Students majoring in International Relations or interested in that field visited Kyushu, Japan to study a village community from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10. The purpose of this overseas trip was to learn about a case study of a community. This place was a type of community where people solve problems autonomously and within the village. By discussing and communicating with its residents, the village independently finds solutions to various issues.
Hwang Ji-yu (Dept. of International Relations, ‘18) explained, “The goals of these village communities in Japan are to find solutions to issues arising from an aging and low-fertility society. A major difference between communities in Seoul and the village community in Kyushu was that Seoul communities focus more on finding a balance between urban and rural characteristics. The village community is run in a resistant-centric manner by its residents, so it would be helpful to point out exactly what problems exist and determine how successful its autonomous feature is in solving them.”
This regional problem solving could give us insight into how to solve problems on a larger scale in society. The students from our university also met some students from Kyushu University and listened to their presentation about this topic. Hwang said that she was surprised by the Japanese students’ clear recognition of these social problems and how strongly they were interested in trying to solve them. She also said, “I had already thought about social welfare issues like Six Pocket before taking this trip. A Six Pocket is a word representing the phenomenon by which parents and even grandparents spend a lot on expenditures to raise to their sons. I thought the village communities on Kyushu were doing well at attempting to find some new solutions. From now on, I have decided to be more concerned about how I can contribute to society.”