Collaborating with the Tokai Regional Office of NTT DOCOMO, Inc., “Station Barrier-Free Mapping System Function Enhancement Project” An Experiment for Verifying the System Was Carried Out.

　Professor GOTO, Yorihisa, a member of the Faculty of Healthcare Management has developed the access system to barrier-free facilities such as elevators at stations by displaying a station premises map on a cell-phone, in collaboration with the Tokai Regional Office of NTT DOCOMO, Inc. On February 9th Tuesday, the experiment for verifying the access system was implemented between the Nagoya-city subway Hisaya-Oodori Station on the Meijo Line and Yagoto Station on the Tsurumai Line.　

　Five groups using a wheelchair or a baby carriage were chosen as examinees. Various conditions such as inputting information the examinees already have, and whether the examinees use the system or not, were set to verify the access system. The examinees took the same route group by group. The examinees were able to get necessary information such as how to move between ticket wickets and platforms, and how to move from the Meijo Line to the Tsurumai Line by way of information terminals. Shorter and smoother transfers were demonstrated rather than non-system use. After arriving at the designated station, a survey was given to the examinees in order to find improvement points in the access system and make the system more convenient.

　Due to the enforcement of Traffic Barrier-free Act in 2000, various ‘hardware’ has been improved; meanwhile the importance of developing and fulfilling ‘software’ has been intensified.　On the ground, the real time information on map and location can be got by GPS, whereas different options are required for underground use, as the GPS signal cannot reach there. The access system was developed for underground use. The ‘Ultra-red ID tags’ installed at various places at stations discretely send location information. The examinees passing by a ‘Ultra-red ID tag’ catch the location information through the Internet by a location information reader or a notebook computer installed on a wheelchair or a baby carriage. The map and location information is processed by a special application installed in a cell-phone (DOCOMO Smartphone) and shown on the display of the cell-phone.

　This project is subsidized by the Welfare and Medical Service Agency, in short WAM. The system development is done by NTT DOCOMO, Inc., and planning the project and experiments and fund raising are done by Professor GOTO as a coordinator.

　Generally speaking, barrier-free facilities such as elevators and slopes are installed in open spaces after the facility, for example subway station, started its operation. Therefore, the challenged find difficulty in moving one after another by a short and simple route depending on the place. In order to reduce risks such as fatigue, mistakes and losing one’s way caused by complicated routes, putting the access system to practical use is expected. Professor GOTO said, “Since the improvement of traffic infrastructure and barrier-free facilities has been progressing, information renewal is always required. While improving the system, we would like to aim at putting the system to practical use.” From now on, the system will be further upgraded based on the data collected from the experiment, and there are plans to advertise to nation-wide railway companies.

The Declaration of a smoke-free Campus was confirmed by the Inter-university Conference.

To Everybody at Nihon Fukushi University

December 9th, 2009
President KATO, Sachio

　On December 8th, 2009, the Inter-university conference, which includes the university council, the administrative staff members, the union, the student council, the post-graduate student council, the university co-op and the board of trustees, confirmed the following. I would like all of you to understand the purpose of the declaration and to cooperate with the campaign to protect everybody’s health and for the environment on campus.

Declaration of smoke-free campus
(Mihama/Handa/Nagoya)

Less than one hour from the busy city of Nagoya, we are on the Chita peninsula where our heart is purified by fresh air and the scenery of the beautiful sunset everyday.

The town landscape and the warm-hearted people have not changed since our campus moved from Nagoya city.

The word ecology incorporates the sense of ‘global Fukushi (or well-being, welfare)’ and this is strongly felt these days and we feel happy to have a good life, to learn and to live here.

As we do not want harm nature, we would like to take steps to cherish this environment as much as possible.

As the recent influenza epidemic has taught us about life, we should treasure our heart and lungs, we should avoid shortening our life by smoke and hurting someone else through our passive smoke.

We should pay attention to our campus in which many challenged students are.

Declaration of a smoke-free campus.

The declaration of a smoke-free campus is aimed at reducing the number of people who want to start smoking and assisting smokers who want to quit smoking at this occasion.

Those who smoke cigarettes are asked to quit smoking, if you can. If you cannot quit immediately, please at least stop smoking while walking and smoke cigarettes only at designated places. Please, turn your thoughts toward the people who do not smoke and the damage caused by smoking.

