The Faculty of Agriculture and the Institute of Tropical Agriculture have conducted education and research initiatives to promote internationalization mainly in Asia over the past nearly 20 years (see Figure 1). We have also explored desirable international agricultural research and education approaches and directions. As a result, we have recognized that we should develop an organization as a base for research and education on bioresources and bioenvironmental sciences for Asia. In education, we will build a Japan-ASEAN agricultural education network based on Kyushu University’s Faculty of Agriculture and select common international agricultural education curricula. In research, we will seek to further expand experimental farms in the ASEAN region and spatiotemporal data scales, implement large-scale studies in ASEAN and develop them into global studies.
The International Relations Unit will cooperate with the other four units as mentioned above to promote international exchange in both education and research while viewing Asian agriculture as an education market under international competition and a research target in a global framework as well as in a bilateral framework between Japan and the rest of Asia.