Tokyo Keizai University is collaborating with Biei Town in Hokkaido and Shibata City in Niigata Prefecture, and during the summer vacation, seminars and student groups will be conducting fieldwork and exchange projects with local residents. The aim is to deepen ties with Biei Town, which began exchanges in 1991, and Shibata City, the hometown of Kihachiro Okura, a Meiji and Taisho period businessman who founded Okura School of Commerce, the predecessor of Tokyo Keizai University.
According to Tokyo Keizai University, in Biei, the Ohashi seminar from the Faculty of Communication will be researching people involved in Biei's food culture and compiling the results into a booklet to give back to the town. In addition, the Aoi Festival Executive Committee (the executive committee for the university festival) will support Biei's Fureai Festival and provide work experience.
The Ozaki seminar from the Faculty of Economics will hold a collaborative training camp with two facilities for people with disabilities in Biei Town to experience farm work and sweets making, while the Morioka seminar will work with Biei Town's Commerce, Industry and Tourism Exchange Division to understand the reality of overtourism in Biei Town and attempt to find a solution.
In Shibata city, Kokusuma!, a student urban development group from Tokyo Keizai University, will hold an exchange meeting with students from Keiwa Gakuen University in Shibata city and participate as volunteers in the Castle Town Shibata Festival. In addition, the Hagaki seminar from the Faculty of Contemporary Law will conduct interviews and site inspections with Shibata city's Commerce and Industry Promotion Division and the urban development corporation NEOHATT to learn about efforts to revitalize Shibata city's downtown.
Tokyo Keizai University has had exchanges with Biei Town since 2001, with students visiting the town and holding a "Biei Town Fair" at the university's autumn festival. As for the relationship with Shibata City, officials from Shibata City are scheduled to visit the university's autumn festival and sell local specialties.
reference:Tokyo University of Economics
