Today (Tuesday 24th October) MTU hosted a reception for Mr Norio Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland along with management from JRI America Inc. based at the Kerry Technology Park, adjacent to the MTU North Campus

Mr. Norio Maruyama was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan in Ireland, in December 2022. Immediately prior to that he was the Ambassador to South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho. Earlier in his career he was Ambassador to the European Union. He joined Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983 having graduated from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Economics.

During his time at the MTU Kerry Campus the Ambassador met Chair of the MTU Governing Body Mr Jimmy Deenihan, members of the Kerry Campus Executive and Management teams as well as MTU Computing students who interned with JRI last year. 

The county has strong links to Japan through JRI America Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc. These links are set to strengthen with the announcement that Astellas is to invest more than €330 million in a new state of the art facility at the Kerry Technology Park. This significant addition to the campus is immense and will help to further establish Kerry as a centre of excellence in STEM.

Speaking at event Tim Daly, Head of Head of Strategy & Performance at MTU said;

we are delighted to welcome the Ambassador to the Kerry Campus. JRI and MTU have a long history of engagement and collaboration and we look forward to continuing that relationship. JRI provides excellent student internships, work placements, project work and graduate opportunities. We look forward to continuing to build a strong talent pipeline for JRI as well as lifelong learning provisions.

Shane Walsh, MD, JRI America added;

we are delighted to partner with MTU to showcase the Kerry Technology Park ecosystem and the spirit of collaboration here to the Ambassador and his team. Since JRI America Inc first established in Tralee in 2011 we have had an ever growing relationship with MTU that extends into many areas. We see this collaboration as an important pillar to our success story and it allows us to grow with highly educated staff - at graduate level but also increasingly facilitating our team in JRI America to upskill in a university setting.