The Clinical Psychology Seminar (Professor Masahiro Horiguchi) in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Toyo Gakuen University has been selected for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Hometown Future College Model Demonstration Project" (proposing municipality: Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture). As a result, the practical program "Sanjo Central Shopping Street Revitalization Project ~Community Development x Business Development Program~," in which students take on the challenge of revitalizing a shopping street as key players in the community, launched on August 18, 2026. This project, in collaboration with local businesses in Sanjo City and ZEN University, will handle everything from product development utilizing local resources to actual sales verification.
In the central urban area of Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, while there is a shortage of workers and an increase in vacant stores, there is a lack of places and mechanisms to test and sustain local resources such as agricultural products and hardware as "businesses." Although exchange events have been held, the challenge has been that it has been difficult to create a cycle that increases the number of shops and workers. This project aims to transform vacant stores into hubs for "manufacturing x demonstration x urban connection" and build a foundation that will lead to future store openings and the creation of workers by accumulating the continuous involvement of university students.
Students will not be mere observers or participants, but will take part as "implementing agents," responsible for everything from product development to sales testing in urban areas. They will take on the challenge of establishing a base from scratch and making it a viable business. The Sanjo Central Shopping Street, the stage for the project, is a shopping street where long-established businesses and newer shops that have opened in recent years coexist. It is a place where shop owners of diverse types of businesses gather, and where wisdom backed by history intersects with the passion for new challenges. In this real-world setting where the "power to continue" and the "power to start" intersect, the students will conduct practical fieldwork with direct support from the shop owners. They will test market products developed in Sanjo in urban areas, bring the feedback back to the region, and work to demonstrate a cyclical structure that not only fosters exchange but also generates a self-sustaining "related population."
This project will be promoted in collaboration with ZEN University. Students from different universities will work together in the same field, tackling regional issues from diverse perspectives.
