Smart city initiatives are underway in various locations in Japan, serving as preliminary explorations of Society 5.0, a people-centric super-smart society envisioned in the government’s fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan of 2016. Alongside this, the University of Tokyo and Hitachi have been engaging in joint research on two topics in particular that are aimed at achieving Society 5.0: the creation of sustainable and people-centric smart cities and the formulation of a vision for the energy systems of the future. This scheme for collaboration between industry and academia being undertaken at the Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory has been recognized as a model for the harmonious collaborative creation (co-creation) that is essential to overcoming societal challenge. Globally, the situation is becoming increasingly complex, with worsening climate change and a changing international order. Japan, meanwhile, is facing the new reality of depopulation. Combining people’s well-being with a society that can stay within planetary boundaries will be crucial to overcoming these challenges. In this chapter, Teruo Fujii, President of the University of Tokyo, and Toshiaki Higashihara, Director and Executive Chairman of Hitachi, Ltd., engage in a discussion that sheds light on how the University of Tokyo and Hitachi are addressing this task.