Keio Photonics Research Institute

The Keio Photonics Research Institute (KPRI), a laboratory specialized in photonics polymer, was founded in April 2010 within the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Science and Technology of Keio University. 　Its objective was to carry out Prof. Yasuhiro Koike's proposed research entitled "Creation of Face-to-Face Communication Industry by Ultra High-Speed Plastic Optical Fiber and Photonics Polymers for High-Resolution and Large-Size Display" which was adopted as a research project of the FIRST Program of the Cabinet Office of Japan.

During 4 years of the FIRST Program, we have succeeded in achieving numerous results that can be returned to the society. After the FIRST Program was completed, KPRI has been actively engaged with further research and development of the earned results to be returned to society. In October 2017, Nitto/Keio University Optical Cable Joint Research Center was established within KPRI, where it has been currently working all together in R&D for the commercialization and industrialization of low-noise and low-cost ultra-high-speed plastic optical fibers.

Towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, a transmission system based on graded-index plastic optical fiber (GI-POF) was commercialized for the new 4K8K satellite broadcasting in 2019. Since 2019 was also the 10th year of KPRI's establishment,KPRI International Symposium with a theme entitled "Towards 8K, 5G Era" was held on this occasion during the International Conference on Plastic Optical Fibers (POF2019). In this symposium, we presented the latest achievements of Nitto/Keio University Optical Cable Joint Research Center towards spread of POF in the future, and to share KPRI's vision towards the further development with researchers and general participants of both Japan and abroad.

As of April 2020, KPRI has started its research activities as a project of Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) in a new structure.

KPRI will continue to pursue research and development on innovative photonics polymers and will vigorously work on research to return the results to society.