Day 19: July 20, 2018
Field Trip to Shobara city
   1. Lecture: “Shobara city,Hiroshima Prefecture“
   2. Lecture: “Shobara Sangakukan Renkei Suishinkiko and its coordination activities”
   3. Lecture: “Links between the Region and the University”
   4. Lecture: Introducing “Shokusaikan Shobara Yumesakura”

The purpose of this field trip is to learn and examine the City’s effort to Industry-Academia (University)-Government cooperation. We choose Shobara city as an example where cooperation of the three parties has developed and worked well in Hiroshima prefecture.   

We took a bus to the Shobara city hall. We first paid a courtesy call on Mr. Toyoki Teramoto, Chief of Promotion Planning Division. Then, the  lecture about the city of Shobara was given by Mr. Yoshinori Yagyu, Planning department -commerce, industry and forestry division-commerce and industry promotion section, Shobara City. He first showed overview of the City on the demographic information, commerce, and industry. Mr. Yagyu then explored the City’s  effort to establishment of effective cooperation between industry, academia, and government. The city acts “Government” part. Challenges and future policies and efforts on the cooperative work are also discussed.

After we learned about the Shobara city, the lecture, “Shobara Sangakukan Renkei Suishinkiko and its coordination activities” was delivered by Mr. Masato Naka, a coordinator, Shobara Sangakukan Renkei Suishinkiko.  Mr. Naka works  for collaboration between industry, university, and government to coordinate these three  parties. He explained his work by introducing  three types of coordinators. Mr. Naka also shows responsibilities and requirements of his position as a coordinator.

After the two lectures,  we moved the venue to Shokusaikan  “Shobara Yumesakura” (食彩館 ‘しょうばらゆめさくら’), a local market and community space, and had lunch and afternoon lectures there. Trainees enjoyed unique meal called “Shobara-yaki” – a Shobara-style Okonomiyaki, the Hiroshima’s famous soul food. Instead of noodles in regular Okonomiyaki, Shobara-yaki uses rice.  It was a great experience for them to taste a  “Brand” in Shobara after they learned about “Brand Hiroshima” just a day before this  field trip. 

Then, the lecture, “Links between the Region and the University” was given by Associate Professor Tomyuki Yoshino, Prefectural University of Hiroshima.  He listed names of collaborated projects with “Industry” and “Government” as a “Industry-Academia-Government Cooperation.” The Assoc. Prof. Yoshino introduced three case studies to show procedures and results of each collaborative project and help trainees understand how the “Cooperation” operated from the “Academia/University” point of view. 

This lecture originally planned at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima in Shobara-campus but due to the lack of water supply resulted from the heavy rain disaster, we replaced it to the Shobara Yumesakura (しょうばらゆめさくら) and stayed there all afternoon.  However, we had a chance to visit the Campus to observe Assoc. Prof. Yoshino’s lab called, “Food Microscopic Analysis Laboratory” on our way back.

Lastly, the lecture about “Shokusaikan ‘Shobara Yumesakura’ (食彩館 ‘しょうばらゆめさくら’)” was delivered by Mr. Takeshi Arai, the bakery shop manager of “Beibaku kobo 21 Megumi (米麦工房21めぐみ),” located in the Shobara Yume Sakura (しょうばらゆめさくら). Mr. Arai first introduced various shops in the community market space and then discussed his bakery products. This bakery established in 2002 for contributing Shobara’s Industry-Academia-Government  partnership.  His bakery products are also introduced in Assoc. Prof. Yoshino’s case studies mentioned above. Trainees had chance to taste some of the bakery’s products and learned collaborative projects from the “Industry” point of view.