*Information related to faculty members/students and graduate schools at Gifu University here are all that of the time of interviewing.

I want to engage with friendly competition with other trailblazers around me and dive into the forefront of my town to make the community interesting.

Yanagase Shopping District
A shopping district in the center of Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture. During the period of rapid growth, the area developed into one of the leading downtown areas in Japan, with movie theaters, department stores, and various retail stores. After the burst of the bubble economy, the area gradually declined due to a series of closures of retail facilities, due to the impact of the increase in large retail facilities in the suburbs. In recent years, the popular "Sunday Building Market" event has been held monthly since 2014, and stores making use of unused real estate have been opened for community development that is in step with the times. The renovation around the Yanagase shopping district received the Good Design Award in fiscal year 2022 for its efforts to create a high-quality customer base by enhancing the quality of the shopping district through the monthly market, where people with individuality and meticulous tastes often came together.

My interest was sparked by a visiting lecture that I attended in high school.

I am from Yokkaichi City, Mie Prefecture, and the reason I entered the School of Social System Management was because of a visiting lecture that I attended in my first year of high school. After listening to the guest lecturer, Professor DEMURA Yoshifumi, talk about community development, I became interested how towns are formed and in initiatives to revitalize communities. I was not interested in community development from the beginning; in fact, I wanted to take another visiting lecture. However, I was not selected in the lottery, and it was by chance that I took Professor Demura's class [laughs]. Looking back, it feels like fate. You never know what will trigger a change in your feelings or life's path.

Then, in my second year of high school, we had a "period for integrated study," in which students were free to decide on their own assignments throughout the year and present the results of their work. I wanted to try what I learned at the visiting lecture myself, so I decided to compile a report on the revitalization of the Suwa shopping district in Yokkaichi. It was a lot of work to go to city hall and the Chamber of Commerce to gather materials on the history and statistics of the town and to interview people in the shopping district, but it was a lot of fun and meaningful time to explore an area that interested me.

In the fall of my third year of high school, when I was wondering about my future career path, I remembered that Professor Demura had mentioned in his visiting lecture that he was planning to establish an organization equivalent to an undergraduate program to study business, community development, and tourism in academic year 2021, in which he would be teaching, and I began to consider entering the School of Social System Management. To motivate myself to study for the exam, I headed to Gifu City for a visit and took a stroll around the campus of Gifu University and the central city area. While making the rounds of the Yanagase shopping district, I came across a flyer for the "Renovation School @ Gifu" and was intrigued. I heard from the Gifu City Nigiwaimachi (Bustling Town) Public Corporation, which is involved in the Renovation School, that volunteers are participating in the Renovation School because they want to improve the town and make it more interesting, so I also applied to the Renovation School. There, I was inspired by the strong sense of ownership among the participants involved in community development, and I decided that I wanted to be involved in community development as well.

Participation in the Renovation School and practicing realistic community development

To begin with, a renovation school is a short-term intensive school where students learn urban renewal methods through renovation. The participants put together a business plan to utilize unused real estate in the town and make a presentation in front of government officials and real estate owners. Gifu City is also promoting "community development renovation" as a method of community development in an era of population decline, and as part of this effort, the event has been held every year since 2019. Most of the students were working people, and there were two students on our team, including me. It was a hard environment for me, as I did not have the knowledge or experience to keep up with the working people, but looking back, I am very glad that I took the plunge and enrolled in the course.

The target area of the "Third Renovation School @ Gifu" that I attended was the Yanagase shopping district. We analyzed the area's characteristics and basic data through a preliminary online lecture. On the day, we were divided into four groups of about seven people to actually visit the targeted unused real estate and interview the owners. The task given to our group was to give new value to an old building, the Rembrandt Building. When we toured the property and the surrounding area, we decided to take advantage of the fact that the pilotis on the first floor makes the space open to the streets around it, blurring the boundaries in a positive way.

After talking with the group members, we came up with a plan called "Ping-Pong Donuts." We thought that we could liven up the town by setting up a place within the pilotis where people could play table tennis and buy donuts. It may sound like an outlandish idea, but there is a coffee shop nearby that is popular with young people, and donuts go well with coffee and is easily eaten with one hand. Table tennis can be played casually by anyone, and in recent years, it has also been regarded as a method for maintaining health. After searching for something that could be enjoyed by a wide range of generations, we came to the conclusion that combining the two would be more effective.

