Bristol’s Centre for Ethics in Medicine (CEM) and Kyoto’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Ethics are committed to collaborating in multi-disciplinary research on medical ethics. The collaborators’ work spans three phases: (1) initial workshops, disseminating primary research interests and expertise, to identify areas of common interest; (2) workshops exploring (in depth) areas of common interest, to identify areas for bidding activity; (3) bids for collaborative research projects and other joint-working. Phase one is complete: there have been two meetings of the groups, both in Kyoto. The first workshop (2014) focused on human enhancement; the second (March 2015) addressed research integrity and clinical ethics at the end of life. These meetings enabled the groups to become broadly familiar with one another’s primary research interests and expertise. In 2016, two further workshops are proposed (one in Kyoto, another in Bristol), which focus down on specific topics/issues, from which joint bids for research projects will be prepared during 2016