Vol.21 August
Vol.18 2020
Jan 2019
CONTENTSNews ...................................................... 1-6
Overseas Offices...................................... 7
Greetings ............................................... 8-9

NewsDoshisha University Action in Response to Novel Coronavirus Infection【In Preparation for the Fall Semester】
With the start of the Fall Semester on
September 21 (Mon), classes will be conducted inthe format corresponding to WITH-Corona.
In order to prevent spread of infection of theNovelCoronavirus(Covid-19),

Doshisha

University is currently conducting the SpringSemestercourses

online.

FromtheFallSemester onwards, we will resume in-personclasses at the same time with continuing online
classes.
Accordingly, we have established the “Doshisha
University Guidelines for Preventing Spread of
Infection of Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) ” withwhich we will conduct classes while paying
attention to avoid the so-called Three Cs. We will
also gradually expand the scope of students
permitted to enter the campus and available
gates in four phases in preparation for the startof the Fall Semester on September 21 (Mon).

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News
Doshisha University has launched the "COVID-19 Research Project"
Doshisha University has launched the "COVID19 Research Project" with 77 subjects of 9 fields
covering 3 areas including "Health & MedicalCare", "Society & Economy", and "Education,Culture & Lifestyle".
At present, the whole world is under thepandemic of COVID-19 which is said to occur
once in a hundred years. It is also said that, after
the pandemic is calmed down, new era of drasticchanges, including changes in social structure
and values, will come. However, even in thesechanges, responsibility of a university in education, research and social contribution does not change.
What should the post-COVID-19 society be like? Is it possible tosustain values of liberty and equality? Can we develop technologies
needed? What should we suggest and achieve for the post-COVID-19
era?
Doshisha University will take our advantage as a comprehensive
university to capture post-COVID-19 from every standpoint andarea, integrate the findings, and disseminate our achievements asvaluable direction for society. Please visit the link below for the listof Urgent Research.

“Observe the real thing is valuable,” Guidance by sending microscopes to the homes ofstudents who are unable to attend the lab.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most universities continue to beunable to offer face-to-face lectures. In the midst of this situation, Associate
Professor MIYASAKA Tomohiro, who is in charge of the lecture called“Experiments in Structures and Functions of Human” at the Department ofMedical Life Systems of the Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences, started“home experiment”, in which he sent microscopes to the homes of 73 third-year
students of the said department, so that they can observe and sketch tissues
at home. Specimens of the tissues from mouse or rat were enclosed with themicroscope, and the students sketch the tissues and cells under the microscopeand email it to Associate Professor Miyasaka. He provides guidance to them
online once a week, such as pointing out cells that have been overlooked.

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News
Kotani Seminar, Faculty of Policy Studies, won first prize in the competition of the“INTRAS—a waste reduction project supported by university students” by Kyoto City,
on which the seminar has been working since July 2019.
INTRAS is a team competition project in which university
students post efforts to reduce the amount of waste onsocial media and compete for the total number of “likes”
and the quality of the contents. Many people have anegative impression about or a burdensome image ofwaste problems. With the expectation of transforming
such a situation by exploiting the students’ sense andability to disseminate information, six universities in
Kyoto, including a graduate school, (Kyoto University
graduate school, Ryukoku University, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto
University of Foreign Studies, and Kotani Seminar from Doshisha University) have been appointed asproject members.
Kotani Seminar (Faculty of Policy Studies) organized the team “Doshisha Eco’s Club,” taking
advantage of the fact that legal policies related to waste problems, such as the Zero Waste policy, havebeen one of their research subjects. The main team members are HIRAI Yui, KATO Rina, MATSUMOTO
Masaki, FUJIKI Naoto, and YANAGASE Tatsuhiko. The team posts many articles with ingenuity tomake waste problems more familiar to us: writing multilingual articles, taking into account thecharacteristics of Kyoto, where many international students live; and trying to include much
environmental activity information in local areas. The team has strived to write influential articles,
sometimes suggesting the reuse of tableware at local events and planning the idea as an eco-friendly
event. The Doshisha Eco’s Club has posted more than 40 articles
in total. Before posting them, the team held discussions manytimes so that it could share ideas leading to raised awareness ofwaste problems and waste reduction by introducing efforts toreduce waste on social media. Those efforts led to the highest
number of “likes” and high evaluation for the contents, and thus
the club was commended as the winning team.
We hope that the members will apply valuable lessons learned
through the project to their individual activities.
* INTRAS is an acronym for “instructor of trash-free society” andis a project named by Kyoto City, with the idea of being an
instructor who leads us in making efforts to the realization of asociety without waste.

