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The Japan-Brazil University Rectors’ Summit 2025 was held in Brazil to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Brazil. From Shinshu University, Vice-President Shinichi Yonekura (International Affairs) attended on behalf of the university.

This summit was held at the University of S?o Paulo (one of our partner universities) in Brazil on January 31, 2025, with the cooperation of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese Embassy in Brazil, the Consulate-General of Japan in S?o Paulo, and the Brazilian Ministry of Education, etc. Around 60 participants from 10 universities in Japan and 10 universities in Brazil attended the conference. The conference opened with the congratulatory messages from Mr. Teiji Hayashi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Brazil and Dr. Rodrigo de Carvalho Dias Papa, First Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the video messages from Mr. Akio Fujiwara, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Mr. Camilo Santana, Minister of Education of Brazil. Followed by the greetings from Dr. Kyosuke Nagata, President of Tsukuba University (President of the Japan Association of National Universities) and Dr. Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior, President of the University of S?o Paulo, Dr. Masato Ninomiya, Professor Emeritus of the University of S?o Paulo, gave a keynote lecture titled “Japanese Immigrants and their Education in Brazil”.

Vice-President Yonekura then attended the breakout sessions on ‘Climate Change and Clean Energy’ and ‘Student Exchange and Learning Languages: Perspectives on Portuguese and Japanese’, where he introduced the university's initiatives in education, research, and social contribution, and engaged in in-depth discussions with other university presidents from Japan and Brazil on the social responsibility of universities in tackling global issues and human resource development through university collaboration between Japan and Brazil.

After presentations of funding programs of CAPES, CNPq and FAPESP on the Brazilian side, and JSPS and JST on the Japanese side, the conference concluded with a joint declaration calling for promotion of further academic collaboration, enhance of student exchange, challenge to global issues, and establishment of sustainable partnerships.

Prior to the conference, Vice President Yonekura and Lecturer Yu Sengoku (the Center for Global Education and Collaboration) visited the Federal University of Technology-Paraná, where the university has a satellite office, as well as the Consulate-General of Japan in Curitiba, the Federal University of Paraná, the State Department of Science and Technology of Paraná, and the Paraná Japan-Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The delegation confirmed the promotion of future education and research in cooperation with these Brazilian partners.