Each year, CiRA holds at least one symposium for the general public to learn about iPS cells and CiRA. The most recent was July 2 and was held in Kobe, about two hours west of CiRA. The event was organized in partnership with Kobe Kaisei Hospital (KKH). The symposium had three speakers, including Professors Shinya Yamanaka and Noriyuki Tsumaki from CiRA and KKH Director Masahiro Kurosaka.

KKH is recognized especially for its orthopedics unit, and Kurosaka along with his title at the hospital is an esteemed orthopedic surgeon and also editor of several orthopedic journals. Moreover, he taught Yamanaka when the latter was an undergraduate student at the Kobe University School of Medicine.

Kurosaka's talk, which led the symposium, focused on medicines for knee pain. Tsumaki, who is also an orthopedic surgeon, talked about his research using iPS cells to treat cartilage related diseases. Yamanaka finished the event with a more general discussion about iPS cell research, including the iPS Cell Stock Project for regenerative medicine.

The event brought over 1,400 people in attendance, the largest yet to attend such CiRA symposia. Hiroyuki Wadahama, who organized the symposium from the CiRA side, said, "We were very glad to see more than thousand attendees. The symposium are very popular."