July 5th, 2024

Eight international students from Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, Turkey, who came to Japan under the short-term international student acceptance programme 'ICSA in Japan', joined the students of the School of Architecture and joined their classes.

 On 4th of July, four Turkish students worked on ikebana with first-year architecture students at the Koshien Kaikan. In a class designed to hone their sensitivity to the beauty of space, the students learnt about the three styles of Misei-ryu Sasaoka, and then used chrysanthemums and Abura-dodan-tsutsuji as materials, cutting branches and inserting flowers into a kenzan. They completed their works with a serious expression on their faces while watching the balance between the flowers and the branches. Ms. Dalan, who is studying architecture in Turkey, said: 'This was my first time doing ikebana. It was difficult to arrange the branches, but thanks to the support of my friends and the guidance of the teacher, it was an enjoyable experience".

 In the urban design class, two international students came up with a townscape under the theme of 'Creating a townscape with a rich landscape in Tidal Ashiya'. During their stay, they will make drawings and models, compile their proposals and make presentations.

The 'ICSA in Japan' program has been running at the School of Architecture since 2009, but it is now held online. This year, for the first time in five years, it was held face-to-face. For approximately one month, international students take part in exercise-oriented classes in the studios of Mukogawa Women's University, which are blessed with one drafting desk for each student, and are divided into two departments: the Department of Architecture and the Department of Landscape Architecture. They also visit Kyoto and Hyogo to experience the quality of Japanese architecture and culture. The international students are enthusiastic about their classes, saying that they are able to study in a practical way here.

 Meanwhile, Japanese master's course graduate students are learning about the conservation and restoration of cultural assets by visiting the restoration sites of Turkish palaces in the ICSA in Istanbul.

July 1st, 2024

Mukogawa Women's University and Asahi Group Holdings ("Asahi Group") have launched an industry-academia collaborative project, Smadori Popularization Project: 'Creating a place where both drinkers and non-drinkers can enjoy themselves' to protect women from alcohol harassment" at Mukogawa Women's University.

Smadori (smart drinking) is a non-alcoholic or low-alcohol beverage that is growing in popularity due to increasing health consciousness and changing attitudes toward drinking. This has led to a growing number of social gatherings where non-drinkers can enjoy together and where diversity can be appreciated.

The project aims to increase awareness of Smadori among young women, conduct a questionnaire survey to identify the current state of alcohol harassment suffered by women, and envision effective countermeasures against alcohol harassment through industry-academia collaboration.

Based on the results of the fact-finding survey and other information, the plan is to propose a new name to the Asahi Group to replace the term "drinking party."

 Assistant Professor Koji Taniguchi of the School of Business Administration, who is promoting the project, said, "After learning through industry-university collaborative lectures that alcohol harassment not only seriously affects the health and safety of individuals, but can also cause mental stress and deterioration of the workplace atmosphere, the practical project will help students raise their awareness of social issues. We aim to raise awareness among the stdents of these issues and encourage them to develop the courage to seek practical solutions," he said.

Also participating in the project, Akane Warashina and Yuka Wada, third-year students in the School of Business Administration, said, "We would like to spread awareness of Smadori and come up with an idea that both alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers can enjoy."

June 28th, 2024

"AN AFTERNOON OF JAPAN OPTIMISM, KOBE CULTURE AND NOBEL DISCUSSIONS," an international seminar was held at the Kobe Club in Kitano, Kobe, an international club established in 1869 and with a 155-year history. The seminar featured five speakers, including Professor Masahiro Miyake of the University's Department of Human Environmental Sciences, Mr. John Arcaya (CEO of Dimensional Japan), Professor Robert C. Merton, Nobel Prize winner in economics, economist Jesper Koll, and Professor Toshiki Honda of Hitotsubashi University.

Professor Merton led a discussion on diversified investments, while Mr. Jesper discussed finance and science, among other topics. In his discussion with Mr. Arcaya, Professor Miyake developed a topic focusing on the culture brought about by Kobe's economy, saying, "I was able to gain a perspective on how to create a system where hometown taxes and other taxes are not for consumption, but for investment in the community and education."

