"Konnodai Consortium" launched to create a safe and secure town with educational and medical facilities

On Monday, December 11th, the founding general meeting of the "Kokufudai Consortium," which aims to contribute to mutual development and revitalization of the region through exchanges with educational and medical institutions located in the Kokufudai area of Ichikawa City and the surrounding area, was held at the Yamazaki Baking Corporate Pension Fund Hall. Our university and its affiliated high school participated as members of the consortium.

The Konodai Consortium is a collaboration between educational and medical institutions, including our university, our affiliated high school, Wayo Women's University, Wayo Konodai Girls' Junior and Senior High School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Faculty of Liberal Arts, Chiba Prefectural Konodai High School, Ichikawa Municipal First Junior High School, Ichikawa Municipal Konodai Elementary School, University of Tsukuba Special Needs School for the Hearing, National Center for Global Health and Medicine Konodai Hospital, and Ichikawa city, which aims to create a safe and secure town and revitalize the region by regularly exchanging opinions and working together.

Ichikawa City is also known as a university town, and the area around Ichikawa City's Kounodai, which is said to be its core, is known as an educational region where educational institutions are concentrated. In order to contribute to improving the educational capabilities of the region and revitalizing the local community, there is a demand for the formation of consortia between universities, collaboration between high schools and universities, collaboration between junior and senior high schools, and the enhancement of lifelong education. In addition, the area is located on high ground (more than 21 meters above sea level) along the Edogawa River, and is expected from all quarters to serve as an evacuation site in the event of a large-scale flood, and there is a demand to promote information sharing regarding collaboration and division of labor between local institutions on a regular basis.
Against this background, the Konodai Consortium was established to form a new cooperative relationship and contribute to the development of each institution and to revitalizing the local community by working together to solve problems in the local community.
Going forward, the consortium plans to continue discussions in cooperation with each other, focusing on projects related to exchanges and development among educational institutions, projects related to regional revitalization, and projects related to regional disaster prevention and mitigation.

At the inaugural meeting, Nobumitsu Takigami, Advisor of the Director of the Consortium, explained the purpose of the consortium, representatives of the 11 institutions that are supporters of the consortium expressed their thoughts on the establishment of the consortium, and Kenjiro Nagasaka, Chairman of the Board of the Wayo Gakuen, who participated in the consortium, also expressed his opinion on collaborating in the community.
President. Yukihiko Harashina of Washo Women's University was appointed as President, and Koji President Kishida of Wayo Women's University was appointed as Vice President.
In the second part of the inaugural meeting, Chairman of the Board. Yoshinaka Harada of our school gave a lecture on the "Kokufudai Cultural Roundtable," which was the predecessor of the "Kokufudai Consortium" in the Showa 40s, followed by a lecture titled "Disaster Response and Expectations for Related Organizations in the Kokufudai District" by Mr. Satoshi Kasahara, Director of Crisis Management of Ichikawa City.

President Hara, who was appointed chairman as one of the initiators of the Konodai Consortium, said, "The Konodai area is an educational district with a variety of organizations, and we believe that these are a local resource. In addition, we would like to exchange information with other organizations on a regular basis regarding disaster prevention measures, so that we can be of service to the local area in times of emergency. We all share the same thoughts. These organizations gathered for the first time, but if any other organizations wish to join, we would like to expand and work together." He spoke of his hopes for the future of the consortium.