Comprehensive Organization of Research and Development

This organization, in addition to developing and applying conditions for the university’s research system, has established the Comprehensive Research Support Center and functions as a comprehensive umbrella organization for research, including the strategic promotion and management of designated priority research that will be conducted at our university in the future.
We are currently setting up undergraduate and graduate laboratory facilities and a designated priority research center.

Undergraduate and Graduate Facilities

Institute for Alternative Systems of Social Welfare and Development

The Institute for Alternative Systems of Social Welfare and Development was established in May of 1997, inheriting the successes of its predecessor, the Social Sciences Research Institute. Its aim is to create symbiotic systems of social welfare that can be sustainably developed, harmonizing welfare, the environment, and economics oriented toward the people in 21st-century society. Such systems will include, as well, alternative welfare societies based on local independence, cooperation, and public life, utilizing new knowledge derived from the interdisciplinary integration of natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, and based on social welfare, economics and management, and information sciences.

Institute of Chitahanto Regional Development

The Institute of Chitahanto Regional Development conducts comprehensive studies, analyses, and research on the history, culture, industries, and livelihoods of the entire Chita Peninsula, which have developed and flourished from ancient times right up to the modern era. The Institute also aims to conduct research on the future prospects of the region. The Institute conducts research on the region’s rich historical heritage with a national and international outlook. It is not just a center for research, but an institution rooted in the community and intended to be open to the community.

Research Institute for Health Sciences

The Research Institute for Health Sciences aims at a comprehensive perspective for solving the many problems that have emerged in today’s information society. It also has the goal of constructing a system of harmonious coexistence to use as a model for 21st-century society through a systematic approach to the mutual relationships between nature, society and people. With rehabilitation, assistive technology, and living environments as its three primary focuses, the Institute is actively promoting interdisciplinary, comprehensive research exchanges.

Center for Well-being Technology

An annex of the Research Institute for Health Sciences, the Center for Assistive Technology is widely available for the use of both the university and the local community, with a focus on three key areas: education, research, and contributing to the community. It provides support for instruction related to well-being and information technology, including seminars on assistive technology. The Center also hosts regular exhibits of assistive devices like wheelchairs and information devices and software for disabled users. Local citizens can meet with full-time instructors for consultations or to try out equipment at the Center. Furthermore, the Center works closely as a research partner with manufacturers of assistive devices and returns the benefits of its research to society.

Clinical Psychological Research Center

The Clinical Psychological Research Center was established in April of 1990 to improve the quality of application, teaching, and research related to clinical psychology. The Psychological Consultation Room assists people with a variety of anxiety and psychological issues. The consultation room is also a training facility for producing clinical psychologists as part of the Clinical Psychology program at the NFU Graduate School of Social Welfare.

The Support Room for Child Development

The Support Room for Child Development, established in April of 2008 at the Mihama Campus as a branch of the Clinical Psychological Research Center, began operations in the Chita Peninsula region. Its activities include preschool education, assisting children with developmental disabilities, and the registration, training, introduction and dispatching of university students as “mental health friends” to adaptation and guidance facilities for long-term truant children.

Advocacy Research Center

With this new type of research center, the purpose of which is contributing to society, the university is advancing research on advocacy systems from a welfare perspective.

Nursing Practice and Research Center

Research activities and cooperation with and contribution to local communities is promoted making the best use of the specialized education and research in the Faculty of Nursing is promoted.

Research Center on Community Development and Regional Planning

To help Study and research in cooperation with local communities is promoted help create sustainable community development.

Special Research Centers

Research Promotion Center for Community Care

Continuing on from the Academic Frontiers Promotion Project Phase I (2002–2006) and the Phase II follow-up project (2007–2010), we have been working on the Community Welfare Solutions Database Development and Assessment for Social Reconstruction project, which was chosen by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as one of its Basic Support Programs for Strategic Research at Private Universities (2010–2014). By developing a database that can be used in the field of community welfare, we hope to create a core database center that will lead the way for local welfare research and policies across Japan.

Social Services Policy Evaluation Center

We intend to implement a project for the multifaceted development of evaluation and analysis of results in the nursing insurance business sector along with an evaluation of the effectiveness of welfare policies, taking over the project for analyzing the success of nursing insurance through the development and distribution of various types of analysis software. One type of such useful software is the Nursing Insurance Benefits Analysis Software developed by the Institute for Alternative Systems of Social Welfare and Development and the Research Promotion Center for Community Care. We will also be implementing a project aimed at achieving reasonably-priced nursing insurance,

Asian Research Center for Social Well-being and Development

Based on the Welfare and Social Development Studies developed in the 21st Century COE Program initiative entitled “Towards a New Policy Science for Social Well-Being and Development,” we aim to construct a systematic methodology for development, with the idea of implementing local well-being activities in communities throughout Asia. To that end, we are organizing collaborative international fieldwork, increasing the practicality of welfare and social development studies from diverse viewpoints, and creating an Asia-wide networked research platform. We also established the Center for Social Well-Being Research Exchange at China’s Nanjing University in 2008.

Center for Well-being and Society

We are focused on “social epidemiological studies and their application in building a society of well-being,” a research proposal chosen by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as one of its Basic Support Programs for Strategic Research at Private Universities (for 2009–2013). We work to identify the social determinants related to health, using evidence obtained through experimental research using massive amounts of data; we make the information we acquire available for policy research and also available to the general public so that it can be put to use in society. In 2010, we conducted large-scale studies including 100,000 people nationwide, and we are progressing with research to achieve further improvements in social epidemiology.

Research Center for Supervision

Multi-level supervision theory, practical training and research are provided to give support to highly specialized professionals such as social workers.

Advocacy Research Center

This is a new type of research center that was built in March 2012, with the purpose of enhancing social contributions by the university. Our university is advancing research into advocacy systems from a welfare perspective.

Social Inclusion Research Center

The Social Inclusion Research Center was established in April 2019 as a center of research for the social reintegration and inclusion of persons who had committed crimes. Our university will advance research on the qualities required of social workers in this area, the promotion of inter-institutional collaboration, and the creation of a framework for social reintegration.

Other Centers

Center for Sports Sciences

The Nippon Fukushi University Center for Sports Sciences was established in April 2008 for the promotion of exchanges between local communities and the university. The center is designed to serve the double purpose of spreading and developing regional sporting activities by making the most use of university resources, and strengthening and promoting sporting activities within the university.

Center for Research of Educational Practice

The NFU Center for Research of Educational Practice was established in April 2018 to serve as a basis for (1) providing courses for improvement of the qualities of educators and childcare workers, (2) disseminating the results of research into education and childcare, and (3) supporting and collaborating with educators and childcare workers actually working at schools or facilities to solve the problems they are facing.