2024/6/1

On Thursday, May 30, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (KUFS) signed a comprehensive coordination and cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) Kinki District Transport Bureau.

In April 2024, just over three million foreign tourists visited Japan as a whole, marking the second consecutive month with more than three million monthly inbound visitors. As a result, the people of Kyoto have been facing overtourism problems, and the Kansai region as a whole is suffering labor shortages in the tourism industry.

Through this latest comprehensive coordination and cooperation agreement between KUFS and the Kinki District Transport Bureau, both parties will pursue human resource development and tourism-related measures through continual mutual exchanges to resolve these issues.

On May 30, both parties held an official signing ceremony in which KUFS President Takahiro Ono and Bureau Director-General Yasaburo Hikasa signed the agreement. On the day of the ceremony, visitors engaged in pleasant talks while viewing rare books at the KUFS library, including Takejiro Hasegawa's Japanese Fairy Tale Series crepe paper books and works by Luís Fróis.

Main Coordination and Cooperation Activities Specified by the Agreement

1. Activities related to education, research and tourism promotion (provision of opportunities for students)
　 ■ Participation in surveys and studies
　・Student participation in projects conducted by the Japan Tourism Agency and Kinki District Transport Bureau
　・Student invitations to and attendance at conferences, symposia and similar events held by the Japan Tourism Agency and Kinki District Transport Bureau
　 ■ Presentation of student learning results
　・Student presentations at conferences, symposia, research conferences and similar events held by the Kinki District Transport Bureau
　 ■ Utilization of learned foreign language skills and knowledge on foreign culture
　・Cooperation in interpretation and translation services for tourism-related projects
　・Cooperation in hands-on experience events, exchange events and similar related to foreign culture and hosted by relevant facilities/organizations
2. Tourism human resource development
　 ■ Cooperation in recruitment
　・Student-targeted employment seminars, individual-company informational sessions and similar for the hospitality industry
　 ■ Support for and cooperation in lecture and seminar activities
　・Loaning of Kinki District Transport Bureau personnel as instructors/lecturers and conferment of awards through the Tourism Department Director Awards and similar
　・Introductions and liaison services for tourism industry lecturers
3. Others
　 ■ Mutual exchanges of ideas, and cooperation in HR recruitment efforts and similar
　・Periodic meetings for discussions and exchanges of ideas between Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and the Kinki District Transport Bureau

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Kinki District Transport Bureau website　
KUFS Library website

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