Once many people enjoyed smoking as a method for healing. People found more and more challenges in their life and they enjoyed having a conversation while smoking to ease the stress. Those who used to smoke can understand the feelings of smokers.

We should neither criticize nor exclude smokers. Many smokers are supposed to stop smoking if they can. We would like to support them.

The declaration of a smoke-free campus was set up to accelerate the non-smoking movement and gently realize the importance of a smoke-free campus life.

Learning from Seniors, 160 Students 'Joined' the Seminar on Planning for Job-hunting Activities on November 28th

　A planning seminar for job-hunting activities was held on November 28th (Saturday).
　This seminar was held for all the third-grade students with the aim of helping students address the question of what job they want and to plan how their job-hunting activities will go on. To this end, the students learnt what their seniors are doing at their job-site and about their experiences of and how they hunted for jobs. This planning seminar was divided into two parts; the former part was a keynote lecture, entitled “Important points of job-hunting activities -aiming at getting a job to have a sense of achievement-,“ given by Ms. OGURI, Toyoko who is a vice chief editor of ‘Riku-nabi.’ ‘Riku-nabi’ is an internet information site for both people offering and seeking jobs and it is run by Recruit Co., Ltd.
　Prior to the keynote speech, the fourth grade students including Mr. ASANO, Kenta, Ms. TAKABAYASHI, Mina and Mr. KAGEYUKI, Yoshiaki, who had already received an informal employment notice, talked about their job-hunting experiences. Following their speech, Ms. OGURI touched upon the necessity of action plans for job-hunting activities, considering the present job-hunting situation.　One of the impressive things she said was, “Do not rely on the manual, think about how to express and convey you.” The third grade students in suits listened eagerly to what she said and took notes.
　The latter part was the consultation section, held at the ‘TABE-NA’ restaurant of the building No. 12. 36 graduates, who had graduated from N.F.U. within the last 5 years and 8 graduates from the N.F.U.’s Alumni Society were allocated to various booths to consult with the third grade students. The booths were set up section by section, such as a business section, a health and medical section, a governmental official section and so on. The students visited a specific booth after narrowing down which section they would like to get a job in, and listened to the seniors talk about their job-hunting experiences and they gave useful job information.
　Even after the scheduled time had passed, the seniors continued to eagerly give advice to the many students who still remained in the restaurant. A participating student said, “I would like to work on hard by starting the self-analysis while I still have this eagerness.”

　The seniors said that they felt the students from the previous year were quite frank about job-hunting, rather this year’s students showed a very strong sense of eagerness. Given the very severe job-hunting environment, a very positive posture toward the job-hunting activity was observed in this year’s seminar.

The so called ‘The Trigger Event’ for The Third Grade Students of the Faculty of Healthcare Management was Held on November 11th

On November 11th, ‘The November 11th Trigger Event’ was held at the cultural hall on Mihama Campus, Nihon Fukushi University. This event is meant to be the kickoff ceremony of job-hunting for the third grade students of the Faculty of Healthcare Management, and was held by the Faculty of Healthcare Management, the Career Development section, and the students’ Event Office. About 100 students in suits for job-hunting participated in this event.

 

Professor GOTO, Yorihisa, the deputy dean of the Faculty of Healthcare Management declared the opening, and an address was given by the Dean of the Faculty of Healthcare Management, Professor SEKIGUCHI, Kazuo, then the panel discussion, entitled ‘Advices from Graduates’ was implemented.

 

Four graduates took the platform to talk about their motivation for job-hunting, their job-hunting activities, some points to be careful about while getting a job and episodes about their job hunting, coordinated by the Associate Professor AKIBA, Futoshi. The four graduates included Ms. SONEDA, Sachiko who is a member of the first graduating class of the faculty and works for Nissin Healthcare Food Service Co., Ltd., Ms. SETO, Yuuko who is also a member of the first graduating class and works for Miwa Industry Co., Ltd., Mr. SHIMIZU, Naohiro who is a member of the third class and works for Chubu Steel Plate Corporation, and Ms. NOGUCHI, Manami who is a member of the third class and works for Pasona Group Incorporated.

