President NAGATA Attends High-level Meeting with President of Uzbekistan and Joins Cooperation Agreement Signings

On December 20, President NAGATA Kyosuke attended a high-level meeting on higher education at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo with H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, who was visiting Japan for the "Central Asia plus Japan" Dialogue Summit.

The meeting, hosted by the Government of Uzbekistan, was attended by Japan's Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MATSUMOTO Yohei, presidents of several Japanese universities, and representatives of related institutions.

Participants from the Japanese side also included President SUGINO Tsuyoshi (JSPS), President SUGIYAMA Naoshi (Nagoya University), President CHIBA Kazuhiro (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), President HARADA Tasuku (Tottori University), and President SABURI Haruo (Nagoya University of Economics). The participants exchanged views on strengthening cooperation between Japan and Uzbekistan in higher education and related fields.

During the meeting, President NAGATA highlighted the University of Tsukuba's long-standing commitment to academic exchange with Central Asia and CIS countries. He noted that the University has concluded academic agreements with 12 universities in Uzbekistan over the past 25 years, established an office at Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies in 2007, and opened the Samarkand Office in October 2025, thereby contributing to the expansion of bilateral higher education cooperation. He also expressed the University's intention to further strengthen networks of trust between Japan and Uzbekistan through education, research collaboration, and human resource development, including cooperation on the establishment of a new Japanese-style education and research institution proposed by the Uzbek side.

Following the meeting, President NAGATA participated in multiple memorandum signing ceremonies. These included a memorandum of cooperation with Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Sharipov regarding cooperation on university establishment, as well as memoranda with Executive Director Ismailova of the El-Yurt Umidi Foundation and Rector Safaev of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, aimed at strengthening academic cooperation and human resource development, including the joint establishment of double-degree programs.

Through these engagements, University of Tsukuba reaffirmed the strategic importance of its partnership with Uzbekistan and will continue to advance academic cooperation and institutional collaboration between the two countries.