In the Sub-center at Beijing, UCRC started comparative research of urban history and culture between Japan and China, cooperating with the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (IHCASS). In March 2003, UCRC invited the researchers in IHCASS to hold a research seminar and a meeting for research strategy. Due to the SARS epidemic at the beginning of 2004, UCRC had to cancel the research seminar for the middle report of its cultural comparison. In this period, we flexibly used a computer network to exchange academic reports; we published the reports in Beijing in March 2004. After the SARS incident settled, UCRC accepted 2 researchers from IHCASS. They made presentations at a COE meeting and an international symposium.

In July 2004, the Graduate School of Literature and Human Sciences at Osaka City University (OCU) signed a comprehensive agreement of academic exchange with IHCASS. Both institutes discussed administration policy of this agreement. UCRC also set up a main office for its Sub-center at IHCASS.
UCRC now promotes a virtual office, powered by a network among Sub-centers. In this virtual office, we are making a bibliography of Chinese cities on a COE website. IHCASS also offers its academic achievements on the website of the Beijing sub-center, linked with the COE website.
In September 2004, UCRC had a presentation at OCU carried out by a member of faculty from IHCASS. We repeatedly had conferences with IHCASS about academic exchange.
We will continue research and publish our achievements in 2006.