Tenjin University: creating Fukuoka’s future through learning

Are you from a community where households are strangers to one another? Or perhaps you are in a city where thousands live, but still feel a sense of loneliness? This is a scenario that is present and growing in Fukuoka City. However, Fukuoka Tenjin University Network believes the solution goes beyond just building relationships between neighbors or citizens. It believes the key lies on the intersection between education and city building.

Fukuoka Tenjin University Network (Tenjin U) is an education organization that doesn’t have a campus. Instead, the whole city is its campus! It leverages the resources available around Fukuoka City, including its talents and specialists, to provide learning opportunities for anyone. And we do mean anyone, as there are no prerequisites to participating in its classes.

We spoke to the founder of Fukuoka Tenjin University Network, Shinichi Iwanaga, to understand the organization’s purpose and how its tackling the city’s concerns.

Profile: Shinichi Iwanaga

Born in Fukuoka. Communication designer who links people to people, people to businesses, and people to society. Shinichi plays key roles across various projects, notably as the Principal of Fukuoka Tenjin University Network, the representative of Green Bird Kitakyushu, and Space R Design communication designer.

Uncovering hidden dissatisfaction in the most popular city in Japan

To understand the importance of Tenjin U’s presence in the city, we must first understand Fukuoka city itself.

Fukuoka city has a population of 1.5 million, with a GDP of about 18 million yen (2014). It is one of the most popular cities to live in Japan, which subsequently attracts many Japanese to move to Fukuoka. Moreover, its location draws tourists from nearby countries such as South Korea and China. In fact, Fukuoka’s Hakata Port has overtaken Yokohama Port’s spot as the most popular port in Japan.

The issues behind the numbers

As we look deeper at the numbers, we begin to have a clearer image of Fukuoka. Fukuoka City Hall conducted a survey on 4,500 citizens from Fukuoka city. We learn that the top 3 concerns of living are mannerism, crime rate and job opportunities.

Furthermore, there is a strong consumption culture in the citizens. On the material side, there is high competition among food establishments and fashion industry. Convenience is beginning to be considered a given. On the lifestyle side, there is an imbalance heavily tilted towards those consuming over those creating, eg lack of organizers for local gatherings.

The problems that Tenjin U is approaching head on

“As [Tenjin U] learns more about Fukuoka, we start wondering why aren’t there more Fukuoka-born citizens having ‘Fukuoka pride’?” Shinichi questioned. Although 90% of the surveyees replied that they like living in Fukuoka or have no special feelings one way or the other, more than half of these respondents are not born in Fukuoka. In the past 10 years, more than half of Fukuoka’s population has be replaced by Japanese from other prefectures.

Furthermore, many of the citizens are comfortable with their lifestyles. There are not much incentives for them to explore beyond their comfort zones. That includes getting involved in the community, or getting to know the areas in which the city can improve.

These are the realizations that Tenjin U has had throughout the years of operation. Fukuoka City may be able to offer its comforts, but is burdened by risks. These risks include relatively high crime rate, citizens moving away to an even more convenient city in the future, and attracting external interest without creating the cities’ own values.

Ultimately, there is a lack of community building that creates a sense of belonging to the city. And that is exactly what Tenjin U wants to create. It doesn’t want to replace the city’s lifestyle, but instead create a balance between personal comfort and connection to the community.

Fukuoka Tenjin University Network does not operate like your typical university

As we have shared, even though the Tenjin U is a place for learning, it is not the standard learning institution.

Conducting classes across the city of Fukuoka

Even though the word “University” draws the images of a compound where students weave in and out of classes, Tenjin U holds its classes around the city, very often relevant to the content of the classes. For example, their upcoming class about font design and practical use will be held at the Inter Media Station, a place hosting both a school and a mall.

Tenjin U sees the whole Fukuoka city as the place to learn. Shinichi also believes that the city is also a teacher.

“It may surprise a lot of people, but Fukuoka carries a lot of history and cultural inheritance. Rather than limiting students’ learning to a single location, we want students to experience fully what Fukuoka has to offer,” Shinichi shared.

Tenjin U conducts learning events throughout the city, which we’ve found something similar to Rikuzen Takada city’s Hirota town. But unlike Hirota town’s direction of tackling regional issues, Tenjin U focuses on discovering Fukuoka.

Shinichi reminded us, “Right now, we need to find a balance between the convenience of living in Fukuoka with ‘Fukuoka pride’. Just like ‘Kagoshima pride’ (the prefecture south of Kyushu), we want Fukuoka citizens to feel proud about belonging to Fukuoka.”

Fukuoka Tenjin University Network lets the student become the teacher

Furthermore, Tenjin U accepts not only students, but anyone interested in learning, regardless of age or background. There are no fees to register as a student of Tenjin U. Its students also get to choose the lessons they want at stipulated dates.

There is another admirable aspect of Tenjin U. When the students feel ready and willing, these students can form and conduct their own lessons, thereby becoming the teacher. The lessons, of course, has to be beneficial to other students. Shinichi also explained, “We ask them to fill a checklist of how’s and why’s too, which ensures that they have clarity before organizing lessons.”

Not just about education, but also support and feedback

Tenjin U sees themselves playing a key role as facilitator too. Seeing how successful Tenjin U’s events are, interested students sought out their advice on organizing events and lessons. To meet this new and recent need, Tenjin U has created a checklist where anyone can use to cover the essentials, from event goals to marketing.

Tenjin U also does not skim on quality. Feedback is a requirement to increase the quality of lessons and the raise the abilities of the teachers. The feedback questions have already gone through a few iterations to make sure Tenjin U is getting the most actionable information.

The desire to improve society is coming from the students too

Fukuoka Tenjin University Network exists to build the future of Fukuoka through its citizens. This means that the citizens need to share the same drive Tenjin U has.

Fortunately, the inertia of the citizens is not as immovable as it seems. Shinichi shared that some of the participants are interested in contributing to society. They also include owners of small-medium enterprises, looking to improve their capabilities.

Shinichi noted that most participants belonged to two groups. The first group wanted to join interesting events, looking for experiences to enrich their lives. The second group already had the desire to do something, and was unknowingly looking for a little push. Tenjin U became an opportunity for both groups.

In fact, the stars were aligning when Tenjin U started. Mixi was the trendy social network then, which was known for its strength as an online space for interest groups. Therefore Tenjin U was able to use Mixi to gather citizens of similar interests, which gave membership a healthy kick start.

Citizens of Fukuoka teaching one another to build a city with strong bonds

By now, we’d have a pretty strong sense of how Tenjin U is like. It creates a virtuous cycle of learning and teaching, while benefiting not only the students but the society too. It is also creating the “Fukuoka Pride”, things that citizens can feel proud of and say “yes, that belongs to Fukuoka”. Shinichi’s ideal is carried through Fukuoka Tenjin University Network, which is “creating a future through learning”.

In Japan, there is a powerful and deeply meaningful word called “kizuna”. On the surface, the word just means the bonds or relationships between one another. However, the word carries memories, careful consideration of these bonds and heartfelt emotions among the Japanese. Tenjin U understands this, and is definitely bringing “kizuna” to Fukuoka for a better future.