Toyo University has made a commitment to support university students and researchers in Ukraine, where their situation remains difficult due to the military invasion, by providing an environment that would enable them to continue their studies and research. Toyo University has thus concluded a comprehensive academic exchange agreement and a student exchange agreement with three universities located in Kyiv, Ukraine: Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and the National Aviation University.

Toyo’s assistance to Ukrainian students and researchers covers a wide range of areas, including travel to Japan, assistance in daily life in Japan (provision of living expenses and housing), and educational support. On this occasion, the university has established a fundraising scheme to solicit contributions widely from alumni, current students’ parents (legal guardians), faculty members, and many others.

On July 4, 2022, an online lecture by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was held in Inoue Enryo Hall on the Hakusan Campus before an audience of about 350 people. The online communication link between Ukraine and Toyo University was made available to 14 universities belonging to the Japan Association of Private Universities and Colleges, thereby enabling many students to attend President Zelensky’s lecture in real time.

In May 2020, Toyo University began collecting donations to provide assistance to students whose economic situation has deteriorated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are deeply grateful to the many alumni, current students’ parents (legal guardians), businesses, academic and administrative faculty members, and many others who have kindly offered their assistance thus far. With their donations as capital, in the academic year 2021, we covered the vaccination cost for 17,573 students in total, who were vaccinated at the large-scale vaccination centers we set up on the Hakusan and Kawagoe Campuses.

We have also established a scholarship, “RIBBON,” in response to COVID-19-induced difficulties to offer financial support to students from households whose main breadwinner has lost employment or whose income has dropped considerably due to the pandemic.

Also in the 2021 academic year, we launched a 100-yen-lunch project, selling 100 yen box lunches for a 10-day period on all campuses. The lunch, whose real unit price was 600 yen, with the contents changing daily, was highly nutritional and sold out every day during the period.

Hosuikai, the association of students’ parents (legal guardians), has been conducting a food supply campaign, which involves delivering approximately three days’ supply of food items to students living alone and ordered to stay home due to infection or close contact, so that they would not run out of food while waiting for the start of the municipality’s food delivery service.

In 2021, we celebrated the centennial of social welfare education at Toyo University. As Japan’s pioneer in this discipline, Toyo University has produced many graduates who work in related fields. On March 13, 2022, an online symposium was held as a centennial event titled “A social welfare education at Toyo University—A history of 100 years and future prospects.” The symposium served as an ideal occasion to look back on the progress, research, and educational achievements made in the last 100 years in social welfare education, as well as to share views on the significance of the Department of Social Welfare (Faculty of Sociology) and reflect on future prospects for the next generation of students and researchers while viewing video messages from professors emeriti and graduates. In the 2023 academic year, the Department of Social Welfare is scheduled to be relocated to the Akabanedai Campus and reorganized as the Department of Social Welfare Studies of the Faculty of Design for Welfare Society to enter a new chapter of its history.

Many faculty members of the Department of Social Welfare belong to the Research Center for Development of Welfare Society, which pursues research in an inter-departmental and interdisciplinary (integrating humanities and science) manner. One of its research projects, “a study of values and systems that support a cohesive society,” has been selected as a Toyo University Top Priority Research Program, and its results were published in book form in March 2022. The book, titled Mitomeai sasaeau fukushi shakai no kin-mirai (The Near Future of Welfare Society Built on Tolerance and Solidarity), proposes the creation of new values for the welfare society in the near future and explores new ways of implementing social assistance.

In December 2021, the 94th Japan Intercollege Skating Championships (Ice Hockey First Division) were held at the Obihiro no Mori Ice Arena in Hokkaido. In that year, Toyo University’s Ice Skating Club Hockey Division had already won the Prince Chichibu Cup and the autumn league title. Winning the winter intercollegiate title would mean three victories in a single year—the first such feat for Toyo’s ice hockey team in 13 years. For this reason, the intercollege championships were so much more important. The team rode on its unshakable force all the way to the final against Meiji University. Toyo had lost against Meiji in the intercollegiate championships consecutively in 2017 and 2018. This time Toyo played aggressively from the beginning and maintained dominance, but it gradually turned into a more even game. In the end, however, Toyo came out victorious 7-5. Defender Taiki Takebe (third-year student then) was named the tournament MVP, and four other Toyo players were selected for the best six. So Toyo won the winter intercollegiate for a second consecutive year, achieving triple victories and being undefeated in all its official season games.

Toyo University’s Rugby Club finished second in the Kanto University League Second Division in the previous season. In December 2021, the Rugby Club took part in the League’s Division Promotion-Relegation Playoff held at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium in Saitama Prefecture.

In 2020, Toyo won the Second Division, but the playoffs were not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cheered by former team members in the stands who had been deeply frustrated as fourth-year students back then, the team played against Chuo University, which had finished seventh in the First Division. Chuo’s powerful team had never been relegated, not even once, in the history of the league.

The match started off nicely, with Toyo taking an early lead in the 2nd minute. But the game soon intensified, and Toyo allowed Chuo to take the lead, 19-21 in the 19th minute of the second half. Toyo now had to chase after Chuo for the first time in this match, but it regained the lead with a try in the 25th minute of the second half. Defending solidly, Toyo managed to hold off the opponent’s ferocious attacks until its victory 26-21. Now back in the First Division for the first time in 29 years, Toyo’s Rugby Club is expected to achieve even more success in the future.

Toyo University is preparing to integrate the Faculty of Life Sciences (Itakura Campus) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Engineering (Kawagoe Campus) into a new Faculty of Life Sciences with new departments, and the Food Science Course of the Department of Food and Life Sciences and the Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, both of the Faculty of Food and Nutritional Sciences and on the Itakura Campus, into a new Faculty of Food and Nutritional Sciences, also with new departments. The reorganized Faculties will be relocated to the Asaka Campus in April 2024.

The Asaka Campus was opened in 1977 and rearranged as the main campus of the Faculty of Human Life Design in 2005. Its facilities, ideally designed for learning and with numerous practical learning opportunities offered in collaboration with the local community, have produced human resources equipped with a broad base of specialized knowledge.

At present, educational and research facilities on the Asaka Campus are undergoing improvement, with some new research buildings under construction for the scheduled opening in 2024. The Asaka Campus is expected to serve as a new academic center responsive to the needs of the times in areas related to food and life. It will contribute to local problem solving while progressing on its path to being a comprehensive educational and research center.

On the Akabanedai Campus, which was opened in April 2017, the educational and research centers have steadily been expanded. The new building for the Faculty of Human Life Design students, WELLB HUB-2, was completed in 2021, followed by the residential facility for international exchange, AI-House HUB-4, in 2022. The construction of HELSPO HUB-3, which comprises a gymnasium and a library, is currently under way for the scheduled completion in January 2023.

In April 2023, the Faculty of Design for Welfare Society and the Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences will be newly opened. The name HELSPO HUB-3, which derives from that of the latter faculty, alludes to its goal of serving as a major educational and research center in Asia focusing on health and sports sciences.

The Akabanedai Campus is slated to be an even more active center in the areas of information, welfare, design, and health and sports sciences, furthering its contribution to solving problems in society.