Faculty of Tourism and Community Development

Updated on Jun 16 2023

Message from the Dean of the Faculty

Yukio Nishimura, Dean, Faculty of Tourism and Community Development (Professor)

Focusing on Community, Invigorating Community

Refraining from non-essential outings and travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a sense of inconvenience, the kind of feeling that makes us ask ourselves: “Once I can spend my time how I want again, what do I really want to do?” The pillar of the educational curricula of the Department of Tourism and Community Development, Faculty of Tourism and Community Development, is to “Focus on the distinct characteristics of a community and invigorate the community.” These days, with obstacles hindering overseas travel and reluctance to travel even across prefectural borders, there has been a growing interest in domestic destinations that we might have treated as places close enough to visit anytime. From a tourism standpoint, this offers us an opportunity to take a fresh look at our lives and develop a new perspective on Tourism and Community Development.

Since the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, it has been said that tourism can also be a force for community reconstruction. Since first planning to establish this faculty, we have been preparing classes on disaster mitigation and crisis management for local communities. We would like to develop students’ ability, when facing the problems including natural disasters or the current pandemic, to respond to these problems, to improve the quality of touristic resources and to proactively lead community development.

Yukio NISHIMURA

Faculty interview videos

Yukio NISHIMURA, Professor, Urban Conservation Planning

Tomoya UMEKAWA, Professor, Tourism Policy

Minoru KOBAYASHI, Professor, Folklore

Akio SHIMOMURA, Professor, Landscape Planning

MitsuguHORIKI, Professor, Tourism Resource Management

Satoru ISHIGAKI, Associate Professor, Museology

Guemsun KIM, Associate Professor, Local Governing

Hajime DAIMON, Associate Professor, Transportation Planning

Takafumi MATSUMOTO, Associate Professor, Rural Sociology

Tosei ISHIMOTO, Professor, International Tourism Policy

Chisato KAEDE, Professor, Tourism Media

Akiko SHIIHARA, Professor, Community Encouragement with Arts

Katsushi NAGUMO, Professor, Public Design

Seiji YONEDA, Professor, Tourism and Community Development

Kazuo KASAMI, Associate Professor, Cross-regional Interactions

Takashi SEINO, Associate Professor, Community Development

Mariko FUJIOKA, Associate Professor, Cultural Heritage

Junichi NAKANO, Full-Time Lecturer, Data Science

The objective of education and research in the Faculty of Tourism and Community Development

To establish an academic foundation to build and promote sustainable local communities through tourism and cross-regional interactions, and to develop richly educated human resources who can contribute to the regeneration, revitalization, and development of local communities.

The three policies for Bachelor’s course education in the Faculty of Tourism and Community Development

Graduation and degree conferment policy (Diploma policy)

With the objectives of developing methodologies to achieve dynamic local communities from the perspective of Tourism and Community Development and of fostering the human resources who will take charge of putting this into practice, a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism and Community Development will be conferred to those who have completed the education courses designed to instill the following skills and have obtained the required credits.
Curriculum organization and implementation policy (Curriculum policy)

The entire curriculum is divided into three phases: introduction, foundation, and development. In the introduction and foundation phases, students study sociology, which will form the basis of their structural view of the state of diverse societies, and they will gradually acquire a basic understanding of the multifaceted impact and influences of tourism and cross-regional interactions on communities and of community development. In the development phase, the program is expanded to include practical and applied learning in a variety of fields related to Tourism and Community Development, depending on the interests and desired career paths of the students.
Admissions policy

We welcome students from all over world with an interest in tourism and community development and strong ambition to pursue studies cross the boundaries of existing fields and to play an active role in various fields to contribute to the building and development of vibrant local communities.

We confirm the suitability of the students from the three viewpoints above in each of the processes of general selection, school recommendation type selection, and comprehensive selection. General selection in particular requires a foreign language (English), in addition to which students must take a maximum of five classes from among the subjects of Japanese, geography/history and civics, mathematics, and science. We accept willing and highly motivated students, and do not divide them into humanities and sciences based on their high-school priority classes or other factors.

Characteristics of the Faculty of Tourism and Community Development

Pursuing the ideals of community-based tourism

Until now, tourism has generally been discussed from the industry perspective of travel agencies and accommodation/tourism facilities, but the main distinguishing feature of the Department of Tourism and Community Development is our pursuit of the ideal of community-based tourism with a wide variety of valuable resources. By understanding the internal and external environmental changes and the issues surrounding a community, students rediscover and refine the community’s appeal, leading to the revitalization of the local economy, while learning practical methods of Tourism and Community Development.

From history to urban planning, a variety of approaches to tourism

Another distinguishing feature is allowing students’ interdisciplinary learning that crosses the boundary between humanities and sciences. Tourism and Community Development in the future will require the skills to work with people in various areas by utilizing statistics and data while taking a bird’s-eye view of subjects such as nature, history and culture, public policy, administration and public finance, urban planning, and business management. Seeing this trend, the pillars of our faculty allows students to select from a diverse range of subjects and participate field research that involves cross-disciplinary collaboration in small groups.

Faculty brochure

A faculty brochure to introduce students and their guardians to the distinguishing features, curriculum, and faculty members of the Faculty of Tourism and Community Development.

Faculty of Tourism and Community Development Guidebook (2022 Edition)

Community Management Institute

Tourism and Community Development Library

Contact： Faculty of Tourism and Community Development