On November 6 at the 50th Anniversary Hall the Regional Research Association held the "First Okayama University International Academic Capital Symposium: What is an Academic Capital? Strasbourg's Endeavor" to learn from the example of Strasbourg in France for town development through academic-community cooperation.

Strasbourg is being studied by Okayama University principally through the institute as part of the concept advocated by President Kiyoshi Morita of making Okayama an academic capital.

The symposium featured a keynote lecture by Robert Herrmann, first deputy mayor of Strasbourg. He explained cooperation between the university and city in economic strategies for urban development and growth of the city overall. Sylvain Schirmann, director of the Institut d'études Politiques de Strasbourg, next spoke of the establishment of the European Union and the cultivation of human resources through cooperation between local government and institutions of higher education.

After the lectures a discussion was held on how an academic capital could be achieved, with Dr. Masaru Araki, Executive Director (Social Responsibility and International Affairs) as the facilitator, between the audience and Messrs. Hermann and Schirmann as well as Yumi Vincent-Fujii, author of the book L'Urbanisme de Strasbourg.