Twenty-one students from the Faculty of Policy and Information's Regional Policy Research Group, who are aiming to become civil servants, worked as "student interns investigating issues and visualizing solutions in the town of Matsudo."
During this internship, students worked with the Matsudo Civic Activities Support Center in Matsudo City to interpret the city's business plans (mainly master plans such as comprehensive plans and child-rearing plans) and compare Matsudo city data with statistical data from around the country to identify problems with the projects. They were also required to cooperate in interview surveys of citizens, in order to propose new city policies and projects from the student's perspective.
From mid-December to March, the students were divided into five teams - children, elderly people, disabilities, multiculturalism, and civic activities - and conducted basic research with the center's coordinators. They also took training on logical thinking when conducting research and held discussions on local issues.
A research report session titled "Thinking about the next 10 years for Matsudo" was held on April 3rd, and a retrospective was held on April 9th.
The reason I participated in this internship was because I wanted to learn about what research projects by cities, NPOs, and other organizations do. I actually conducted research on topics such as "What are civic activities?", "What are other municipalities doing?", and "What problems do they face?". As a result of the research, it became clear that there are currently problems with civic activities, such as the lack of successors, and even if young people join, they do not last long for various reasons. This internship was a great opportunity to learn things I did not know. I would like to make use of the experience I gained this time in my future projects and job hunting.
Souma Kodaira, 3rd year student in the School of Policy and Information Studies (graduated from Yotsukaido High School)
During the lectures in the Regional Policy course, there were many opportunities to touch upon local problems and issues, and I participated because I wanted to look into them myself. I was in charge of "civic activities" and investigated the current state of civic activities that aim to improve the local community, as well as issues such as generational change, lack of leaders, and young people's participation. Since civic activities are not well known in society as a whole, it was difficult to gather literature, but I learned about the issues of sustainability of civic activities, which are greatly affected by a declining birthrate and aging society, their impact on the local community, and how the activities of our younger generation will become important in the future. Since I am aiming to become a civil servant, in the future I would like to work with local residents to improve the community. I would like to make use of the appeal and challenges of civic activities that improve the local community that I learned through this internship.
Itsuki Yamaguchi, 3rd year student in the School of Policy and Information Studies (graduated from Matsudo Rokumi High School)
I participated in the internship because I thought it would be a good opportunity to think about my future career path by learning about regional policies in a practical way. I was in the children's group and focused on children's own ability to overcome obstacles, and we investigated the current situation in Matsudo City by comparing data from Matsudo City and other regions and researching literature in the relevant field. We met once a week as a group to exchange opinions on each other's research results and dig deeper. It was a very valuable experience because I was able to hear opinions from the members that I had not thought of myself. I learned that "even if you have the same issues, you need to think of solutions that are appropriate for your region" and "to do that, it is important to look at and investigate issues from a wide range of perspectives." I would like to use the initiative I developed through the internship in my future university life and job hunting.
Mayumi Sakaki, second-year student in the School of Policy and Information Studies (graduated from Chiba Eiwa High School)
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