 

The students of the Event Office, the participating students and the faculty members chorused ‘Work hard to get a job!’ Then, the staff of the Career Development section implemented an orientation on job-hunting activities scheduled from now on. The importance of participating in various recruiting events to get information and learning the ABCs of job-hunting by making use of the Career Development section were emphasized. We hope that all students will never cut corners or give up trying to get a job.

Professor KONDO, Katsunori, Selected as a Member of ‘The Medical Care System for the Elderly Reform Meeting’

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced the establishment of ‘the Medical Care System for the Elderly Reform Meeting’ on November 6th, in order to examine the new medical care system after abolishing the previous medical care system for the late-term elderly. Professor KONDO, Katsunori, a member of the Department of Health & Human Services, the Faculty of Social Welfare was selected as a member of this meeting.

 

Comments from Professor KONDO, Katsunori
 I was given an opportunity to join ‘the Medical Care System for the Elderly Reform Meeting,’ which is chaired by the Health, Labour and Welfare Minister. I would like to do my duty to assist in the realization of appropriate medical care for our super aging society by considering the control of medical examinations, narrowing the health gap, and revision of the expanding medical fees.

Professor GOTO, Sumie Received an ‘Honorable Recognition of Local Educational Administration’

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognizes every year people who serve outstandingly in local educational administration, such as chairs of boards of education, members of boards of education and superintendents of schools. In this fiscal year, Professor GOTO, Sumie, a member of the Department of Social Welfare, the Faculty of Social Welfare received ‘the Honorable Recognition of Local Educational Administration’ commended by the Chair of the Board of Education for Nagoya City.

Have Consciousness of Protection against Disasters.
Various Activities Implemented on October 15th “The Safety Day”

Nihon Fukushi University established “The safety day” which is on the third Thursday in October of every year, and has been implementing various programs such as anti-disaster programs in order to raise awareness of the dangers surrounding us and to give us a sense of safety.

 

 “The safety Day” of this year was on October 15th and comprehensive anti-disaster drills were carried out.

 

Various activities included the demonstration of spraying of water using a fire hose, a rescue activity involving a ladder truck, an evacuation drill for the challenged students, and a lecture on how to use the AED. Furthermore, emergency supplies and the “Disaster Message System” were displayed. Above all, an N.F.U graduate and a person living in Handa City gave a special lecture on their experiences of the Isewan Bay Typhoon Incident as a volunteer and a victim.

 

The N.F.U. graduate who works as the director of the Oono Jidou En Juvenile Nursing Institution, Mr. SHIZUMA Yukio, told the audience that his experiences of accommodating victims of the Isewan Bay Typhoon Incident as a volunteer was the starting point for selecting his present job. In those days, N.F.U. was located at Irinaka, Nagoya City. While Mr. HAYAKAWA, Mitsuo, who was living in Handa City at the time of the incident told the audience of the importance of “evacuation,” as he remembered clinging to a tree, fearful of the wind and the water, and of being saved.

 

Mr. YOSHIDA, Isao, who is the head of Mizuho ward of Handa City introduced Handa City’s anti-disaster programs and activities, learning from the lessons of various typhoon incidents and earthquakes. Handa City now provides an anti-disaster radio to the head of each ward of Handa City, and these are checked every month. Handa City has designated the evacuation spots. About 250 students, who participated in this special lecture, paid earnest attention to the firsthand experiences of the speakers.

Join Us for Various Programs on October 15th “The Safety Day”

　Learning a lesson from the Saigawa River Ski-trip Bus Incident in 1985, in order to have an university life with a sense of safety and security, Nihon Fukushi University has established “The safety day” which is on the third Thursday in October of every year, and has been implementing various anti-disaster programs.

　“The safety Day” of this year is on October 15th and various programs are planned, among which a lecture that will look back on the Isewan Bay Typhoon Incident is planned. The Isewan Bay Typhoon was the starting point for the establishment of N.F.U. volunteer groups.

 

　In the lecture, an N.F.U. graduate who was a student in those days and a person living in Handa City, who was involved in the Isewan Bay Typhoon Incident, will be invited to talk about their experiences as a volunteer and a victim.

