About APU

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University President YONEYAMA Hiroshi

To realize the APU2030 Vision "People who study at APU can change the world", APU has formulated a Challenge Design and is focusing on three key objectives: the creation of a multicultural campus that takes advantage of its multinational and multicultural environment, the creation of new global learning values that are internationally recognized , and regional collaboration with local communities and stakeholders around the world.

Fair trade is an effective means to promote the understanding of global values and multicultural coexistence by establishing sustainable and equitable trading relationships that protect producers’ working conditions and livelihoods while considering the environment. . This philosophy resonates strongly with APU, and as a university, we aim to actively promote fair trade.

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Fair Trade University Charter

Imbued with the basic ideals of Freedom, Peace and Humanity, International Mutual Understanding, and the Future Shape of the Asia Pacific, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) was founded in the “hope that it will be a place where the young future leaders from countries and regions throughout the world will come to study together, live together, and understand each other’s cultures and ways of life, in pursuit of goals that are common to all mankind.” APU has also established the APU2030 Vision, which states that “individuals who experience APU’s unparalleled Global Learning Community will develop the power to change the world.” APU pursues initiatives to ensure that its many students with foreign roots can learn and coexist in its multicultural environment.
Fair trade is the trading of goods at a fair price to help farmers, handicraftsmen, and small producers in developing countries and regions who have few opportunities to participate in the market overcome the challenges imposed on them by the current unfair structure of the global economy and international trade. Fair trade contributes to the equitable development of infrastructure to support the livelihoods and communities of the people who live in these regions. Students from all over the globe, including many developing countries, study at APU, and the university recognizes that the world, including the countries and regions from which our students hail, still does not have systems in place to ensure sufficiently fair trade.
Our goal is to change the world by inspiring those who study at APU to embrace a reverence for human dignity and to act for the good of others and society, both in the world and in Japan, in their own communities and from whatever position they may be in.
We will continue to work toward a society where the philosophy of fair trade takes root in each and every community and where fair and ethical business is viable.

APU Student Organizations Supporting the Fair Trade Charter

• Ones'1 Fair Trade
• PRENGO
• DUCT
• mitsu-mitsu
• Habitat APU
• PosPos

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