Hironori Yamaguchi, Ph.D.
Kyoto, Japan
Email: gucci@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp
Web: https://research-db.ritsumei.ac.jp/rithp/k03/resid/S000353?lang=en
Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yamaguchihironori/
Hironori Yamaguchi is a professor at the Institute of General Education at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. His work focuses on problem-based learning in civil society. He is interested in how to facilitate, collaborate, and evaluate projects in higher education, especially in general education. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Japan, with a dissertation on “Group Dynamics in Community Vitalization through Networking among Community Organizations.”
Since starting his academic career at the Graduate School of Policy and Management of Doshisha University in 2006, he has made a significant impact. His action research in various communities, especially those recovering from natural disasters and population decline, has been instrumental in their revitalization. For example, his work, “Metaphorical Thinking on Boundary Crossings in Disaster Revitalization,” explored collaborative practices that activate communities through the power of words.
He was born in 1975 in Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He studied environmental systems engineering at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, and since 2000 has been working at the Consortium of Universities in Kyoto on planning and research projects for industry-government-academic and regional collaboration. His change of major was motivated by his realization through his volunteer work that the reconstruction of the visible world would not accomplish the revitalization of the survivors and their communities. In April 2006, he decided to become a Buddhist monk at an Ountein Temple in Osaka, supervising each project and being responsible for building a relationship between the temple and society until 2016.
He is now the director of the Service Learning Center at Ritsumeikan University. And he contributed to the establishment of the 2011 Great East Earthquake and Tsunami Support Office at Ritsumeikan Trust. In 2017, he reflected on his experience as a guest researcher at Aalborg University, Denmark, and these findings will bring new ideas to develop the pedagogy of problem-based learning.
