#Japan #Morioka #Bunkyo Gakuin #Agri-Innovation #Moriaoka

Bunkyo Gakuin University Celebrates Success at Wa no Machi Moriaoka Wreath Exhibition 2025

Bunkyo Gakuin University, under the leadership of President Tsutomu Fukui, has recently made headlines with its participation in the Moriaoka City Agri-Innovation Project. This initiative, launched by the city in fiscal year 2021, focuses on addressing regional challenges through collaboration with students from Bunkyo Ward. In a shining moment for their innovative efforts, students from Bunkyo Gakuin's Faculty of Business Management won the Runner-Up Prize at the Wa no Machi Moriaoka Wreath Exhibition 2025 for their wreath made from the rare walnut bark, a previously underutilized local material.

Addressing Local Challenges

The agri-innovation project aims to tackle significant issues faced by Moriaoka City, such as a decline in agricultural enterprises and a shortage of successors in the farming sector. Through this program, city students bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to enhance rural revitalization, leveraging Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to find viable solutions.

As part of a long-term fieldwork course titled Contents MD, students focused on creating products from the region's abundant forest resources and agricultural outputs, seeking to utilize the previously overlooked materials effectively. The award-winning wreath represents the culmination of these efforts, embodying a mission not simply to exhaust resources but to create added value from them. Notably, students developed a unique technique called