Mr. Koji Odajima addressed our NPO meeting on the 11th of June. His theme was regarding his long and consistent commitment on a community activity in Fukuoka. He, a good friend of our NPO president Chihiro Tamura and in his nearly ninety years old, is a humble, sincere gentleman and faithful to his old professor who is still much younger than him. After having retired from decades of work as a negotiator to develop nuclear electric generating plants all over Kyushu, he could find his own real life as a university student belonged to Professor Keiyo Fujiwara, eminent scholar of town planning and town history. He enjoyed college life with younger colleague students and his professor and learnt how to behave among community members for community development. Regarding his academic career, he graduated from the department of Law, Tokyo university, and then studied at the department of Architecture, Kyushu College of Art and Technology which has been merged into Kyushu University from the year of 2003. This seems reminiscent of Akira Tamura who studied Architecture and then Law at Tokyo university. All of what Mr. Odajima addressed the meeting of NPO is very interesting and useful to understand the relationship between scholars and citizens for community development.
小田島浩二さんに当NPO公開研究会で講演を6月10日(月)午後6時よりお願いしました。テーマは、彼が長年継続的に関ってきた福岡市内でのコミュニティ活動についてです。当NPO理事長田村千尋の友人である小田島浩二さんは、控えめな誠実な紳士で、大学の若い先生にも忠実に仕えてきといえる。小田島さんは、九州各地の原子力発電所の立地交渉担当者として大学卒業後長年務めた。定年退職後に藤原恵洋教授の下で勉強することで、本当の自分の人生を発見したという。そして、大学で年下の若い学生たちや先生たちと、地域活動でどう地域の人々と交わり行動するかを学んでいった。小田島さんは東京大学法学部を卒業後に、時間が経ってから大学で建築(都市計画)を学んでいる。田村明さんの逆のコースで、田村さんは東大で建築を学んでから法学部に入りなおした。今回の小田島さんの講演内容は実に興味深く、かつ地域活動における専門家と住民の在り方についての示唆を含むものであった。詳細はテープ起しの後でご紹介します。