From October 28 to November 1, 2025, a delegation of four from Fudan University visited Japan, including Sun Lijian, Director of the Financial Research Center at the Development Institute; Huang Chen, Deputy Director of the Party and Government Office; Lv Ya, Secretary-General of the State Development Drivers Project; and Qi Ding, a PhD candidate from the School of Economics at Fudan University. The delegation visited Kobe University, Hitotsubashi University, and Toyo University, co-organizing several high-level academic events. They engaged in in-depth dialogues with Japanese academia on cutting-edge topics such as global value chains, international finance, and regional development.

On October 29, the delegation arrived in the historic port city of Kobe, marking the start of their first academic event in Japan. In the morning, they first met with Professor Koichi Ogawa, Head of the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University. During the exchange, both sides introduced the overviews, main operations, and flagship projects of the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies and the Fudan Development Institute. They also exchanged views on academic topics and projects of mutual interest, laying the groundwork for future collaboration.

That afternoon, the international academic symposium on Global Value Chains and International Finance, organized by the Research Institute for Economics and Business (RIEB) at Kobe University and convened by Professor Laixun Zhao, was held. The symposium brought together several scholars from China and Japan, who shared research findings on topics such as high-frequency trading matching, stress testing of national networks during crises, Swiss foreign aid and the historical legacy of the Holocaust, the global 'double-low' economic dilemma, and the rise of early civilization in ancient China. Together, they explored new challenges and opportunities for economic development in the context of globalization.

On October 30, the delegation traveled to Tokyo, Japan's capital. In the afternoon, the Fudan University-Hitotsubashi University Joint Forum was held at Hitotsubashi University. The forum, chaired by Professor Masao Kumagai from the Graduate School of Business Administration at Hitotsubashi University, focused on interdisciplinary issues of international finance and macro-structures.

On the afternoon of October 31, the international symposium on Structural Changes in the Chinese Economy and Regional Economy: Progress and Challenges, jointly organized by the Asian Culture Research Institute of Toyo University and the Fudan Development Institute, was held at the 125th Anniversary Hall on Toyo University's Hakusan Campus. Over 60 faculty members and students from Toyo University and other institutions attended. On behalf of the Development Institute, Lü Ya delivered a report titled Exploring the Drivers of State Development: China's Practices and Perspectives. She introduced the State Development Drivers theory, an achievement of the Fudan Development Institute's independent knowledge system, explained it in the context of China's three-stage practice from production-driven to development-driven and innovation-driven development, shared research findings related to the Global State Development Drivers Index, and expressed the hope for in-depth exchanges with Japanese scholars and transnational collaborative research.

Translated by Yiqian YANG

Full text in Chinese available at:

https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/93/b7/c18985a758711/page.htm