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News
Assistant Prof. Waku and Prof. Kobayashi (Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences)discovered a new oncogene that promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis—a molecularmechanism of cancer development through dysregulation of proteolysis by atranscription factor NRF3.
(Key points of the research)• The expression level of a transcription factor NRF3 increases in various tumor tissues, includingcolorectal cancer.
• An increase in NRF3 expression level promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis.
• NRF3 enhances the activity of proteasome, a proteolytic enzyme, thereby inhibiting the anti-cancer
function of tumor suppressors.
(Outline of the research)
In normal cells, tumor suppressors are constantly monitoring the cells to prevent tumorigenesis andmetastasis caused by unregulated cell growth. In previous studies, genetic mutation was considered tobe the main cause of inactivated tumor suppressors. Meanwhile, recent studies have reported many casesof cancer cells without genetic mutation of tumor suppressors. However, the genetic mutationindependent mechanism of cancer development remains unclear. Waku and his colleagues reveal that atranscription factor NRF3 inhibits the anti-cancer function of tumor suppressors. The research group
found that the expression level of NRF3 increases in various tumor tissues, including colorectal cancer.
The experimentally increased NRF3 promotes tumor formation and metastasizes in mice. Interestingly,
the higher levels of NRF3 expression enhances the activity of proteasome, which is a proteolytic enzyme,
while the lower NRF3 reduced the proteasome activity. More importantly, the lower NRF3 leads to not
only the increase of the tumor suppressor proteins, but also the death of cancer cells. Moreover, Clinicalanalysis indicated that higher NRF3 is correlated with poor prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. Insummary, this study demonstrates a novel mechanism of cancer development in which NRF3 inhibits thefunction of tumor suppressors with abnormally increased proteolytic activity. These findings furtherprovide the important insights into the design of a new anti-cancer drug.
These research results were published online in the US scientific journal Molecular and CellularBiology on March 2, 2020 (EST) (JST: March 3).
*For further information, please refer to the link below.
Molecular and Cellular Biology:
https://mcb.asm.org/content/40/10/e00597-19

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41NewsThe Doshisha University Yacht Club participated in the 28th All Japan Intercollegiate
Women’s Sailing Championship and won in the Snipe class! (Dec 24th 2019)
The Doshisha University Yacht Club participated in the 28th All Japan Intercollegiate Women’s SailingChampionship and won in the Snipe class!
Comments from the winners of the championship are as follows.
MIURA Nagisa (freshman, Faculty of Health and Sports Science)
The28thAllJapan

Intercollegiate

Women’sSailingChampionship was the first national-level tournament for me since
I joined the yacht club. As I had not taken part in races in otherwaters by then, honestly, I was not sure how effectively I could
compete with other participants. I was able to build a good
relationship with Ms. Higashida, who was my pairs partner,
although we had only a short time to practice together, because her
way of thinking about the wind, race planning, and personality are
similar to mine. Thanks to that, we made a good start and took thelead over the other yachts in the first race, without being very
nervous. As a result, we were able to maintain good momentum inall races. I will join this tournament with a new member of the clubnext year and do my best to become a two-time consecutive winnerof the championships. I appreciate your continued support.
HIGASHIDA Marie (senior, Faculty of Law)
WinningtheAllJapan

Intercollegiate

Women’sSailingChampionship has been one of my goals for a long time. It was alsoa milestone tournament in the run-up to the All Japan
Intercollegiate Sailing Championship scheduled in November. For
these reasons, I put pressure on myself to definitely win thechampionship during the races. I feel that the strength of our pairlies in the good chemistry between us, which maximizes each other’sstrong points. Since having full confidence in Ms. Miura, although
the time for practice as a pair was short, I was able to sail as calmly
as usual. Furthermore, the staff and male sailors of the club came tosupport us in this tournament. I believe that the most importantfactor in our victory was that we were able to fight as Team Doshisha.
Support from many people enabled us to win the championship. I
would like to express my gratitude to you all.

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News
“Monko -Listening to Incense- Workshop” (presented by SIED)On December 13, SIED hosted an event, “Monko -Listening to IncenseWorkshop” at Yamadamatsu Kobokuten (Yamada-Matsu co. Ltd). This
event was held under the purpose to help participants understand theappealing aspect of the Japanese culture more in depth. Nine students
from Doshisha (including international students) participated in theevent.
During this event, participants experienced “listening” to incense
instead of “smelling” it. There are some unique procedures to “listen”
to incense, so an instructor explained it one by one. The experiencingof “listening” to incense was conducted in the form of a game; therefore,participants were able to enjoy the process in a fun way.
This event made it possible for participants to experience and learn
about the Japanese culture through the experience of listening toincense.

