On October 15, 2023, United States New Jersey State Governor Philip D. Murphy; Executive Vice President of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (hereafter referred to as Rutgers), Antonio M. Calcado; and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health (hereafter referred to as RWJBarnabas Health), Mark E. Manigan visited the Higashi-Senda Campus of Hiroshima University (HU) and engaged in a meeting with HU President Ochi. HU Executive Vice President (Global Initiatives) Shinji Kaneko, Executive Vice President (Kasumi Campus, Faculty Personnel and Public Relations) Junko Tanaka, and Vice President (Fields of Biomedical and Health Sciences) Hirofumi Maruyama were also in attendance.

During the visit, in addition to the inter-university international exchange agreement on academic and educational cooperation between HU and Rutgers, HU, Rutgers, and RWJBarnabas Health signed a Letter of Intent regarding collaboration among the three institutions.

President Ochi touched on the subject of HU being the representative of 11 participating universities to take part in a joint project between the US and Japan to foster human resources in the field of semiconductor technology, which was announced this year in May at the G7 Hiroshima Summit. This project is supported and established by Micron, a major maker of semiconductors in the US. President Ochi expressed his hopes that, in addition to semiconductor technology, the US and Japan could strengthen their collaboration in the medical fields as well.

Governor Philip D. Murphy expressed his ambition to “help create opportunities for student and researcher exchange between the state of New Jersey and Hiroshima by establishing a new transcontinental partnership.”

HU has signed 24 inter-university international exchange agreements with 23 institutions and 24 inter-faculty international exchange agreements with 23 institutions in the United States. Currently, there are 9 students from the US studying at HU. The signing of this inter-university international exchange agreement and Letter of Intent is expected to promote exchange with universities and research institutions in the US, including Rutgers and RWJBarnabas Health.