Opening Address to the 2004 Daiwa International Workshop on Financial Engineering (2004年8月27日)

Kazuo Oike

 Good morning, ladies and gentleman. As President of Kyoto University, I would like to extend my cordial welcome to all of you attending the workshop on 2004 Daiwa International Workshop on Financial Engineering.

 It is of my great honor to welcome such distinguished scholars in the field of financial engineering at Kyoto University.

 Kyoto University was established in 1897 as the second oldest National University in Japan, playing a leading role in the country. During the past century, the University developed as a comprehensive university and is highly regarded today both within Japan and abroad as one of the most prestigious, large-scale research universities, housing 10 departments, 16 graduate schools, 13 research institutes and 19 other research centers.

 This past April, make the beginning of a new era in the sense national universities in Japan have changed their legal status. This enables universities to promote the collaboration of academia with industry. In this sense, this workshop is quite symbolical, in that it is initiated by the Daiwa Chair at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University.

 Also, I think, it is quite significant that a workshop on financial engineering is held at Kyoto University, because I hear that our Professor Emeritus, Kiyoshi Itoh has made important contributions to the establishment of the fundamental Black-Sholes theorem in this field.

 Besides being I am now president of Kyoto University, I am also a seismologist, studying the mechanisms of the occurrence of earthquakes and their relation to active fault movements. The prevention of earthquakes is also my interest. So I am personally interested in the development of so-called `earthquake derivative’ as a risk pooling device. I really hope that the academic discussions which will be held here will also contribute to more elaborated applications such devices.

 We are glad that our university was able to host this international conference, and believe this conference will certainly provide a valuable opportunity for the participants from all over the world to share subjects of mutual interest, enhance everyone's knowledge, courage exchange and stimulate new ideas, renew old friendships and make new acquaintances.
 I would like again to express my deepest appreciation to all those who have made this conference possible, and extend a warm welcome to the participants. We hope you take advantage of seeing this historical city while you are here and enjoy all the sights it affords.

 Thank you for your attention.