The DFG opened its office in Japan 15 years ago in response to keen interest within the German research communities in engaging in collaborations with Japanese partners. The office has since provided a point of contact for researchers in the two countries as well as offering opportunities for dialogue and networking. Together with its partners, the DFG Office Japan promotes and fosters cooperation between Germany, Japan and beyond. To mark the anniversary, the DFG invited representatives of German and Japanese partner institutions to attend a luncheon reception in Shibuya, Tokyo on 9 October 2024

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As Dr. Ingrid Krüßmann, Head of the DFG Office Japan and Deputy Head of International Affairs, highlighted in her opening address, personal contacts and dialogue are crucial when it comes to building and maintaining solid international relations.
She also emphasised the importance of long-term efforts to ensure successful partnerships – a point that was likewise taken up in further speeches and subsequent conversations between guests. Some of the most active of the DFG Office Japan’s current partnerships date back to meetings held more than 20 years ago – long-lasting connections that were illustrated when one speaker shared tangible proof in form of a page of notes taken at a meeting at the DFG Head Office in Bonn in 2005.

All the welcome addresses by speakers from both Germany and Japan emphasised the key role that individuals have to play in research cooperation.
Having just arrived in Tokyo this summer, Peter Löffelhardt, Head of Department for Economic and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, remarked on how impressed he was with the open, honest and friendly interactions within the international research and research funding community.
Osamu Kobayashi, Director of the Department of International Affairs at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), offered insights into the history of DFG-JST ties, showing how these serve as a sound basis for the ambitious activities and calls pursued jointly today.

This point was further emphasised when the next speaker, Akie Hoshino, Director of the International Policy Planning Department and International Program Department, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), described how the current strong partnership between the JSPS and the DFG was based on relations that had grown over time – the first JSPS office in Europe was opened right next door to the DFG Head Office in Bonn in 1992.
Founded in 2014, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) was able to pursue its contact with the DFG in greater depth immediately after being set up due to the fact that communication channels were already well-established, said Yasushi Ogasaka, Managing Director of the Department of International Strategy at AMED.

Christian Stertz, Head of the Division “Cooperation with Asia and Oceania” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was in Japan with a delegation for the STS forum in Kyoto where the 50th anniversary of German-Japanese cooperation in the area of science and technology (S&T) was being celebrated. In his speech on behalf of the BMBF, Mr. Stertz shared his forward-looking perspective on cooperation with Japan, which served to underpin the general sense of optimism at the event.

The participants then moved on to engage in informal networking in a distinctly friendly and engaging atmosphere. The celebration bore witness to the solid foundations that the DFG and its partners have established to support future collaborations based on shared interests and approaches.