The Consortium for Research on Early Childhood Development and Education (CORE) at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) hosted the visit of five academics from Japan from March 16 to 17, 2026.
On March 16, Prof. Chiharu Uchida from Toyo University, Prof. Nozomi Kato from Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Takeshi Hida from Ichinomiya Kenshin College, and Ms. Reiko Okamoto and Ms. Mio Nishimoto from Atelier Rei Nursery School visited three schools in Hong Kong accompanied by the Deputy Director of the CORE, Dr. Diana Lee and Ph.D student Jichen Liu. During their visit, the scholars had insightful discussions with the school staff and CORE members.
On March 17, the academics visited the HKU campus and met the HKU ECE team members and post-doctoral fellows at the Faculty. The CORE members introduced the programmes and ongoing research projects of the ECE team to the visitors, and also discussed future collaborations.
Later in the evening, the scholars gave an inspirational seminar to HKU students and staff on why children in Japan take on toban (classroom duties), which led to enthusiastic discussions among the attendees.