I was the main speaker for the presentation. I was anxious because I had received a number of points to work on after the midterm presentation, but fortunately, the judges gave me a high evaluation. The fact that the ping-pong table could also be used as a table, and that the project was easy to start without a high amount of initial investment, were some of the reasons for the high evaluation. I received words of encouragement, such as "please implement this idea and create a place in Yanagase where men and women of all ages can enjoy themselves," so after completing the renovation school, along with the monthly "Sunday Building Market" event held in the Yanagase shopping district, I planned an event called "Yanagase Table Tennis Club" along with other students. We set up a table tennis table in the Rembrandt Building and sold steamed bread and drinks, which generated a lot of interaction and a certain level of interest. For now, this is a one-off project, but we hope to develop it in a more interesting way while gauging the reaction from the townspeople.

Renovation School @ Gifu

In this practical seminar, multiple participants work as a unit to create a property use plan for existing unused real estate and propose it to the property owner, based on the premise of the revitalization of the area, while receiving advice from an instructor with a proven track record in the industry nationwide. Renovation schools have been held by various local governments throughout Japan, and Gifu City has held three renovation schools since 2019 as part of its efforts to promote "community development renovation." "Community development renovation" is a private-sector initiative that combines unused real estate with potential local resources, such as people, culture, and industry, to revitalize the town and solve issues. By making use of existing resources, the project is characterized by its ability to preserve the town's landscape, reduce initial costs, and start operations at a faster pace compared with demolition and new construction projects.

Deeper Learning at the School of Social System Management

As a first-year student, I have yet to begin specialist studies at the School of Social System Management, but I am very excited to be able to pursue community development in more depth. In future lectures, I would like to do my best in the "Design Practice" course, which starts in the second semester of my second year and takes more than a year to work on solving problems faced by companies and local governments, and I would like to acquire basic knowledge and ideas by then.

When I first entered the school, I commuted from my parents' home in Yokkaichi City with a feeling of great determination. However, commuting more than four hours to and from school became too much for me, so I started living in shared housing in an old Japanese house in Gifu City. I live with two working people, and it is stimulating to hear them talk about their work and have discussions about the revitalization of the town. Living alone would also a good experience, but for those who enjoy talking to adults, I recommend shared housing. My part-time job was also introduced to me by someone I met at the renovation school, so I feel that, if you actively dive into places where there are adults doing interesting things, you can meet new people and discover new things, which is interesting.

I am also a member of the Start-up Club, where I learn many things from my advisor, Associate Professor UEHARA Masayuki, and my seniors. To be honest, I am not thinking of starting a business at this point, but it looked interesting, so I jumped right in [laughs]. This is also a place where I am stimulated through contact with people with a strong sense of awareness and people outside the university, so I want to meet and communicate with more and more people and absorb ideas that are different from my own.

I want to create a place where new interactions can take place and connect this to the revitalization of the town.

Currently, I am working on a project to renovate a room in a building that the School of Social System Management is renting in the Yanagase shopping district into a community space where university students and high school students can interact. I am working with another student who is ahead of me in the School of Social System Management, and we expect to establish it during this academic year. When I was a high school student myself, I wished there was a place where I could casually talk with college students, and I feel that there is also a great deal for college students to gain from communicating with high school students. We hope that it will be used like a satellite campus by taking advantage of its accessibility, so when it is completed, we would like to find a good way to use it as a venue for self-study and workshops.

Through participation in the renovation school and having enrolled in the School of Social System Management, I began to see great potential in the city of Gifu. The current situation may seem sad for those who know the Yanagase shopping street from the days when it was so bustling that passing pedestrians would bump shoulders with each other, but I think it is a model case of a successful community development renovation project in progress. The number of young people who are making use of unused real estate to open new stores is increasing, events such as the Sunday Building Market, which was initiated by citizens, are thriving, and companies engaged in community development are at work; so, as someone from another prefecture, I feel quite envious [laughs]. I never thought I would be so involved with the city and people of Gifu until a few years ago, but now that I have this opportunity, I would like to become more involved. What I would like to do in the future is to involve others from my generation. We can do more interesting things by not only visiting the town for fun, but also by participating the town's development ourselves. I would like a wide range of generations to interact and for young people to connect with each other to enliven the city.

My career path after graduation is still hazy, but first I want to expand my horizons and options as well as deepen my knowledge. Also, when I was in high school, there were a lot of places that I wanted to go, but could not because of the COVID-19, so I would like to go see other examples of community development around Japan. Additionally, I hope to contribute to the revitalization of my own hometown someday.

A community space renovated by the students at the School of Social System Management. The plan is to open
the space not only students of the School of Social System Management but also to high school students and others.