with the influential connections that he had with japanese professionals and academics, h. d. karunaratne accompanied a group of japanese students with professor esho hideki to gyeongsang national university, busan, korea in 2006. in the following years with the initiative of h. d. karunaratne, japanese professors, professionals and students were invited to the university of colombo to conduct the joint international undergraduate student exchange seminar in 2007,2012 and 2015.