On March 13, 2025 (Thursday), as part of an optional tour related to the conference for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)'s Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) project titled "Plant resilience under fluctuating environment," a group of six people led by Professor SAZE Hidetoshi of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) visited the Tropical Agriculture Research Front of JIRCAS.

During the visit, an overview and key features of the research center were first introduced. This was followed by research presentations from the groups working on tropical fruit trees, rice, sugarcane, and island environments. These were delivered respectively by Senior Researchers MATSUDA Hiroshi, SAITO Hiroki, and TERAJIMA Yoshifumi, as well as Researcher KANDA Takashi. Active discussions and exchanges of questions and ideas took place between the participants and the researchers regarding their respective areas of expertise.