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Lecturer Nagai Hachioji CampusSenior Assistant Professor a group of students visited Izu Oshima as part of a joint project between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the University.

On Friday, July 4, 2025, Lisa Nagai, Senior Assistant Professor Department of Economics at Faculty of Economics University, and a group of students from Nagai's seminar visited Izu Oshima for an inspection tour.
The joint project in which Nagai's seminar is participating, "Local Industry Creation Project Utilizing Idle Greenhouses - Passing on Oshima's Resources to the Next Generation," has been selected as a "Tokyo Metropolitan Government and University Joint Project" ^*1 for fiscal year 2025. The University of Electro-Communications is the representative of this joint project, with participation from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and Nagai's seminar at our university. By utilizing idle greenhouses and combining advanced cultivation and digital technologies, the project aims to achieve stable production of fresh pepper, a high-value-added food ingredient. Furthermore, the project will promote the creation and branding of local industries by verifying farming models at shared farms and developing menus using Oshima's agricultural products.
Nagai's seminar has been working on developing menus using agricultural products from Oshima, and has been serving Oshima dishes at the student cafeteria on Hachioji Campus. This time, Senior Assistant Professor Nagai met with Oshima Mayor Choichi Sakagami at Oshima Town Hall (Oshima Town, Tokyo) to report on the provision of Oshima dishes. He also visited unused greenhouses and pepper cultivation areas with Mitsumasa Fujita, representative director of the Izu Oshima Agricultural Production Association, as well as fields of angelica tree and papaya cultivated in the "Solar Sharing Demonstration Project" ^*2. They also visited the Izu Oshima Milk Factory, which provided a valuable opportunity to deepen their understanding of local ingredients in preparation for future menu development.
In the future, in addition to serving the food at the student cafeteria, we plan to offer Oshima menu items at events such as open campuses and university festivals, which will help create and brand local industries. Nagai's seminar will continue to work on promoting this joint venture.

• *1 Utilizing the knowledge resources of universities participating in regular meetings with universities, we will implement joint projects that contribute to the sustainable development of Tokyo and the promotion of SDGs, and return the results of our research to the citizens of Tokyo.
• *2 The University of Electro-Communications and Oshima Town are collaborating to establish a model for solar sharing for remote islands. A cylindrical solar power generation system will be installed and angelica trees will be cultivated underneath it to conduct research on power generation, salt damage, crop growth, etc.

For more information on the FY2025 "Tokyo Metropolitan Government and University Joint Project," please click here.
For more information about Faculty of Economics, click here
For more information about Nagai Seminar, click here
For more information about the Izu Oshima Agricultural Production Association, click here.

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