 

　 Please join us for the various programs on October 15th to think about how we can have a safe and secure life

 

Mr. KATAYAMA Suisei, a student of the faculty of International Welfare Development awarded Young Scholar Award at International Conference

The second year student of the faculty of International Welfare Development, Mr. KATAYAMA Suisei received the “Young Scholar Award” at the International Conference for Media in Education (=ICoME) held at Seoul University, Korea from August 27th to 29th.
ICoME is an international conference held by both the Japan Association for Educational Media Study and the Korea Educational Media Study Society, and has been held once a year since 2005.
The Title of Mr. KATAYAMA’s presentation was “Experiential Learning in the Philippines,” in which he reported his experiences and the outcomes of the N.F.U. Philippines program implemented the last February.
The Young Scholar Award is presented to excellent presentations at the round table session of ICoME. About 6 presentations are awarded out of 30 presentations.
Although the session members were mainly comprised of post-graduate students, Mr. Katayama, as an undergraduate student, made his presentation nobly in English, furthermore, Mr. Katayama also had a Q&A session in English.
Congratulations on your award, Mr. KATAYAMA!

N.F.U. Faculty of Child Development Supervised “The Toy Expo”
held at The MINAMI-CHITA Toy Kingdom

  In order to fulfill its research and educational mandate in child development, Nihon Fukushi University concluded an exchange agreement with the Minami-Chita Beach Land Toy Kingdom in March, 2009.
As the first exchange, since the exchange agreement was concluded, N.F.U. has been supervising “the Toy Expo” held at the Toy Kingdom since September 12th.
“The Toy Expo” is held in commemoration of the 3rd anniversary of the Minami-Chita Beach Land Toy Kingdom’s foundation, and the Expo brought together a collection of various toys which are particular in design from 9 countries including Germany, Switzerland, France, England and Japan.
“The Toy Expo” aims at fostering children’s development in both creative and expressive power through touching good toys and playing with their parents and friends.
The associate professor SHIONOYA, Hitoshi of the faculty of Child Development, N.F.U. recommended one of the French Toys “KAPLA.”  N.F.U. cooperated to plan the making of the “three-dimensional dominoes shaped like Niagara Falls” using “KAPLA.” Some of the recommended toys are used at the Nursery Practicum Room at N.F.U. as educational materials.
The Minami-Chita Beach Land Toy Kingdom is a place of study for the students of the faculty of Child Development. Some activities planned by N.F.U.students will be carried out in the near future.
“The Toy Expo” will be held until November 30th (Monday). Please come and see it!

Nihon Fukushi University-Yonsei University
The 4th Japan-Korea Periodic Symposium will be held.

The aim of the symposium:
In the area of Long-term Care Insurance, Services and Support for Persons with Disabilities System and with regards to Reforming the Medical Care System, the importance of management in the field of health and social services is intensifying. Thus it is becoming an important social issue to develop graduate school level education in order to foster people with the right work experience and specialized knowledge, who can shoulder responsibility in the field of health and social services. In this symposium, Nihon Fukushi University and Yonsei University, which are leaders in developing graduate school education in this field in Japan and Korea, will share their experiences with each other. In addition, the expectations toward graduate programs will be discussed by various people working in NPO managerial positions in the field of health and social services with regards to the roles and issues pertaining to graduate school education in this field.
Date:    October 3rd (Saturday), 2009
Time:    9:30 am through 4:35 pm
Place:   Nihon Fukushi University Nagoya Campus

Welcome to “The 44th HEIWA (Peace) Bon-Odori (Bon Dance) Festival” on August 8th, The Theme is “MATSURINCHU （People Loving Festivities）.

　On August 8th (Saturday) from 5:30 pm, the 44th HEIWA BON-Odori festival will be held at the Ground No.1 of Mihama Campus, Nihon Fukushi University (N.F.U.)
*The Bon-Odori Festival is the dance festival which was originally performed to console the spirits of one’s ancestors and their departed souls, which are believed to return to their families during the Bon period (July 15th by the lunar calendar, it is from August 13th to 16th today.)
　Dating back 44 years, This “HEIWA Bon-Odori Festival,” in short, “HEIBON” was started by ‘the student association against atomic and hydrogen bombs’ and ‘the N.F.U. student dormitory council.’ Since then, the festival has been continually changing its forms. As the festival is drawing near, the student executive committee members are putting a great deal of effort into the festival preparation.
  According to the student executive committee, “The purpose of this HEIBON, as the name implies, is to deepen people’s understanding of peace and to deepen the friendship with local people. We are trying hard to make the festival more open to everyone. Through HEIBON, we hope that N.F.U.’s activities will become better known by the local people and they will feel friendly towards N.F.U. We do hope not only people from the MIHAMA town but also those from the outskirts of the MIHAMA area will come and join us.”
　No participation fee is required. Please come and join us at the N.F.U. Mihama Campus.

