On May 25, 2012, RIKEN and the Chinese Academy of Sciences celebrated 30 years of friendship and cooperation at a special event in Roppongi Academyhills in downtown Tokyo. The event was attended by a large delegation from RIKEN, headed by President Ryoji Noyori, and from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by President Bai Chunli.

Following words of greetings from the two presidents, the audience was treated to a series of commemorative lectures on leading-edge research given by researchers from both institutions. The speakers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences were Institute of Modern Physics Director Xiao Guoqing, Institute of Chemistry Director Wan Lijun, Institute of Metal Research Deputy-director Cheng Huiming, and Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Deputy-director Jing Naihe. Speakers from RIKEN were Masatoshi Takeichi, Director of the Center for Developmental Biology and Kobe Institute, Yoshinori Tokura, Director of the Advanced Science Institute Emergent Materials Department, Hiroyoshi Sakurai, Chief Scientist at the Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, and Hou Zhaomin, Chief Scientist of the Advanced Science Institute Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory. More than 200 people came to hear the lectures given by outstanding scientists from the two institutes.

The lectures were followed by a special ceremony to award seven individuals who had made special contributions to the partnership between RIKEN and the Chinese Academy of Sciences during the past three decades. The leaders of the two organizations then signed a joint communique summarizing the history of cooperation and pledging further development of the partnership in the future, with the ultimate goal of achieving progress in science and technology to contribute to the survival of humanity.

The day concluded with an informal exchange of opinions between attendees from RIKEN and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.