On 19 October 2017, the Visegrad Project Kick-Off Symposium “The Place of V4 countries in Europe and Japan” was held at the Jagiellonian University. It was preceded by the signing of an agreement between Kobe University and the Jagiellonian University.
The agreement envisages a series of lectures to be delivered by Kobe University academic staff at the Jagiellonian University and vice versa. Lecturers from Kobe will talk about contemporary Japan, intercultural competence and Japanese law, whereas Jagiellonian University visiting staff in Kobe will discuss topics from the field of Japanese and European studies, as well as European and international law.
The document was signed by the Executive Vice-President in Charge of International Affairs at Kobe University Prof. Noriyuki Inuoe and the JU Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs Prof. Armen Edigarian. In short addresses before signing the agreement, they both expressed their satisfaction with the ongoing fruitful collaboration, as well as the conviction that the agreement will further strengthen the ties between the institutions.
The symposium was aimed at analysing the role of Visegrad Group (V4) countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary) in the European Union and their relations with Japan. The sessions were devoted to such issues as the Place of V4 in Japan in Relation to the EU, as well as the Place of V4 in EU, from the Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian and Polish perspective.
The meeting was organised by Kobe University in collaboration with the Jagiellonian University, the Charles University in Prague, Comenius University in Bratislava, and the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
The Jagiellonian University’s collaboration with Kobe University started in 1998 with the signing of an agreement between the JU Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Humanities in Kobe. In 2013 the institutions signed a university-level agreement, and 2015 saw the opening of Kobe University Liaison Office at the Jagiellonian University.
