Kojima Seminar

The theme and activity principle of our seminar is "Creation of Sustainable Local Communities. We aim to be a "seminar that contributes to society" by engaging in PBL (Problem-Based Learning) through action research based on a cycle of survey research and practical activities, while collaborating with local residents on various themes related to sustainability, with social innovation and local SDGs as clues for creative problem-solving. Our goal is to be a "seminar that contributes to society.

Mission of KOJILABO
The mission of our seminar is to contribute to the local community while students build their comprehensive abilities through basic learning, presentations, discussions, workshops, surveys and research, and practical activities in the community.
Based on intellectual training and team building in the classroom, students head out into the field, and then return to the classroom for action research to address local issues. This has been our common understanding since our seminar began in 2001. Our ideal is a cycle of "personal growth," "improvement of team skills," and "cultivation of the ability to commit to society.
In 2017, we all came up with the idea of a second name, Community Innovation J Laboratory (a.k.a. KojiLABO), so that we would be aware of our role as a think tank and changemaker, even though we are a seminar, and we would like everyone we meet in the field to have a KojiLABO business card, (The "J" represents a set of keywords associated with local practice among English words with "J" such as youth, connect, fun, justice, etc.).

2. 4 project teams challenging local SDGs
In order to embody the seminar's theme and activity philosophy of "creating sustainable local communities," the seminar has been engaged in various local practices under the slogan "Let's go out into the community with a book. We saw the potential of the Tamagawa riverbed (Noborito, Kawasaki City) as a space for exchange, and for seven years from 2006 to 2012, in collaboration with Kawasaki City, NPOs, tourist associations, and other local residents, we held the "Tamagawa Evening Concert" in August, bringing music to several hundred citizens each time. The event was attended by several hundred local citizens, and the importance of the urban river as an environment was emphasized through exhibits and an environmental education program for children.

　In 2024, the "Iiyama Manabi-no-Sato Summer College," an event started by the seminar in Iiyama City, Nagano Prefecture in 2006 as a place for people to learn and interact with each other in areas where there are no universities, will have been held for 19 years. Since 2016, we have continued to participate in the Summer College in cooperation with the Iiyama Manabi-no-Sato Community College, which was established at our suggestion.

　From 2020, although it has become difficult to visit the region due to COVID-19, we will collaborate with local communities in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture; Sawara District, Katori City, Chiba Prefecture; and the Tama River Basin (Kosuge Village, Yamanashi Prefecture; Okutama Town, Tokyo; Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture), in addition to Iiyama City, Nagano Prefecture, as part of a new local COVID-19 has brought to light a variety of issues that could be described as a crisis of sustainability, which is why we felt that we had to learn from the field while committing ourselves to multiple regions.

　Our seminar has been working for 19 years to give back to the community by compiling a year's worth of activities into a report (now called the KojiLABO Journal), and we hope to continue to do so with the community.

3. us-corona-after-corona and us
　In 2020, we will not be able to go out into the field due to COVID-19. However, as long as the seminar's second name is KojiLABO, we decided not to give up everything, but to do something we can do. Hosei University has a slogan " Practical Wisdom for Freedom to Survive Practical Wisdom for Freedom," and we, Koji LABO, shared the slogan "To live freely through inconvenient times" in 2020, and we all confirmed our intention as a team: "Rather than lamenting what we cannot do, let us work on what we can do.

　To challenge the "online population" using the remote system skills acquired through the class, we held a summer college via Zoom and also conducted an online field study to think about the local SDGs in Okushinano, including Iiyama, which is facing a sustainability crisis. The challenge was to create a new way of thinking about the SDGs. We shared a mutual understanding of the potential to open the door to the future, and that these challenges will surely be useful in the post-Corona era and resonate with younger generations across the country. The challenge of the "online demographic" in 2020 also revealed the possibility of a "hybrid demographic" that combines local commitments with online commitments.

　In September 2021, due to the 5th wave of COVID-19, the Summer College was again held via Zoom, but we were able to realize a keynote speech by a former vice governor of Nagano Prefecture from the Ministry of the Environment and relay talks by innovators in the region.

　In 2022, it became possible to visit each project field, and finally the practice of "Hybrid Relational Population" began. In particular, we all took part in a summer camp in Iiyama City, Nagano Prefecture, for the first time in three years after receiving PCR inspections, and at the Iiyama Manabi-no-Sato Summer College 2022, we participated in the management of a regional development forum that addressed the local SDG theme of "gender equality in depopulated areas. In addition, at the Plateau Plateau where we stayed, we experienced anew the freedom that nature's bounty provides through forest trekking and forest yoga.

　From 2023, we finally fully developed four projects related to the local SDGs, allowing students to go out to various fields, collaborating across projects. And in 2024, we are working on various action research projects in the four fields while learning local practice methods in the literature.

　We will continue to keep in mind the spirit that we have sought and inherited since 2001, when the seminar began, of "respecting the diversity of our students while at the same time being a strong ONE team," while always keeping an eye on the changing times and challenging ourselves to meet new challenges.

　We welcome all of you who share our KOJILABO spirit, and who are willing to "grow yourselves" while working together with your colleagues to imagine the future as it should be and to "tackle what you can do now".