United Nations University in Tokyo will move its Institute of Advanced Studies to a rent-free site in Yokohama on April 1.
The university said it and the Yokohama Municipal Government have agreed on relocating IAS, now adjacent to the UNU campus in Shibuya Ward, to a space in the Pacifico Yokohama convention center in the Minato Mirai district.
The move came after the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which has lent the space in Shibuya for free and paid its utilities, demanded last year that the national government shoulder the estimated 860 million yen in annual costs.
The university will pay for its utilities after the relocation, while the city of Yokohama will provide free of charge some 1,500 sq. meters of space within the international cooperation center.
UNU, the sole U.N. facility headquartered in Japan, is an international academic research body. IAS opened in 1996 and houses 37 researchers and staff. It focuses on policy solutions to the challenges of sustainable development and pressing global issues.
UNU's creation was proposed in 1969 by U.N. Secretary General U Thant. It was headquartered in Japan in 1975 after Prime Minister Eisaku Sato persuaded the U.N. to build the university in Tokyo, saying Japan would provide the premises free of charge.