On Monday, April 27th, Professor Koji Hoshino ofthe Department of Department of Photography and Imaging Arts Faculty of Art and Design, and students from the same department held a report meeting on their project to solve problems at JR Kyushu Sangyo University Station, which they undertook in collaboration with Kyushu Railway Company (hereinafter referred to as "JR Kyushu").
This project is part of the "JR Kyushu Support Project," an industry-academia collaboration project that JR Kyushu and our university have been working on since 2021. In this project, we are co-creating initiatives with JR Kyushu that will enhance customer satisfaction in the future, and we are carrying out various activities each year.
This time, with the aim of alleviating congestion on the station platform and raising safety awareness, we created "children's announcements" using the voices of children from Kaizuka Kindergarten to raise awareness, "common occurrence signs" incorporating local jokes unique to the station, and "speech bubble signs" with messages such as "there's space further inside." These were put into operation at the station starting in April 2026.
The students presented the creative ideas and points they focused on during the production process. They expressed their hope that the project would help alleviate congestion and that many people using the station would enjoy it.
Ayami Shimanaga (Tamana Technical High School), a fourth-year student who participated in the project, said, "I am happy to have been able to participate in a project related to this station, which is the station closest to Kyushu Sangyo University University students. The core members are fourth-year and third-year students, so it was difficult to coordinate schedules because we are in the middle of job hunting, but we worked on it with the desire to create something that would please station users and local residents. The kindergarten children who helped with the announcement recording must have had a hard time speaking in unison, but with the cooperation of the teachers at the kindergarten, we were able to complete a very cute announcement. Through this experience, I learned the joy of getting out of the university and interacting with many people, and the happiness of making people happy with our work. I hope that many people will learn about this initiative and continue to enjoy the station for a long time to come."
>> Click here to learn more about the "JR Kyushu Support Project".
[Department of Department of Photography and Imaging Arts Faculty of Art and Design]