 

◆The 44th HEIWA Bon-Odori Festival “MATSURINCHU”◆
‘Feeling the true warmth of people and enjoying the festival by interacting with people’ is the theme of this year’s festival.

 

Date & Time　　　　 August 8th (Saturday) from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Place　　　　　　　　　NFU Mihama Campus, The Ground No.1 and other places
Others　　　　　　　　Besides the Bon dance, refreshment booths and other events will be available
Participation Fee 　　Free of Charge (however, there is a charge for refreshments.)

Cook Freshly Caught Fish and Enjoy…Fabulous!
A Fish Tasting Event by the Chita-Region Fisherpersons Society was Held at Mihama Campus on July 18th

On July 18th (Saturday) when NFU held its Open Campus, the “Chita-region Fisherpersons Society fish tasting promotional event” was held in cooperation with students from Professor ISOBE’s seminar from the Faculty of Child Development.

Plainly put, local fisherpersons are actively promoting the fishing industry in the Chita-Hanto region along with the Fisheries Administration Division of the Aichi Prefectural government held this event to promote fish tasting and raise people’s awareness of the fisheries of Aichi prefecture.

Furthermore, people learned how to cook freshly caught fish directly from the fisherpersons. They could also eat the fish and enjoy its delicious fresh taste during the event.

The event was held as part of the student’s fieldwork in Professor ISOBE’s seminar, which always does research on and picks up issues related to the Chita-Hanto region.

A little past 9:00am on July 18th, freshly caught octopuses, squids, sardines, horse mackerel and mantis shrimp were brought to the campus along with various kitchen utensils by the members of the Chita-region Fisherpersons Society and Aichi prefectural government staff. The class on how to cook fish with Professor ISOBE and his students commenced right away.

Under the guidance of the local fisherpersons, the students, despite their inexperience, tried their hand at gutting and cutting up the fish as well as washing octopuses with salt to remove the slime, then they were able to taste the cooked fish and each and everyone said the fish was ‘Delicious!’
Meanwhile, the staff of the Aichi prefectural government prepared fried fish and made seasoned ‘Octopus Rice’ for a full-course fish meal.

While cooking was going on, the university president, faculty members and senior high school students who came to NFU to join NFU’s Open Campus joined this event. In the afternoon, the participants enjoyed the fish cuisine prepared by the visiting fisherpersons and the Aichi government staff.

While eating, the Aichi Prefectural government staff told us that the price of marine products has been stable for about 20 years; however the demand for marine products has been shrinking. What we need to do is to make people understand the good points of marine products such as its good taste and nutrition in order to increase the demand for these products.

They also told us that the Japanese anchovy used today spoils easily. When they get a big catch, they can process the anchovy for shipping; however, they do not have enough capacity to process all the catch, they cannot but throw the excess away. On the contrary, even if they increase their processing capacity, they do not know if they can consistently catch large enough catches. This is a difficult subject.

The fisherpersons told us that the days for selling fish are shifted from days around the holidays to the days preceding garbage collection days, as people want to dispose of raw garbage, like fish internal organs, as soon as possible.

All the participants really enjoyed this event. Large portions of delicious food went into all the participants’ stomachs, leaving everyone very satisfied. We hope this type of activity will be held more and more.

Morizo and Kiccoro, Who Were The Official Characters of the 2005 AICHI JAPAN EXPO, Came to NFU to Support “Discover Eco in Mihama” on July 18th and 19th.

The Aichi Prefectural government, as part of its ‘Make Aichi an environmentally-friendly region’ activities, established “Aichi Eco Mobility Life Promotion Council” in collaboration with 111 various businesses, NPOs and groups (as of 2009 March), and has been promoting a campaign to realize an “Eco Mobility Life” which is a new lifestyle using environmentally-friendly transportation systems. The twelve educational agencies concerned are members of the council, out of which Nihon Fukushi University is the sole university member. To promote an “Eco Mobility Life,” an environmental enlightenment event called “Discover Eco in Mihama!” was held at the Mihama Campus of Nihon Fukushi University on July 18th and 19th.