June 21st, 2024

At the Mukogawa Women's University Koshien Kaikan, where a major restoration project is underway, the replacement of the roof tiles on the east wing has been completed, bringing back the Oribe color of the building when it was completed in the early Showa period. The replacement of all the roof tiles is scheduled to be completed in March 2025.

The former Koshien Hotel, completed in 1930, became a school building of Mukogawa Women's University in 1965 and a building of the Department of Architecture in 2006, and is used as a "real-life teaching material".

The building consists of a tower and guest room buildings symmetrically arranged east-west and right-to-left, with a central public area in between. The east-west and west-right guest rooms each have five square pyramids under a square roof, with three layers of roofing. Although the roof tiles have been partially replaced in the past, from January 2022 the roof tiles were fully replaced, starting with the east wing.

In addition to the flat roof tiles, the Koshien Kaikan has a number of other types of roof tiles, including "yakumono" or "noshi" roof tiles and "sumimune" roof tiles, depending on the position of the roof. All the tiles were taken down once for the complete re-roofing.

When these tiles are re-roofed, the same color in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally will stand out in that area. The tiles are then given a 'street address' and a computer simulation is used to determine which tiles of each type and color are to be placed at which locations. Based on the results, the tiles were actually placed on the roof and their placement was determined. This became the 'map' for the placement of the tiles.

Shigeyuki Okazaki, Dean of the School of Architecture, who is in charge of the reroofing, says: "We placed flat and functional roof tiles on the roof and studied the angle between the sunlight and the tiles, as well as the differences depending on the weather, to determine the best placement of the tiles.” He added, "To avoid a huge roof covered with tiles of one color, we aimed to create a colorful roof made up of a diverse collection of colors, like the pine and camphor trees that can be seen beyond the roof."

June 20th, 2024

  Mukogawa Women's University, in collaboration with Lawson, Inc. ("Lawson"), has launched an industry-university collaborative project, "Sustainability Learning from Lawson: Conceptualizing Lawson Stores in 2050", to develop future sustainability personnel.

In this project, students learn about methodologies for retail development from Lawson employees, conduct interviews with local authorities that are considering opening new stores, identify regional issues, and then develop a concept for a shop that can solve those issues and propose it to Lawson.

Tomoko Nakahara, Chief of English Department, Mukogawa Women's University Junior and Senior High School "We are participating in this project as one of the high school-university collaboration projects that will be launched in earnest from the next academic year. By taking classes with university students, I have a clearer image of what I would like to study at university, and it is a very valuable experience for me to think about my career path. In addition, by listening to valuable talks directly from business representatives and taking part in workshops, the students have the opportunity to think about employment beyond university."

June 12th, 2024

  The Hyogo Sports Association and Mukogawa Women's University have launched a nutrition education project to help athletes maintain optimal condition and improve performance through their food. Fifteen student athletes belonging to the swimming club will serve as test subjects and eat a special athletes' menu devised by faculty and students of the Department of Food and Nutrition for a period of six months. The students of the swimming club will continue to practice and compete under the guidance of Professor Yasue Tajima of the Department of Health and Sports Science in the School of Health and Sports Science, and will regularly examine how their physical condition and performance is affected.

The Hyogo Sports Association planned the project to expand its dietary education project, which had previously focused on school lunches, into the area of sports and to contribute to the promotion of the health of the people of the prefecture. It called for cooperation from Mukogawa Women's University, which has Schools with departments related to food and health.

To investigate how these meals affect the athletes' condition, the subjects wear wrist-worn wearable devices that measure HRV (heart rate variability), observe the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves through HRV fluctuations, and record photos of meals other than those provided, such as breakfast. Body composition, hemoglobin concentration and bone density are also measured once a month at 5pm after practice.

Meals are provided as frozen lunches. They are made to recapture freshly prepared taste when defrosted in a microwave.

The menu for the day consisted of rice with edamame, cod with sweet and sour sauce, broccoli and boiled egg with sesame paste, taro and aborigine stewed in miso, and sweet potatoes.

Students commented, "It's all delicious. There is a lot of rice and it keeps me full."