On August 21, the Six National Universities International Education and Research System (SUN/SixERS), currently headed by Dr. Hiroshi Kanzaki, Executive Director and Vice President for International Affairs of Okayama University, opened the SixERS ASEAN Platform (AP-SixERS) in Bangkok, Thailand and hosted an opening ceremony jointly with Kanazawa University.
The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. Atsufumi Yokoi, Deputy Executive Director for International Affairs, who attended on behalf of Dr. Kanzaki, the director of SUN/SixERS; Mr. Shigeki Kobayashi, Head of the Cultural Public Relations Department at the Embassy of Japan in Thailand; Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, Executive Director of ASEAN University Network; and approximately 100 participants from government agencies and Japanese businesses operating in Bangkok. This opening ceremony was recognized as an event commemorating the 130th anniversary of the establishment of Japan-Thailand diplomatic relations. The establishment of this office is expected to lead to more collaboration between the two countries in the ASEAN region based on education and research exchanges.

This office is the third joint office established by the Consortium of Six National Universities in Japan, which comprises six Japanese national universities--Chiba University, Niigata University, Kanazawa University, Okayama University, Nagasaki University and Kumamoto University--after the Asian Platform (Changchun, China) established in November 2014 and European Platform (Leiden, Netherlands) established in August 2016. The purpose of the joint offices is to promote exchanges between the consortium members and universities located in strategically important regions.
SUN/SixERS is an organization established by the Consortium of Six National Universities in Japan to promote partnerships and cooperation among six national universities in the field of international activities.