“Calligrapher Tomoko Kawao Workshop and Performance” (presented by SIED)
On January 11th (Sat.), SIED and A Study Group of Management inKyoto co-hosted an event, “Calligrapher Tomoko Kawao Workshopand Performance” on Imadegawa campus.
We invited Ms. Kawao who is a calligrapher undertaking various
projects around the world. In the event, participants were divided
into small groups, and they wrote Zen words on Kakejiku (a hangingscroll) together under the instruction of Ms. Kawao. When doing
Shodo (calligraphy), we usually follow a sample. However, in thisevent, we didn’t use the sample and wrote the way we wanted to. All
the works were really high quality and artistic. They seemed to enjoy
the works a lot. After that, we watched the performance by Ms.
Kawao. As soon as the performance began, the atmosphere became
tense. It was very impressive and amazing! We hope that this event
helped participants deepen their understanding of Shodo.
After the event, ‘meet-and-greet’ was held. We talked a lot of thingsand had broaden our perspectives.
SIED will host many kinds of events such as hands-on learning likethis event. *This event was conducted only in Japanese.

Great Voyage61Overseas Offices
Doshisha University’s overseas offices were established in order to further promote its rapid and effective internationalization.
At our overseas offices, we are implementing mainly public relations activities to increase the profile of Doshisha University,
while at the same time making the most of the characteristics unique to each office. In addition, we are undertaking various
efforts to recruit overseas students, support our students while they are studying overseas, and provide on-site support to membersof our faculties while they are overseas.

Taipei, Taiwan
Address : Doshisha Taiwan Officec/o DSS-CLOVER International Co.
6F-15, No. 57, Chong-Qing S. Rd.
10045 Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: +886-2-2331-1278
Fax: +886-2-2331-1397
Email: ji-int24@mail.doshisha.ac.jp

Tübingen, Germany

Seoul, Korea

Address : Tübingen University
Keplerstraße 2, Raum 042 & 04372074 Tübingen Deutschland

Address : Doshisha Seoul Office＃408, YMCA
Jongno 69, Jongno-gu,Seoul, Korea 03164
Tel: +82-2-732-7704
Email: ji-int28@mail.doshisha.ac.jp

Email: ji-eu@mail.doshisha.ac.jp

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Greetings
Message from Director of International Center
Greetings from Doshisha University, Kyoto, JapanThe whole world is experiencing unprecedented pain and anxiety evoked by the global spreadof COVID-19. The global pandemic also causes serious damage to the international mobility ofthis academic year. Most of the study abroad programs that were scheduled to be held atDoshisha University were forced to be suspended or canceled. Our students who were longingfor starting their new life at our partner universities abroad also had no choice but to change
their plan. At the same time, it was a tough decision for us to stop accepting international
students from our partner universities for the Fall semester 2020. We are very sorry for thestudents who must have been excited with expectations of studying at Doshisha. During thischallenging time, Doshisha University is trying to adapt and overcome current predicamentcollaborating with our partner universities and organizations all over the world in preparing
for the post-pandemic era.
Doshisha University will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2025. As of April 2020, Professor
UEKI Tomoko has been appointed as the first female president in our long history over 140years. It is a great milestone for creating a diverse campus in which people with a variety ofbackgrounds and from a variety of cultures coexist in harmony. I believe that the current global
pandemic not only makes us in trouble but also provides opportunities to reconsider the valueand importance of diversity. We are very much looking forward to welcoming international anddomestic students back to our campus as well as restarting international exchange in-personin the near future. Please stay safe and we’ll see you soon.
Yonghoon CHOI, Ph.D.,
Director, International Center,
Professor, Faculty of CommerceGreat Voyage

81Greetings
Greetings from Office of International Students
Dear Partners,
The year 2020 has turned out to be a year of unprecedented uncertainty and challenges for all of us in theworld due to the global pandemic of COVID-19. The circumstances at Doshisha University are no different,with restrictions on entry into the campus and Spring Semester classes conducted entirely online. Theuniversity is currently preparing to conduct Fall Semester classes with a combination of both online andface-to-face formats. We the staff of the Office of International Students are also working hard to geteverything back to normal little by little.
There are three sections in our Office of International Students: first is the Section for International
Admissions which handles the entrance examination for international students and public relations.
The second and third are the Section for International Students at both Imadegawa and Kyotanabe campuses,
and they are in charge of supporting currently enrolled students.
For all international students interested in pursuing their studies in Japan, Kyoto and Doshisha University,
be at ease as we will embrace you with hospitality spirit.
Warm Regards,
Office of International Students

Great Voyage is published by the International Center at Doshisha University.
Please direct Enquiries to:
Office of International Affairs, Doshisha University
Karasuma-Higashi-iru, Imadegawa-dori, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8580 Japan
Tel: +81 (0) 75-251-3260
Fax: +81 (0) 75-251-3057
Email: ji-kksai@mail.doshisha.ac.jp

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