. Matsuda and Dr. Müllerová introduced the research activities of each institution, and then, the group visited the Lafcadio Hearn Library of UT.

It is expected that this visit will lead to further development of academic exchange between the two countries.