President Salovey said, “These visits with our Japanese colleagues serve to reaffirm the enduring partnership between Yale and institutions across Japan. Our work together is rooted in shared values of innovation and academic excellence. By fostering engagement with international partners, we facilitate invaluable opportunities for knowledge exchange, research collaboration, and cultural understanding. We are expanding the educational experience of our students and supporting the work of our faculty members, who are addressing global challenges by contributing knowledge and innovative solutions in an increasingly interconnected world.”

During his visit on the campus of University of Tokyo, he met with university leaders and gave a lecture on ‘Emotional Intelligence,’ afterward taking questions and engaging with students and invited audience members. The two universities have an extensive history of collaboration spanning close to 150 years with initiatives including the Yale Summer Session, the Fox International Fellowship, and both institutions’ status as founding members of the International Alliance of Research Universities, which launched in 2016. 

While meeting with Waseda University’s President Aiji Tanaka and members of the university’s leadership team, Salovey also discussed the long history between Yale and Waseda, which began with Waseda alumnus Asakawa Kan’ichi earning his Ph.D. from Yale in 1902. The first Japanese professor in the United States, he taught at Yale for 35 years. Today, collaboration between the two institutions include Waseda’s participation as the only Japanese university taking part in Yale’s Visiting International Student program.

During the trip Salovey also spoke at an alumni event hosted by the Yale Club of Japan, the third largest club outside the U.S., where more than one hundred alumni gathered to welcome him and hear his remarks describing the university’s latest activities. 

Salovey also engaged in discussion with Dr. Takahiro Ueyama, the Chief Executive member of the CSTI, a cabinet level office in the government of Japan, who was instrumental in fostering Yale’s participation in the PEAKS program. Led by Japanese universities and the country’s National Research and Development Agency, the Japan PEAKS program focuses on creating a national ‘innovation ecosystem’ that integrates industry, academia, and government collaborators to address challenges related to university governance and management. Yale’s involvement with PEAKS has engaged over 150 Japanese participants to date, hosting conversations between more than 30 Yale faculty and staff members on topics that explore innovative solutions related to university governance issues.

Traveling with Salovey, Jieun Pyun, director for Asia in Yale’s Office of International Affairs,   also met with some of Yale’s many other collaboration partners while in Japan.   She said, “Yale’s connections with Japan are as old as the foreign relations of the two countries. This relationship between Yale and Japan has exemplified the spirit of cooperation, and I look forward to advancing our collaborations well into the future.”

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To learn more about the Yale Japan PEAKS program, visit the Yale and the World website.

To view images from President Salovey’s travels, click the image below.