Director General’s Mission to Japan

February 28, 2015

WIPO  Director General Dr. Francis Gurry visited Japan from February 25 to 28, 2015 for an official mission with Assistant Director General Mr. Yo Takagi.

During his visit, the Director General held dialogues with government officials, such as with the Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Mr. Yoichi Miyazawa, and the Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Mr. Hitoshi Ito. Through these meetings, the Director General reconfirmed the cooperative relationship between Japan and WIPO in order to further build the international intellectual property (IP) system and promote IP database services.

In addition, the Director General made a speech at the Tokyo University of Science IP Forum 2015, organized by the Tokyo University of Science, and at the 14th Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA) IP Symposium, held by JIPA. The Director General gave presentations about specific efforts of WIPO and expectations for the IP system from global viewpoints.

Furthermore, the Director General made a visit to Canon Inc., to meet with Mr. Fujio Mitarai, the Commissioner of Canon Inc., and met with Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel Prize-winning stem cell researcher at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), to exchange mutual opinions on IP topics.  

Altogether, the visit of the Director General contributed to further strengthen the cooperative relations between Japan and WIPO.