NEWS

During the 2023 fall semester, APU and Oita Bank offered an endowed lecture series entitled “Community Development Using Oita’s Heritage.” Under the guidance of College of Sustainability and Tourism Professor Takayuki Kubo along with part-time lecturers, Hiromi Kotari, Joji Naramoto, and Directors Ueno and Yano of the Regional Creation Department at Oita Bank, 24 APU students participated in the course.

In this lecture series, Oita Bank offered support for lectures and field work based on the theme of utilizing “Oita Heritage” (tangible and intangible regional resources selected by Oita Godo Shimbun as part of its 120th anniversary project) for regional tourism while considering how to build a sustainable community. In addition, the lectures of this course were also open to the public, allowing approximately 60 citizens to join the lecture online.

Focusing on the Yabakei, Kuju, and Bungo-Ono regions, researchers of history, nature, and cultural properties as well as staff from the Oita Bank Regional Creation Department gave lectures in addition to field studies conducted on-site. Students deepened their understanding by experiencing first-hand the regions they had learned about in classroom lectures, and at the end of the course, presented their findings publicly on campus at Green Commons.

Presentation themes

• Yogabutsu (Yoga with Statue of the Buddha) Tourism in Bungo-Ōno
• Japan's Most Serene Campsite in Bungo-Ōno
• Utilizing Ski Resort for Festivals during Non-Winter Seasons - Festivals ×? at Kuju Ski Resort
• A Special Holiday with Pets at Hot Springs - Kuju Onsen
• Sujiyu Onsen Area Revitalization Plan
• Summer Slopes Festival - Kuju Ski Resort

APU and Oita Bank hope that this initiative will continue to contribute to the sustainable development of the Oita region.

Comment from Professor Takayuki Kubo:
In this academic year, with the generous support from Oita Bank and the local communities we visited in the previous year, we were able to successfully conduct the course. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved.
This academic year, it was particularly impressive to see students, freed from the constraints of the pandemic, actively conducting investigations on-site. Some groups even revisited the locations themselves to conduct additional interview surveys, highlighting the value of fieldwork in this course. Each group presented very unique proposals at the final presentation. During the final presentation, Oita Bank's Regional Creation Department sincerely accepted all the proposals from each group. We hope that the students' ideas will be utilized as hints for future community development.

This is the 6th cooperative lecture series that APU and Oita Godo Shinbun have offered since starting “Oita Heritage” in the fall of 2017. In 2021, APU signed a new agreement with Oita Bank and held this endowed course.