With support in the form of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS),” Ritsumeikan University opened the Ritsumeikan Advanced Cross-verse Innovation Commons (CVIC) on its Biwako-Kusatsu Campus to serve as a hub for embodied environment studies, a research field that explores well-being across real and virtual societies.

On Friday, May 15, an opening ceremony was held welcoming numerous distinguished guests from various sectors, including Shigeki Kobayashi, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Taizo Mikazuki, Governor of Shiga Prefecture, as well as representatives from J-PEAKS program partner institutions and other selected universities.

In his opening remarks, President Yoshio Nakatani expressed the university’s ambition to become a “world-class research university” by 2050, which will mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Ritsumeikan Academy. He also stated that Ritsumeikan aims to embody and realize the “virtuous cycle model” it set forth in its J-PEAKS program plan, in which reforms to research capabilities, doctoral education, and practical implementation skills are mutually reinforced alongside the strengthening of the university’s financial base and reforms to human resources and payroll management for staff members.

This was followed by an explanation of Ritsumeikan University’s initiatives under the J-PEAKS program and future developments utilizing CVIC. Researchers from companies and foreign universities already engaged in collaborative efforts with the university also spoke about their expectations for the J-PEAKS program and CVIC as well as the future direction of these partnerships.
The ceremony also served to introduce the conclusion of comprehensive partnership agreements with Crescent, Inc. for a joint project utilizing motion sensors and advanced XR visual technologies and with Hakuhodo Inc. for enhancing well-being and creating new value through the real-world implementation of immersive technologies.

Following the ceremony, guests participated in a facility tour that included immersive 2D and 3D experiences in the newly completed Cross-verse Arena, a space roughly the size of two tennis courts and approximately six meters in height, as well as motion sensor demonstrations, tours of biometric measurement equipment—such as MRI and EEG facilities—and the research clinic. There was also a poster session featuring researchers from Ritsumeikan and its partner institutions.

Using the opening of CVIC as a springboard, Ritsumeikan University will accelerate the university reforms it is pursuing under the J-PEAKS program, and it will continue striving to realize its vision for the 2030s of becoming a next-generation research university that creates new value and a university that produces innovative and emergent talent.