• What is the Kyoto Student Public Relations Department?
• What is Kotokare?
• Workshops
• Public Relations Department Recruitment
• inquiry

What is the Kyoto Student Public Relations Department (Business Overview)?

　With the long-term decline in the population of 18-year-olds expected to further intensify competition between universities, it is necessary to more actively promote the appeal of Kyoto as a “city of universities and students” to junior and senior high school students who will become university students in the future.
　As a result, the University Consortium Kyoto and Kyoto City have established the “Kyoto Student Public Relations Department” as a new collaborative initiative to promote the “real charm of Kyoto” experienced by university students studying in Kyoto during their student life to junior and senior high school students nationwide from a student perspective.
　The Kyoto Student Public Relations Department will promote the appeal of university life in Kyoto, which has been planned, interviewed, and written by students, through a dedicated website “Kotokare,” social media, events, etc.

Support system

What is Kotokare?

“Kotokare”, a media outlet introducing the real lifestyles of university students in Kyoto
, is a website that distributes various content planned, interviewed and written by the Kyoto Student Public Relations Department, and was launched on October 1, 2015.
<URL> https://kotocollege.jp/ 

Kotokare’s Policy

　The name was decided by a vote of the members of the Kyoto Student Public Relations Club, based on the name idea that the club members came up with at a workshop.
　The abbreviation of “College in the Ancient Capital” expresses the essence of Kyoto and the school, while also being easy for junior and senior high school students to remember and remember.
　The club members also created the following logo under the supervision of a professional designer.

　The vertical and horizontal lines represent the paths that various students walk, and express how these students intersect in various ways to form a single circle, or community, and are connected. It
　also includes an element of the “grid” layout of streets that run perpendicularly from north to south and east to west, a characteristic of the city of Kyoto.

Check out social media too!

The Kyoto Student Public Relations Club also posts information on social media! We share behind-the-scenes stories from interviews, daily activity reports, and the latest information. Please follow PR club member Koto Karen!
<Twitter>  https://twitter.com/gakusei_kyoto
<Facebook>  https://www.facebook.com/gakuseikyoto
<Instagram>  https://instagram.com/gakusei_kyoto

Workshops

The Kyoto Student Public Relations Department conducts training aimed at improving the skills of its members.

Workshop 1

Event Outline

The purpose of this training was to learn photography techniques to visually convey the appeal of food using smartphones.
In recent years, as information dissemination through SNS has become mainstream, the importance of “photogenic” content is increasing. The mission of the Kyoto Student Public Relations Club is to widely disseminate the appeal of Kyoto from a student’s unique perspective, and improving photography skills is essential to improve the quality of daily interviews and SNS posts. In particular, “food” is a major theme in conveying Kyoto’s culture and tourist resources, and acquiring the skills to capture its appeal accurately and attractively will lead to further improving the quality of public relations activities. Through this training, we aimed to improve the communication skills of each student member and enable them to more effectively convey the appeal of the region of Kyoto.

Date:

May 29, 2025 (Thursday) 18:00 ~ [Ended]

place:

Campus Plaza Kyoto 1st floor Student Place+

Eligible participants:

Kyoto Student Public Relations Club Member

Lecturer:

Shuhei Uekake
Profile:
Kyoto City Hall employee (administrative position)
Graduated from the Department of Photography at Osaka University of Arts (General Representative of the President’s Award)
After graduating from a regular university, he passed the civil service exam to enter the city government. In addition to his work, he took a wide range of photographs on the theme of “travel” in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Russia, Iceland, etc. In addition, he enrolled in an art university at the same time and underwent recurrent education for about six years. His documentary works have been exhibited at museums and galleries in Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, and Paris.
Last year, he won the Jury Prize at the historic photography competition “APA Awards 2025”.

Participants:

Total of 10 people (7 PR staff/3 secretariat staff)

Implementation Report

First, we set up the basic settings for smartphone photography (HDR, grid lines, exposure, etc.) and learned the basics of composition and lighting to make food look delicious.

Comparing the appearance by changing lighting and angles.

At the end, everyone tried to take pictures of the ingredients that had been prepared using their smartphones, aiming to take the “best shot.”

This camera training, “Techniques for capturing delicious food with a smartphone,” was a valuable opportunity to learn practical photography skills using a smartphone. In particular, it focused on how to express the sensory element of “deliciousness” in a photograph, and participants were able to acquire practical, specialized knowledge on composition, lighting, color usage, and other aspects suited to the SNS generation.

The participating students experienced the difference between photos they take casually and those that are intentionally created, and it seemed to be a good opportunity for them to realize the fun and difficulty of “communicating the world you want to show.” In particular, the fact that impressive photos can be taken with some ingenuity even in a limited equipment environment was a very meaningful learning experience for students involved in public relations activities.

We hope to continue holding training sessions like this in the future, and to create more compelling content in various outlets, such as the Kyoto Student Public Relations Department’s social media and article writing, in order to strengthen our public relations capabilities.

Public Relations Department Recruitment

The Kyoto Student Public Relations Club is looking for members to join us!
The website “Kotokare” is planned, managed, and operated by students attending universities in Kyoto, and will spread the appeal of university life in Kyoto to junior and senior high school students across the country. Our mission is to make junior and senior high school students think, “I want to attend a university in Kyoto!”
University students in Kyoto, why not show off your ideas, passion, and teamwork as the initiators of this project?

If you would like to join or visit, please contact us using the link below.

Conditions for joining

•Undergraduate and graduate students (any year) who belong to a member school of the University Consortium Kyoto. (Click　here for a list of member schools
.) •Those who can participate in activities at a base in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City (travel expenses will not be reimbursed)
•Those who can participate in activities at least once a month, unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.

We are looking for students like this!

Contact Information

Consortium of Universities Kyoto, a public interest incorporated foundation Kyoto Student Public Relations OfficeTEL
075-353-9130 FAX 075-353-9101Campus
Plaza Kyoto, Nishinotoin-dori Shiokoji-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8216
※Reception hours: Tuesday to Saturday 9:00-17:00 (excluding New Year holidays)