Hokkaido University (HU)'s Hub to Co-create a Life Design for Mind and Body has been budgeted by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST), as one of the designated platform institutions of their Program on Open Innovation Platforms for Industry-academia Co-creation (COI-NEXT). The HU COI-NEXT Hub has worked to promote research on low fertility and well-being with universities, industry, and local governments, in and outside Japan.
Recognizing that HPV(Human Papilloma Virus)-related cancer elimination may be achieved through HPV vaccination, screening, and appropriate treatment, academics from HU and Yokohama City University (YCU) decided to hold a strategic meeting together with experts from Japan and the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, who were speakers of the Asian Society of Gynaecologic Oncology 2025 in Tokyo on the same week.
This roundtable, held on July 15th, was considered a kick-off meeting to recognize the current state of HPV vaccination and screening rates in Japan, which lags significantly behind the WHO targets, and to learn about the situation in the U.K. The participants comprised Vice President Etsuko Miyagi, Associate Professor Taichi Mizushima, Co-creation Innovation Center Director Masanobu Todome, and Specially-appointed Lecturer Noriko Tamakoshi from YCU; Assistant Professor Sachiko Takahashi from Saitama Medical University (SMU); Professor Erika Ota from St. Luke's International University; Dr. Naoko Arata from the National Center for Child Health and Development; Senior Lecturer Sharon Hanley from the Institute for Applied Health Sciences at the University of Aberdeen; Director Kate Cuschieri from the University of Edinburgh Scottish HPV Reference Laboratory; and Vice Executive Director Masanori Yoshino, HU COI-NEXT Hub Director Akiko Tamakoshi, Deputy Hub Director Nobuaki Miyadera, Industry-academia Collaborating Researcher Nanami Kono, and Senior Academic Specialist International Taena Uemura from HU.
YCU Vice President Miyagi explained HPV vaccine hesitancy and risk communication in Japan, while SMU Dr. Takahashi introduced an initiative led by medical students to share scientific evidence-based vaccine information with younger generations in Japan. Being aware of recent progress in Japan through her continued joint appointment as a Visiting Professor at HU, Dr. Hanley talked about the situation in the U.K. and other countries: the U.K.'s gender-neutral vaccination programme, how target are groups and socio-economical communities for vaccination would vary by country and region around the world, how vaccines in the U.K. are administered by the School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) of the National Health Service (NHS), a vaccination rate gap between cities and remote areas, etc. The three-hour roundtable discussion ended with a drafted action plan for the next few years, including sharing updates at the Annual Congress of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Text and photo provided by the HU COI-NEXT and Office for International Collaboration
