October 3rd, 2023

The Department of Business Administration has begun "Career Design Special Lecture I" a series of lectures on future university life and career development for women, inviting alumni of the university and women working in various fields as guest speakers each time.
 
The lecture is a series of lectures to examine Mukogawa Gakuin's MUKOJO Vision of "empowering women to create a life-long career" through a wide variety of jobs. In this lecture series, four faculty members, including Associate Professor Tomomi Nishiguchi, invite lecturers from their own specialized fields, and a total of 13 guests give lectures.

The September 27th lecture was the first guest lecture by Hiroko Yoneda, Director of the University's Public Relations Office, on the topic of "Public Relations from a Reporter's Perspective." Ms. Yoneda explained the public relations activities of the university, sharing stories from her career as a newspaper reporter and freelance writer. She also talked about her own life events of marriage, childbirth, and nursing care, and the career changes that accompanied them.

The students were intrigued by the story of public relations, which is difficult for them to imagine what the job entails. The students listened intently to Ms. Yoneda's words, such as "It is important to be in touch with what you want to promote with love" and "Aim to be a PR person who never says 'no.'" In reference to the title "A Reporter's Perspective," Ms. Yoneda said, "You have to look at things from a broad perspective and at the same time try to look at both sides of the picture, as if you were zooming in on the details. I put a lot of effort into proofreading to ensure that facts and proper nouns are correct."

 A student who attended the seminar said, "I learned that she is able to do the work she does now because of the skills that Ms. Yoneda acquired as a newspaper reporter. I believe that what I am doing now will also be useful for my future self, and I want to do my best."

Associate Professor Nishiguchi, who is in charge of this lecture, said, "I want students who are uncertain about their future to find who they want to be through their studies at Mukogawa Women's University. I want them to know that they can learn and acquire the necessary skills while they are still at university, and that they can resume their careers even after experiencing life events such as marriage and childbirth. I want them to acquire the strength of a woman who can envision their life in these four years," she said.

A wide variety of professional women, including a freelance architect, a product developer, and a former mayor of Amagasaki City, are scheduled to speak at the upcoming events.

October 2nd, 2023

Fall graduation and graduate school completion ceremonies were held for the 2023 academic year, and 59 students have left the university's nest.

The September 30th, 2023 graduate degree presentation ceremony and university and junior college diploma and degree presentation ceremony were held at the Media Hall of the Kusaka Memorial Multimedia Hall.

 Representatives from the graduate school, university, and junior college received their diplomas from President Kazuyoshi Seguchi.

 President Seguchi said in his ceremonial address, "Congratulations on your graduation. You have worked hard on your studies despite the devastation of the pandemic and tragedies around the world, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you. I hope that you will be proud and confident in your achievement as graduates of Mukogawa Women's University, and that you will be active as front runners in the field of our choosing. I encourage you to take every opportunity to learn and continue to move forward in society."

 After the graduation ceremony, faculty members spoke to the graduates, telling them to "keep up the good work," and graduates shared memories of their student life with each other.

Rina Morishima, who received her degree as a representative student of the Faculty of Education, said, "There was a time when I took a leave of absence due to illness, but thanks to the cooperation of the teachers, I was able to graduate. I hope to make use of what I learned here and do my best in the educational field."

October 2nd, 2023

Professor Tetsuo Fukui of the Department of Social Informatics gave a lecture on Math-TOUCH, a mathematics learning support software, to students at the University of Toronto, Canada.

On September 11, Professor Tetsuo Fukui of the Department of Social Informatics gave a seminar lecture titled "Math-TOUCH Project: Multimodal Mathematical Input User Interface and Learning Support Environment for Mathematics e-Learning" to students of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Math-TOUCH Project: Multimodal Mathematical Input User Interface and Learning Support Environment for Mathematics e-Learning" to students of the School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences.

 Prof. Fukui studies user interfaces in information engineering, and in 2023, together with Shizuka Shirai, a lecturer at Osaka University and a professor at Nagoya University, he started a research project on "Research on Multimodal Mathematical Input UI for Math e-Learning and Construction of Learning Support Environment" as a representative. Prof. Fukui studies user interfaces in information engineering, and in 2023, he started a research project on "Research on Multimodal Mathematical Input UI for Math e-Learning and Construction of Learning Support Environment" with Prof. Shizuka Shirai (Osaka University) and Prof. Yasuyuki Nakamura (Nagoya University) as a principal investigator. In order to hold meetings with Prof. Kang (University of Toronto) and Prof. Pollanen (Trento University), who are collaborating in the research, regarding the mathematics learning environment, we visited both universities from September 10 to 12.

