Aiming for the Cutting-Edge of World Social Sciences Research

As a research university in the social sciences, Hitotsubashi University has long been a leader in various social science fields in Japan. Today, with rapid global extension in academic research activities, there are high expectations that universities will contribute toward solving major social problems. In order to fulfill these expectations by advancing high-level international joint research, we established the Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS) in 2014 as a research organization directly under the President, aiming for the cutting edge of world social sciences research.

HIAS has two main roles. The first is functioning as a hub for international joint research. HIAS invites researchers from outside Japan who are active at the frontiers of their fields, in order to promote international joint research with Hitotsubashi faculty members aimed at producing and globally disseminating advanced research results. To facilitate active research collaboration at HIAS, we allow the residency terms of invited researchers to be set as flexibly as possible, within the range of around one month to a year.

The second role of HIAS is to form a research core for interdisciplinary efforts to address priority pressing social issues faced by Japan and the world as a whole. Hitotsubashi University has long had strengths in academic research that contributes to real-life improvements in society, such as research on problem-solving and institutional reform in social, economic, and legal systems, and research leading to innovation in business administration. As the foundation for these studies, emphasis has also been placed on basic and applied research. The University needs to further strengthen its interdisciplinary research organization in response to social issues in order to take over this tradition and generate research results with high levels of social impact. HIAS has actively conducted interdisciplinary research in the Research Center for Global Economic Systems and the Research Center for Health Policy and Economics and acted as a domestic and international research hub. In 2020, the University established two new centers—the Research Center for Evidence-based Policy Making and the Research Center for Regional and SME Policy—in the aim of producing new research outcomes and facilitating support for social recommendations and policy making by fostering synergy among researchers in interdisciplinary research organizations and conducting concentrated research from diverse approaches. As well as advancing research projects at each of these centers, the University will verify research results based on international standards and reorganize the centers as required.

Hitotsubashi University remains committed to producing advanced research results through international collaboration, with HIAS at the core of such activities, and to carrying out university-wide interdisciplinary research on major issues faced by the world, thereby contributing to society. We hope that many active researchers from around the world will visit HIAS to take part in a variety of research activities aimed at fulfilling this mission.

NAKANO, Satoshi
President, Hitotsubashi University
Chairperson, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS)