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The Mitsunami Seminar, in collaboration with Joso City and Kawakatsu Sohonten, held an "Educational Research Exchange Meeting on Regional Revitalization"Hachioji Campus

On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, the seminar of Associate Professor Kohei Mitsunami of Faculty of Economics, Faculty Department of Business Administration, Teikyo University, held an "Educational Research Exchange Meeting on Regional Revitalization" at the Joso City Hall (Ibaraki Prefecture), in collaboration with the Joso City Asset Utilization Division and Kawakatsu Sohonten Co., Ltd. Kawakatsu Sohonten is a long-established Kyoto company founded in 1917 that manufactures and sells Kyoto-style pickles. Since 2020, the Mitsunami seminar has been working in collaboration with Joso City and Kawakatsu Sohonten to develop a local specialty product (pickles) using off-grade cucumbers, a specialty product of Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture, as part of an industry-government-academia partnership project aimed at reducing the waste of substandard agricultural products (food loss), which is a social issue in Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture.

The exchange meeting was attended by Mr. Kazuhiro Kuragane, former Managing Director of JA Joso Hikari; Mr. Takayoshi Kawakatsu, Managing Director of Kawakatsu Sohonten; and Mr. Masayuki Ishiwatari, CEO of CROSSTONE and an entrepreneur who is an alumnus of this university. In addition, many people participated, including members of the Asset Utilization Division of Joso City Hall, Mr. Hodaka Nakanishi, Director of Teikyo Technology Transfer Center Advanced Comprehensive Research Organization of this university; Ms. Yuko Toda, Senior Assistant Professor at the same center; Mr. Nobukazu Sekimizu, Visiting Visiting Professor the Department of Business Administration Faculty of Economics, and other faculty members involved in this project, as well as volunteer students from the Mitsunami Seminar.
On the day of the event, participants confirmed the schedule for the trial sale of a local specialty product (pickles) using off-grade Sengoku cucumbers, and engaged in lively discussions on a wide range of topics, including taste, packaging design, and PR methods. After the exchange meeting, the students visited Kuragane Green Farm, run by Kazuhiro Kuragane, and experienced harvesting Sengoku cucumbers. Tsukamoto Io (3rd year, Faculty Faculty of Economics), the seminar leader, commented, "I learned for the first time that cucumber flowers smell like vanilla. I was also surprised at how hard the thorns are on fresh cucumbers. I want to do my best to let more people know about these delicious cucumbers, using what I've learned at university," which gave them momentum for future activities.

At our university, we are committed to promoting Practical learning entrepreneurship education that allows students to proactively address regional issues and experience the creation of new businesses, starting with the Joso City Pickled Vegetable Project. Moving forward, we will continue to strengthen collaboration with society and industry-government-academia partnerships, and in order to connect the knowledge our university possesses to society, we will promote interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperation across academic fields, as well as the establishment of a cross-campus research system, while disseminating the results of our education and research aimed at solving the numerous social issues facing society.

Click here for information about Kawakatsu Sohonten Co., Ltd.

Click here for articles related to our university's entrepreneurship education

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