 During the visit, Prof. Kang, who thought that the story of "Math-TOUCH" development would be useful for students' future study and research, requested to hold a seminar lecture. The lecture was attended by about 10 students and several professors from the University of Toronto. In the lecture, he explained how to use Math-TOUCH, the issues involved, and his future plans. The students were intrigued by the efforts of Prof. Fukui and his team, asking questions such as "Can we use Math-TOUCH for complicated formulas such as √ (root) and those used in statistics?"

 During the meeting, they also discussed together a mathematical chat system that they plan to collaborate on in the future, and it was decided that they would continue to cooperate in research.

September 30th, 2023

Nohgaku Club held a workshop at the Central Library. International students tried their hand at the Japanese traditional dance "Takasago".　The "Nohgaku Club x Library Collaborative Exhibition" is being held on the first floor of the Central Library.

　This is the third collaboration project with the alumni association that the library has conducted this year. A panel exhibition on "Nohgaku" is set up between the shelves of "Literature Awards" and "Picture Books" facing the aisles, explaining "Noh" from seven different perspectives and showing emotional expressions of kata (movements) with pictures. Many visitors try their hand at a quiz in which they are asked to arrange Noh masks in order of age.

 　On the afternoon of September 27, the workshop "Behind the Noh Masks: Experiencing Japan's Three Great Classical Performing Arts, Noh" was held in the Global Studio on the 2nd floor, and　international exchange students Caitlin Bezant and Alyce Doboulay from Murdoch University, Australia from Murdoch University, Australia, participated in the workshop.

　The workshop consisted of a performance of the shimai "Takasago" together. At first, Ms. Saki Fujikawa (freshman, Department of Japanese Language and Literature), a member of the Noh Department, gave a brief overview of Noh, its costumes, masks, and movement patterns, and a lecture on how to take a fan used in the shimai dance and open it, how to stand in a basic position, and how to advance with a suri-step.

　The international students first watched the shimai performed by Ms. Fujikawa, then stood up from their seated poses and moved with her, asking her which way to go, where to look, etc. They also learned how to recognize the position on the stage. They also deepened their understanding of the dance by using a schematic diagram showing their positions on the stage and hearing an explanation of where on the stage they would move toward the audience in the next movement.

　After learning all the movements, they danced through "Takasago" at a slower tempo than usual. Chihiro Higashi (junior, Department of Applied Music) and Machiko Shirakawa (Noh Club OG), members of the Noh Club, participated in the shimai as jiuta. After finishing the shimai, the international students expressed their relief, saying, "It was difficult...."

　Ms. Shirakawa, who was watching the two performers, commented, "Even though it was their first time, they were able to move very well. Perhaps it was good that they were able to move without any preconceptions."

September 26th, 2023

Lavy's Café is now serving "Mokumoku Kumokumo," a collaboration menu featuring JAPAN SODA, a new product from Nihon Zakari Co.

JAPAN SODA was developed to appeal to the younger generation who are not familiar with Japanese sake, and is a non-sweet sake soda that can be enjoyed with any meal. A total of twelve third-year students from the seminar worked on the development of the product.

The students were briefed by Nihon Zakari on the history of sake, how it is made, how JAPAN SODA was developed, marketing plans, and other information. At the same time, a questionnaire was sent to students and faculty members.

 The questionnaire asked about the impression of JAPAN SODA, ideal situations when drinking sake, and side dishes they would like to eat with the sake. The survey also looked at various ideas to make Generation Z want to "drink it again". Since young people have the image that sake is difficult to drink, the students focused on the drinkability of JAPAN SODA and made improvements to the menu to make it drinkable like a cocktail.

At the presentation to the companies, they proposed five menu items. Each group proposed a drink menu with kiwi sauce and popsicles, as well as side dishes such as waffles and jelly containing sake. The presentation also included mechanisms for creating return customers, such as electronic product vouchers given for multiple drinks and the opening of official accounts on social networking services.

The cocktail chosen from the five menu items was a refreshing cocktail with a pop color contrast of white and blue. “JAPAN SODA" is mixed with nata de coco, lactic acid drink, and crushed popsicles for a refreshing taste. We named it "Mokumoku Kumokumo" because it looks like clouds floating in the big sky mingling with the blue sky. It is also playful in that it reads the same way when read backwards."

September 26th, 2023

Mukogawa Women's University applied to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the "Initiative for Implementation of Diversity Research Environment (Female Leader Development Type)," a project funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to foster human resources for science and technology, and was selected as an institution to implement the "Challenging Next Generation Female Leader Development Program at Women's University". The program will be implemented from FY 2005 to FY 2028 (tentative).

The six universities selected this year are Nagoya University, Osaka Metropolitan University, Hokkaido University, Okayama University, Kumamoto University, and MWU, making MWU the only private university and the only women's university to be selected.