Since a university-corporate relations agreement was signed with Daikin Industries, Ltd. in December 2018, the University of Tokyo has fostered comprehensive joint research and personnel exchanges. This institutional and comprehensive collaboration promotes a wide variety of interdisciplinary research, ranging from technologies related to air use to the challenges and possibilities of air, with the aim of contributing to the creation of an inclusive and sustainable future society. The synergistic effect created by the fusion of academic and practical knowledge that the University of Tokyo and Daikin have cultivated for many years has successfully led to a range of creative attempts and discoveries, such as the project of “valuing air.” The East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts (EAA), established under the above-mentioned agreement, contributes to this dynamic partnership for the creation of a future society through the practice of new liberal arts from East Asia. EAA’s active engagement in “valuing air” is aimed at encouraging and strategically reforming academia, which is expected to function as a powerful place for people with various background to meet, develop their knowledge each other, and create new philosophies. As a platform for open dialogue, EAA promotes discussions based on fundamental questions such as the value and meaning of air, the relationship between air and people, society, and all creations, and the essence of valuing itself.

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Toward a new approach to the traditions and present state of the liberal arts in East Asia
To further promote the vision of the liberal arts as seen from East Asia advocated by the East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts (EAA), established in 2019 by the University of Tokyo and Peking University as a joint research and education program, the Ushioda Initiative of Arts (UIA) explores new approaches and a comprehensive understanding of the liberal arts in East Asia. To this end, the project fully utilizes the international academic network that the EAA has developed with Peking University and other institutions, taking a perspective that bridges the traditional and contemporary, and undertaking comprehensive research into East Asian thought, arts, culture and society.

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The First Higher School Archive Project started in April 2019, when the East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts took over an office in Building 101 and discovered that it was originally built for Chinese students back in the days of the First Higher School. This project aims to envision and share new scholarship for the future through archival research and publishing materials from that time, learning from the history embedded in Komaba, and passing on these memories.

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