ICSEAD carries out diverse activities such as joint and staff research projects, public lectures, publications, researcher exchanges with Asian research centers, and participation with local university programs in the broadly-defined field of economic and social development related to East Asia (including Japan). The purpose of these activities is to generate research and teaching results that may benefit the international community as well as of Kitakyushu and other local communities.

   In the same year, some past and ongoing research results were published, in Japanese, in the ICSEAD’s research series 7, “Resurgent China: Issues for the Future,” (Japanese translation of the same in English), Keiso Shobo, 2009; the ICSEAD’s research series 8, “Industrial Cluster and Regional Management Strategy,” Taga Shuppan, 2009; and “Innovations in Semiconductor Clusters: Competition and Cooperation in East Asia,” Chuo Keizaisha, 2008; and, in English, in “Growing Industrial Clusters in Asia: Serendipity and Science,” the World Bank, 2009.

   ICSEAD emphasizes cooperation with leading universities and research institutions in Asia and has signed academic exchange agreements with Fudan University and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in China, Pusan National University, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) in South Korea, and the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taiwan among others.

   ICSEAD researchers also teach coordinated graduate-level courses and provide research guidance to student preparing theses and dissertations at Kyushu University and the University of Kitakyushu. By doing so they contribute to strengthening the graduate schools of these institutions in the field of East Asian development studies.

   At present, both globally and domestically, economic and financial conditions are deteriorating to a critical level and it is urgently important to find feasible ways to recover from the crisis. The prospects for East Asia’s recovery are thought to be bright if regional economic linkages can be vitalized. Specifically, ICSEAD is expected to derive implications meaningful for regional policy formulation from past and ongoing research findings. We, at ICSEAD, are strongly committed to promoting the development of Asia and Kitakyushu in close cooperation with industries, universities and local governments in the region.