After pandemic break, a delegation visits partner universities and research organizations in Japan

University of Tsukuba - ( from left to right ): Annette Scheersoi, Jonas Fehres, Ulrike Birgit Münch, Christian Klöckner, Rector Michael Hoch, Max Patzek, President Kyosuke Nagata, Katharina Fuchs-Bodde, Caroline F. Benton, Akira Uedono, Masahiro Fukuda. University of Tsukuba . After a long unplanned pandemic break, a delegation from the University of Bonn's Rectorate and International Office visited four partner universities and several research organizations in Japan and formed new cooperation agreements. The goal of the visit was to reinvigorate the University's existing partnerships and to prepare the ground for further collaborations in research and teaching. Topics of the exchanges were current developments in the German and Japanese higher education and research landscapes as well as university initiatives for more sustainable futures.  "Japan is a country of research excellence and academic freedom, as well as a trusted and reliable partner in a changed geostrategic environment," says Bonn's Rector Michael Hoch. This is evident in the longstanding partnership between the University of Bonn and Waseda University, with collaborations and exchanges on a university-wide level. The trusted partnership is especially evident in the decades-long collaboration in the life and medical sciences that has facilitated hundreds of research visits between the two universities.