Community Impact in Action

SDGs

Collaborative Project between Mine City, Yamaguchi Prefecture and the Keio Research Institute at SFC regarding Regional Revitalization

In AY 2024, the Yoko Hasebe Office, which is affiliated with the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, continued its initiatives since AY 2022 to create high-quality educational opportunities that leverage the individuality of each student and broaden their horizons in an open educational environment, at five public junior high schools in Mine City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, as part of a regional revitalization project under a partnership agreement concluded in April 2022 between Mine City and the Keio Research Institute at SFC.
AY 2024 marked the third year since the launch of the project. During this third year, one student from the Yoko Hasebe Lab was dispatched to Mine City as a Regional Revitalization Cooperation Member and hired by the Mine City Board of Education to work there. During that time, five additional groups of three to five students each, accompanied by faculty members, were dispatched to Mine City for between three to four days, whereupon they visited public junior high schools to conduct various activities. The groups have become part of the schools’ regular class content, in both in-person and online formats, with the Yoko Hasebe Lab offering open educational opportunities in line with the school curriculum, allowing participants to learn about the daily educational practices of public junior high schools as well as the various characteristics, lifestyle, and traditional culture of the city of Mine. In addition, as part of leveraging Yoko Hasebe Office’s research content, which is on the understanding of foreign languages and cultures, lecturers and graduate students from the National Pedagogical University of the Democratic Republic of the Congo travelled to each junior high school to conduct classes on cross-cultural understanding. Career education workshops that encourage active career paths were held. Expression and communication classes were conducted to boost the attractiveness of each school and regional community. Also, the planning, operation, and language support of exchange class programs between Mine City and Taiwan junior high schools—from their preparation to their actual events and follow-up stages—were implemented in cooperation with the Mine City Board of Education and all public junior high schools in Mine City. Not limited to the above programs, students also participated in the daily routine of junior high school curriculum (club activities, student council activities, school events, online exchange with overseas students, etc.). The second year’s activities were conducted with high-quality education, both in-person and online, open education, and the establishment of self as the main focus. Meanwhile, the main instructor Associate Professor Yoko Hasebe was appointed as a member of the Mine City Education Promotion Committee and was involved in drafting proposals aimed at school promotion. This continued over five committee meetings until September 2024.

Applicable regions

Yamaguchi Prefecture Mine City

Implementation period

April25,2022 - present

Community and Regional Affairs category

• Regional collaboration as research targets and implementation sites/research that aims to popularize region-specific issues
• Education of students/human resource development for the next generation
• Advisory role for the authorities, etc.

Related websites

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASQ4V6T2PQ4TTZNB001.html

Related agreements, etc.

A partnership intended to contribute to regional revitalization and mutual development through the exchange and deployment of human and intellectual resources

Campus

SFC

Person in charge

Faculty of Environment and Information Studies Professor Yoko Hasebe

Other partnerships and collaborations