October 8, 2024
On Friday, August 30, 2024, the results of a joint research project conducted by the Terakawa Seminar of the Department Faculty of Economics Department of Economics Teikyo University and Hachioji City, titled "Considerations on Student Settlement in Hachioji City," were published in the 2nd Hachioji Academic City Vision.
The joint research project began when students from Terakawa's seminar presented a plan at the University Consortium Hachioji Student Presentation in December 2022 to renovate old housing complexes near the university, have students live there and encourage local participation, thereby creating a foothold for young people to settle in the aging area.City officials who were attending the presentation showed interest in the plan.
The city has long had the problem of a large influx of people for reasons such as continuing their education, but then almost all of them leaving as soon as they graduate. The year after the announcement, 2023, was also the time to revise the city's Academic City Vision (6-year period), which is the basic policy for the city's academic town development, so the city proposed that they would like to work together to consider "student settlement" as part of the policy formulation, and joint research with Terakawa's seminar began.
The joint research started in fiscal year 2023, and the first two students from Terakawa Seminar, Masashi Nishio (graduated in 2024 Faculty of Economics) and Satoru Takeyama (graduated in 2024 Faculty of Economics), who presented their project, Yuichiro Kanamori (Faculty of Economics 4th year), Tomoki Murata (Faculty of Economics 4th year), Satoru Komatsubara (Faculty of Economics 4th year) and Taichi Nishizawa (Faculty of Economics 4th year), as well as the city's staff from the Civic Activities The city staff from the Civic Activities Promotion Department's School City Culture Division also participated in the project. The students exchanged many ideas, both in person and via e-mail, from the development of ideas to analysis and policy proposals for student settlement. The seminar students repeatedly conducted field surveys of the student district in the city center, the university's community café, and the areas surrounding the university, and tried out a community participation project called the "Extension Seminar" in the Matsugatani area of the city. Through these activities, Takeyama developed a convincing hypothesis as to why students attending universities and other institutions in the same city are becoming less attached to the areas surrounding their campuses.
Through this joint research, Mr. Takeyama commented, "I am very happy that what started as a casual conversation has grown to this point and has been expressed in the best possible way. Thank you very much for this valuable experience.
The experience of working with city officials to create actual city policy was a great opportunity for the students to deepen their understanding of local issues. We will continue to actively work on collaboration with the local community.
2nd Hachioji Academy City Vision Introduction Page
The collaborative research project "Considerations on Student Settlement in Hachioji City" introduces the results of work that the Terakawa Seminar was involved in creating.
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