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As a part of the course "Professional Training", a field trip to Ayabe took place on June 3^rd and 4^th.

At Ayabe city hall, mayor Zenya Yamazaki delivered a presentation concerning the issues Ayabe city is currently facing, such as population decline and the aging of society. He also expressed passionately that Ayabe can be very attractive for young people who are looking for a different lifestyle which is not materialistic.

In addition to that, we visited the Kyocera factory and the Gunze Memorial Park.

At the Kyocera factory, where Organic Package is made, engineers gave us a tour of the production lines.

At Gunze Memorial Park, we learned that the spirit of the founder has been passed on over years. The corporate philosophy/mottos keep this company community-based while it has become an internationally recognized company.

In order to learn about Japanese craft arts, we visited the village of Kurotani Washi Kobo (atelier of Kurotani Japanese Paper). There, we not only looked at the paper manufacturing process , but we also actually experienced making paper.

This field trip provided a valuable opportunity for all students to get a glimpse the Japanese local government administration and local companies.

Ayabe City: http://www.city.ayabe.lg.jp/

Kyocera: http://www.kyocera.co.jp/company/index.html

Gunze Memorial Park: http://www.gunze.co.jp/gunzehakubutu/memorial/

On 20th May, students of College of International Relations on the ‘Professional Workshop (Journalism)’ course enjoyed a visit from guest speaker Fukushima Bisei Koshu (福島美生虎舟), formerly a creative director at the AsatsuDK advertising agency and now an artist, whose work, which uses an primeval form of kanji (kodai moji) as a start for expressive calligraphy crosses the border between writing and painting, and teacher.

Mr Fukushima had a long career in advertising, working primarily for Asatsu DK, he was also involved in overseeing the creation and development of Ritsumeikan University’s ‘R’ logo mark and institutional identity. The workshop session brought together Mr Fukushima’s two passions ‘communication’ and ‘calligraphy’, it invited students to think about how to express ideas in a very compact and abbreviated way - a television commercial is just 15 seconds long but, as Mr Fukushima explained, it is possible to communicate a lot during that brief time.

The session started with a discussion of the difference between tsutaeru (‘expression’) and tsutawaru(what ‘comes across’) and the potential difficulties involved in getting one’s ideas over to television viewers (who might be uninterested or distracted). He suggested that the key to successful communication, in this context, is to remove the unnecessary, to simplify and ‘cut away’ distractions. After hearing about the many advertising campaigns that Mr Fukushima had been involved in, students were tasked with imagining a new brand of sake or wine and choosing a kanji to represent what the brand stood for.

Picking a character that was meaningful, aesthetically pleasing and represented the right idea was far from easy but when we got started, students showed their artistic side and, with advice and encouragement from Mr Fukushima, everyone managed to produce something worthwhile, and in some cases quite beautiful.

Mr Fukushima afterwards praised the enthusiasm and open-mindedness of the participating students and said he is looking forward to coming again next year. Before that though, his work will be on display in a exhibition at Tokyu Bunkamura in Shibuya, 23 - 29 June 2016.

Professional Workshop (Journalism) is career development course in Japanese taught by expertized professors.

URL of the program.

https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/ir/education/professional-journalism.html/

URL for exhibition webpage

http://www.bunkamura.co.jp/gallery/exhibition/box_160623fukushima.html

On Sunday, March 20, the Ritsumeikan University Undergraduate and Graduate School Fall Graduation Ceremony 2015 was held at Kinugasa Campus. There, 272 students from the College of International Relations and 23 students from the Graduate School of International Relations were awarded Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.
At the University-wide graduation ceremony, Mr. Syunya Asano and Mr. Yu Hashimoto were commended by University president. Mr. Ryuhei Sugiyama, Mr. Syunya Asano and Ms. Sato Wakabayashi gave a speech as the student representative at the departmental ceremony. Many family members and friends of graduates, faculty and staff members were there to celebrate. Graduates will soon start their new careers here in Japan and around the world.

On Thursday, December 24th, “Cultural Hour” for 1st year GS students of the College of International Relations Ritsumeikan University was held at Kinugasa Campus.

10 groups gave a presentation on seasonal celebrations around the world and introduced them by dressing in their national costumes or others.

The topics included Christmas, Chinese, Taiwanese, Songkran Festival in Thailand, Japanese, Halloween, Korean, Vietnamese arts and Indonesian dawn drum parade. They shared other ways to spend holiday season and enjoyed various cultures and customs.