Taking into consideration the effect one’s plans and the things we do for our own convenience sake influence society, “Eco Mobility Life” is meant for a lifestyle in which people make educated decisions about which transportation systems to use such as cars, public transportation, bicycles, or walking, in accordance with one’s destination and reasons for going to that destination.

Nihon Fukushi University, due to the increase of students using cars to come to the university, is now facing the problem of a lack parking space for students and illegal parking which causes inconvenience to the people living in the neighborhood.

The “Discover Eco in Mihama!,” implemented by the ‘Team Ecomobi’ (about 40 members from Faculty of Economics and Healthcare Management) is designed to make students understand and have an interest in the present problems, and be more conscious about ‘Eco’ in their daily lives when deciding what transportation systems they use in their everyday life.
The ‘Team Ecomobi’ members in green-colored T-shirts introduced what “Eco Mobility Life” is and gave a lecture on environmental education to the senior high school students who joined NFU’s Open Campus on July 18th and 19th. In addition, on July 18th, people enjoyed test rides in the ‘Vero Taxi’ and ‘Segway.’ In the afternoon of July 18th, Morizo and Kiccoro visited NFU and charmed everyone around the campus.

A member of Nihon Fukushi University American Football Club “NFU WINGS,”
Mr. TAKEUCHI, Shuhei (3rd year, Faculty of Healthcare Management),
Selected as ‘All-Japan’ Member

　On July 25th (Saturday), the ‘Notre Dame Japan Bowl 2009’will be held in Tokyo Dome, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the American Football Game in Japan, whose first official game was held in 1934. The ‘All-Japan Team’ will face off against the Fighting Irish ‘Legends,’ whose members are all Notre Dame University graduates.
　NFU student, Mr. TAKEUCHI, Shuhei was selected as a member of the ‘All-Japan Team.’
　The ‘All-Japan Team’ consists of 50 members who are in business and belong to the ‘X-League,’ and 10 university students. We are privileged that an NFU student was selected as one of them.
　We hope that Mr. TAKEUCHI will play well with the other university members selected from such powerhouses as Ritsumeikan, Hosei, Nihon, Senshu, Kobe, Kwansei Gakuin University.
　On July 25th at 4:00 pm, the match will kick off! We hope that you will give your encouragement during the match.
A Comment from Mr. TAKEUCHI
“I am not sure how much I can contribute myself to the team as I will be playing with Japan’s top-class members. But I will not shy away from the challenge and I will try to do my best.”

The TANABATA (Star) Festival will be held on July 2nd at the Handa Campus

　The TANABATA (Star) Festival is going to be held at the Handa Campus on July 2nd.
　This year’s TANABATA Festival, which is regarded as a Faculty Festival, is the eleventh. This event started in 1999.　The 'Event Office,' which is made up of student's groups, acts independently to prepare for the TANABATA festival, as this festival is one of the annual summer activities in their university life.
　Colored oblong cards on which a person’s wishes are written are going to be hung on bamboo stalks to decorate the campus for the TANABATA festival. We are preparing various stalls and such events as a quiz show and a live show to make everyone from small children to the elderly enjoy the festival.
　The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Blooming flowers –Let blooming flowers bring smiles to your faces –‘. We hope we can see many smiles on people’s faces from the local community and our students. Please come and join us

 

A Clean Campaign with the theme of ‘Stop smoking while walking’ was implemented on June 9th at the Mihama Campus

Starting from the ‘Campus Plaza’, this year’s Campus Clean Campaign was carried out with the help of approximately 200 participants from the student body, faculty and administrative staff on June 9th (Tue.)
The campaign was hosted by the ‘Campus Clean Campaign Promotion Committee,’ and was made up of students from various clubs, along with the President and Vice-Presidents of the university as well as members from both the faculty and administration; they all joined in this campaign. All the participants were divided into four groups. One group appealed to the students around the campus to stop smoking while walking and to stop throwing cigarette butts on the ground, while the other three groups collected rubbish.
After about 30 minutes of cleaning, all the participants gathered again at the ‘Campus Plaza.’ Although it was cloudy, the temperature went up and the participants all got quite sweaty.
President KATO said, ‘This activity has already become an established yearly event. Thanks to your cooperation, the volume of rubbish has been decreasing. From now, I would like to grapple with issue of making this campus a smoke-free campus.’
Thanks to everyone for your cooperation!

