Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� July, 2004

Prime Minister Koizumi meets with Prospective President of the Okinawa Graduate School of Science and Technology Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a meeting with Dr. Sydney Brenner, a Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine and the prospective President of the Okinawa Graduate School of Science and Technology, at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The Okinawa Graduate School of Science and Technology is an international school that will undertake educational and research activities of the world's highest standard in the natural sciences, and preparation for its establishment is currently underway. It is expected to become a core research institution that will not only promote science and technology in Okinawa but also play a part in advancing science and technology throughout the nation and that will open to the Asia-Pacific region and eventually to the entire world. With Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi, the Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs also in attendance, Prime Minister Koizumi extended his wish to Dr. Brenner by saying, "This project is very important for the future of Japan and I intend for the Government as a whole to promote it. I want for the school to become among the world's top class universities." To this, Dr. Brenner said, "It is quite a big task and I think that it is always good to set our goals high. As a first step, I will seek to realize the school as the top institute in all of Japan."