With "Food" as Theme, Program Seeks to Tackle Issues Facing Global Society Through Industry-Academia Collaboration
Dentsu Inc. (President & CEO: Chisato Matsumoto; Head Office: Tokyo; hereafter: Dentsu) and the University of Tokyo (Campus: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; President: Teruo Fujii; hereafter: UTokyo) today announced that, from April 1, 2026, they began recruiting students for the second term of INOU CREATIVE School*1 in academic year 2026. This program is aimed at developing "uniquely talented creatives" through the co-creation of new ideas that can serve as model cases for solving social issues and their implementation in society.
INOU CREATIVE School Official Website https://inou-creative.com/
The theme for academic year 2026 is "Changing the World with Food Innovation from Japan." Participating students will experience firsthand the real-world settings of the diverse challenges surrounding "food"--something that is vital for humanity--encompassing everything from production to processing, consumption and waste recycling. Through these hands-on experiences, students will work on creating ideas that contribute to solving food-related challenges not only in Japan but around the world. They will put into practice a full series of processes, from identification of issues through to conceptualization and social implementation. As was the case with the first term, ideas co-created in the second term will be developed into projects, driving real-world implementation through industry-academia collaboration.
The first term, in academic year 2025, was run under the theme "Making Tokyo Bay the World's Most Vibrant Sea." It produced a range of innovative ideas, including a project that drew on UTokyo research outcomes to invent a new material for improving the environment of Tokyo Bay, and another that focused on the abundance of marine products in Tokyo Bay to pursue unprecedented forms of recycling. These and other ideas are currently being advanced toward social implementation.
Going forward, Dentsu and UTokyo will together continue to use this program to cultivate and launch talent who create new value through original creativity, contributing to the solution of the social challenges facing Japan and the world.
*1 Press Release July 15, 2025: https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2025/0715-010922.html
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Contact
Media-related inquiries:
Branding Office, Dentsu Corporate One Inc.
Email: global.communications@dentsu.co.jp
