First of all, TUFS offers an international research environment.
The majority of our faculty members in the area-transcultural studies arena have extensive research experience overseas and have established strong ties with esteemed researchers and research institutions worldwide. Such powerful networks have been manifested in the intra-university agreements TUFS enjoys with other institutions and the realization of international symposia held on our campus that cross academic borders. In particular, the strong ties we enjoy with research and educational institutions in Africa (Egypt, Cameroon, Mali), the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Iran), Continental Asia (Uzbekistan, Mongolia) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam) form a very strong part of our uniqueness. And the nature of our exchanges does not end only in the exchange of students, but expands into various areas, including the exchange of faculties and the establishment of collaborative research groups. It can be said that such academic exchanges with affiliated institutions overseas plays a major role in the dynamic development of research and studies in the area-transcultural studies arena.

Secondly, we already have an established collection of local documentation on area-transcultural studies.
At TUFS, over 50 languages are being taught and studied. Our faculty has been deeply involved in collecting documentation in each of these languages in the field of area-transcultural studies. Such documentation is now a part of our university library, and forms an integral part of the assets that sustain linguistic education as well as the research and study of the areas that use those languages. The vast collection of documentation in Asian languages that are often difficult to obtain is one of the key characteristics and unique assets of Tokyo University.

Also, commencing from April 2002, the management system at the University Library has been transformed into a total multi-lingual management system, enabling users to access scripts in a multitude of languages via computers. Applied research in the handling of bibliographical data over this multilingual system-which was introduced at TUFS ahead of other institutions-is progressing in the form of collaborative research between the University Library and instructors at the Area-Transcultural Studies Institute, as in the case of the Indian languages and Arabic language documents.

Furthermore, the resources we have collected to date are not limited to documentation. In the audio visual centre, we have over 3,500 image resources from all over the world. These are available for educational research. We also have 6,500 audio resources as well. The Area-Transcultural Research Institute contributes to the collection of such resources and also works to utilize the material in education and studies.

Thirdly, TUFS has an excellent information platform.
At the time our campus was moved to Fuchu City, in 2000, the TUFS IT platform was upgraded dramatically. The information platform provided by the University Information Processing Centre is extremely sophisticated, and far more advanced than the platforms of other universities specializing in human sciences. There are over 600 PCs available to staff and students throughout the campus. They support not only Japanese and English, but also Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and many other languages. And we offer an information technology literacy programme to support the use of such languages on the computers.