Reports

On July 29, 2025, a 15-member delegation from Inner Mongolia Agricultural University (IMAU) visited the Urban Resilience Research Center (UReC) at Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU). They were welcomed by Professor Eisuke Ikuta, Specially Appointed Associate Professor Shanhai Pan, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Masaaki Sugiyama, with support from UReC office staff.

IMAU is Professor Pan’s alma mater, and the delegation included several of his former classmates and seniors. The visit was arranged in conjunction with their participation in the Osaka–Kansai Expo 2025, with the aim of observing and learning about the activities of OMU and UReC.

During the visit, Professor Pan introduced OMU, UReC, and the international journal City, Culture and Society (CCS), and facilitated lively discussions with UReC faculty. Professors Ikuta and Sugiyama also engaged actively with the visitors, after which Professor Pan guided the delegation on a tour of the OMU University History Archives.

The delegation expressed strong interest in OMU’s achievements—including having produced two Nobel laureates—UReC’s pioneering role in resilient city and disaster research, and CCS’s position as an international English-language journal launched from UReC. They also noted that while IMAU has advanced research and education on drought, desertification, snow and ice disasters, and frost-related hazards, the areas of urban disaster prevention and resilient city studies remain underdeveloped, and they conveyed strong interest in future collaboration in these fields.

Professors Ikuta and Sugiyama remarked that the meeting, though brief, was highly productive and deepened their interest in Inner Mongolia’s unique environmental challenges and disaster-prevention efforts. They expressed hope for future visits and continued exchanges with IMAU.

Professor Takaaki Shigematsu, Director of UReC, also highly valued this exchange and expressed strong expectations for further strengthening the relationship between the two institutions.