 

Let’s enjoy English conversation at the "NFU English Lounge".

　 Let’s enjoy English conversation at the "NFU English Lounge".

　The NFU English Lounge has just opened for the purpose of improving students' English proficiency. A variety of activities such as English conversation are offered in the lounge.

　Students can enjoy English conversations about anything with a native English teacher in a relaxing atmosphere. Besides listening to English songs and watching DVDs, students can ask questions that they had during classes, and practice English pronunciation and presentations.

　As the English Lounge has many interesting activities and lessons to improve student's English proficiency, students can freely join the activities and the lessons in which they are interested.

The activities include learning Business English, cooking foreign foods, lessons using popular English songs, English games and quizzes.
　We hope more and more students will come to the lounge and improve their English communication skills which should be of use to our global society.

The Nihon Fukushi University（NFU） Educational Group has recently renewed the certification of “ISO27001(ISO/IEC27001:2005/JIS Q 27001:2006）”

　
　The Nihon Fukushi University（NFU） Educational Group has recently renewed the certification of “ISO27001(ISO/IEC27001:2005/JIS Q 27001:2006）” which is the international standard of Information Security Management Systems(ISMS).

　 Taking the lead of other universities, the ＮＦＵ Educational Group was accredited with 2 certificates on March 16 2005. One is “BS7799-2:2002” which is the international standard of ISMS and the other is “ISMS accreditation standard (Ver2.0)” managed by the Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (JIPDEC).

　 Based on the “Fundamental Policy of The Information Security for NFU ” established as of April 1 2004, we built management systems such as risk assessments to manage information security, training programs for professors and officers in NFU and inner audits. As a result, we could be accredited with 2 certifications by taking the audit to confirm how appropriate our performance is. Afterwards, we were able to switch from “BS7799-2:2002” to “ISO/IEC27001:2005” and also from “ISMS accreditation standard (Ver2.0)” to “JIS Q 27001:2006” when we took the audit in 2006.

　 We could achieve results such as protecting our information assets from any threats, reinforcing compliance and improving business continuity while building ISMS. We continuously do our best to protect the information assets and rights for those related to NFU and gain stronger reliability from society.
 

Topics from the Faculty of Health Science
A Volunteer-Matching Event Was Held

　The NFU Faculty of Health Science held a 'Volunteer-matching' event on April 16th and 17th for challenged students studying at Handa campus.
　Currently there are 7 students among the challenged students who need support to take notes with either notebook or personal computers to access and get information. The 'Volunteer-matching event' is to match the schedule of those who need support with those who volunteered to support challenged students in taking notes and reading.
　This year many first and second year students applied to this event as volunteer students. On the first day, 40 students joined this event and talked with each other about what one can do, and adjusted their schedules for the challenged students.

 

Entrance Ceremony of Nihon Fukushi University on April 1st "Think about what you can do for others."

　The 1398 newly-entered students, out of which 1291 are undergraduate students, participated in the entrance ceremony of Nihon Fukushi University on April 1st.
　The President KATO stated in his welcome speech, "Please think about what you can do for the betterment of everyone in this country’s life where the gap between peoples' lifestyles has been widening remarkably.
Representing the enrolled undergraduate students, Mr. ADACHI, who is a third year student in the Faculty of Social Welfare, mentioned that it is very important to aggressively build relationships with the people around you in order to have a worthwhile university life. He looked back on his first years and remembered his anxiety and expectations when he first entered this university.
　Representing the newly-entered students, Ms. NAITO (the Faculty of Health Science) declared her determination and said, "We must try our best to try a variety of activities and do one’s best to achieve one's goal." Also representing the newly-entered postgraduate students, Ms. KIM (NFU Graduate School of Social Well-Being and Development) said that she would like to throw herself into her research whose theme was triggered by coming in close touch with people with dementia.
　After the ceremony, the newly-entered students received orientation and were heartily invited by many enrolled students to join their school clubs which made the new students smile. It is our hope that all of the new students will have a wonderful university life here at Nihon Fukushi University.
 Once again, congratulations on your entrance into this university!