Mukogawa Women's University

December 19th, 2023

Ten wonderful employees in their third year of employment at Mukogawa Women's University, who are in the third year of the "Employee Training Program - Rising 3," were divided into three groups and presented the results of their training.

　The "Employee Training Program - Rising 3" began in FY2019 as a training program to develop newly recruited staff members over the first three years of their employment. The objectives of the first year of training are to learn about university operations, the second year to gain experience in collaborative work with faculty and staff, and the third year to enhance a broad perspective and expertise as an employee.

　The mission given to this third year training was "to decide on a research theme for each group and make a feasible proposal." Over the course of six months, they visited other universities to learn about case studies and conducted on-campus surveys, and after an interim debriefing session in October, the 10 members of staff presented their findings at the final meeting of the program.

　The three teams presented their research and proposals under the themes of "Workplace Environment Innovation and Business Improvement from a Free Address Perspective," "Building Bridges (Measures to Bring Employees Together)," and "The Power of Information Sharing Across the University," respectively, to which the other faculty members listened. Faculty members listening to the presentations asked numerous highly specific questions and comments on the proposals, which were answered by the presenters.

　As a general comment, Mitsuyoshi Hashimoto, Director of the Teaching and Learning Department, said, "We are going to face difficult times with a declining birthrate, but the most important thing is to enhance colleagueship as well as collaboration between faculty and staff. The most important thing is not just to be a close group of friends, but to work hard and compete with each other." Head of administration, Yutaka Takii added, "The three teams each came up with good ideas, but I would like to see them work together to expand the circle of employees. It may be difficult to see whether or not our proposals will be immediately accepted, but it is important to have the strength and energy to break through and to make allies who will understand and support such efforts."

December 15th, 2023

A Christmas tree lighting ceremony was held at 6pm on 14 December at the Central Campus Fir Tree Square, attended by many students, faculty members and local residents.

Members of the Alumni Association General Affairs Committee were in charge of the lighting ceremony, from planning and decorating the tree to running the event on the day. This year marked the 22nd time the event has been held, and it has become a familiar annual event during the New Year's holidays. Like last year, this year's event was conducted both in person and online.

The lights of the buildings facing the fir tree square were switched off and the five-metre-high tree was lit all at once. In the fantastic atmosphere, the Sign Language Club sang a sign language song, the Brass Band performed a Christmas medley, the studets from the Music Department sang a chorus of Christmas songs and the Aerobic Dance Club gave a performance to Christmas songs to set the mood for Christmas. The popular annual 'fun big lottery' is scheduled to be held at a later date, with the results of the lottery to be distributed via the General Affairs Committee's Instagram.

Chisato Kurita (4th year, Japanese Language and Literature), chairperson of the General Affairs Committee, said: 'Thank you for coming This will be the last work of the General Affairs Committee in 2023. I would like to thank all the committee members, staff and faculty members who cooperated with us."

The illumination will be switched on every day from 4.30pm to 8pm until 24th of December.

December 8th, 2023

In an exchange program between the Department of Innovative Food Sciences and Bahçeşehir University, Turkey, students from Bahçeşehir University experienced harvesting Tamba black soybeans, a specialty of Tamba City.

In November, the Department of Food Science and Technology started a exchange program with Bahçecihir University, which has an exchange agreement with MWU, with the aim of nurturing individuals who can be internationally active in the food industry, which is becoming increasingly globalized.

　Nine students from Bahçeşehir University, who are studying food culture and cuisine, will be visiting from 27th of November until 9th of December to attend lectures at the university, participate in cooking practice and food production sites such as sake brewing companies in Nada, and sightsee in Kyoto, Nara and other cities. On 2nd of December, they visited Tamba City to experience the harvesting of Tamba black soybeans, a speciality of Japan's food industry, as part of the 'Primary Industry Experience' program.

　The harvesting experience in Tamba City was organized as part of a mutual visit program with the cooperation of Tamba City, which has concluded a comprehensive cooperation agreement with the University, in response to a prior request from the students of Bahçeşehir University. The students from Bahçeşehir University, together with students from the University's Department of Innovative Food Sciences and a teacher, visited the farm of Mr. Yoshiyuki Izumi, a farmer in Hikami Town, Tamba City, and under the guidance of Mr. Izumi, experienced harvesting Tamba black soybeans and tasted cooked beans.

　The participating students commented that they enjoyed learning how to grow and harvest black beans, and that the paths were surrounded by beautiful nature. It was an enjoyable trip full of memories and information"; "The taste of black beans is very unique and really tasty"; "The sweet taste of black beans is my favorite. There is no such thing as sweet beans in Turkey. The sweet taste of black soya beans is unique".

　A professor from the Department of Innovative Food Sciences who led the students said, "Many of the students seemed to positively evaluate the fact that this agricultural experience allowed them to visit a Japanese agricultural area and see the landscape of Japanese agricultural production".

December 5th, 2023

Alumni singer-songwriter Yuka performed a homecoming live show.

Mukogawa Women's University School of Music graduate and popular singer-songwriter Yuka held the 'Mukogawa Women's University presents Yuka Homecoming' (organized by Mukogawa Women's University) on 3rd of December at the Koe Memorial Auditorium, Mukogawa Women's University Central Campus. Around 750 people from junior and senior high school students to the general public, enjoyed her upbeat, pop songs and performance.

Yuka graduated from the Department of Applied Music at the Faculty of Music. She has been active in live performances since she was a student, and in 2019, after graduation, she appeared in a public recording of MUKOJO Radio, which was broadcast by the University on FM Osaka at the time. On 25h of October, she released her first full major album 'messy bag' and her popularity is soaring.

This homecoming live was organized to enliven Yuka at her alma mater and to use the live performance as an opportunity for junior and senior high school students to visit the campus and become aware of the appeal of Mukogawa Women's University. Before the live concert, the junior and senior high school students who wished to attend were given a campus tour. University students acted as guides, leading the tour of 10-12 people at a time around the "must- see venues", including the Central Library, the Career Centre and the Koe Memorial Hall.

November 27th, 2023

Koshien Kaikan Light-up was opened to the public for the first time in four years.

On November 25th, Mukogawa Women's University Koshien Kaikan, which had been closed to the public for a while, was lit up for the first time in four years at the Kamikoshien campus. The handmade lights were created by students as part of their studies, who devised the best way to illuminate the building with floodlights to make it look its most pleasing to the eye. Visitors marveled at the sight of the Koshien Kaikan floating in the cool winter air.

This year, about 100 students from the Department of Architecture, the Department of Landscape Architecture, and the Graduate School of Architecture worked on the illumination. All of them spent about a month preparing for the event in their seminars and fieldwork classes.

When the doors opened at 5:00 p.m., people of all ages, including families, couples, and friends who had made reservations in advance, proceeded to the tour route. A man and his wife from Osaka City commented, "This is my first visit to the hall, and it is a fantastic environment to learn about historical buildings as living teaching materials. I would like to visit during the daytime next time."

Dean Okazaki added, "The Japanese traditional style of architecture is characterized by long wooden eaves, which create deep shadows under them. The students worked through a trial-and-error process to find the best position of the floodlights in order to create beautiful shadows. Sunlight illuminates the building from above, but we hope that by illuminating the building from below, visitors will be able to enjoy the depth of the Koshien Kaikan in the evening."

Koshien Kaikan was open to the public for two days every year from 2006, when the Department of Architecture (now the School of Architecture) was established on the Kamikoshien Campus, until 2019, and was a popular event attracting over 5,000 people. It was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic still at rise, and last year it was closed to the public and students conducted a smaller-scale light-up.