About Us

Director’s message

Center for Media and Tourism Studies (CMATS) was established in April 2017 for the purposes of bridging, intersecting, and integrating media studies and tourism studies. 'Peace tourism', 'heritage', 'augmented reality', and 'religion and tourism' are the four cornerstones of our interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. So far, we have built an international network based on East Asia—connecting The Center for Peace Hiroshima University, Seoul National University (Seoul, South Korea), Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China), Konkuk University (Seoul, South Korea), and National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism (Kaohsiung, Taiwan). Peace tourism studies—contributing to SDGs such as 'Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions'—have attracted particular attention.

We also invest efforts in regional development. Research projects with a focus on social co-creation are planned —including conservation and utilization of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Hokkaido and tourism, and religious tourism in Yamagata prefecture based on religious practice namely Shugendo and environmental preservation.

Akiko Tashiro
Director, Center for Media and Tourism Studies

Mission

Recently, advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), diversification of media, stagnation of electronic media space and reality space, transformation of communication style, and cultural culture centering on popular culture have rapidly progressed beyond boundaries. Furthermore, the explosive increase in the number of international tourist exchanges, centered on East Asia, and the increase in human mobility are accelerating the linkage of these cross-border communication and cultural cross-border developments to specific places.

In order to grasp the phenomenon and problems that arise in this situation, it is indispensable for the cross-sectoral approach of conventional media and tourism research. Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies (IMCTS), and the Research Faculty of Media and Communication have accumulated pioneering and international research achievements in cross-domain research in media research and tourism research.

Based on this background, we have established a Center for Media and Tourism Studies as a hub and platform to promote cross-domain research in media research and tourism research and to support and promote the advancement of media tourism education.

Activities

The Center for Media and Tourism Studies conducts activities in accordance with the following four points.

1. Promotion of research and development of preliminary and embryonic research areas and promotion of related joint research to promote cross-linking of media research and research and fusion of fields
2. Network construction of researchers and research institutes for the international development of media research
3. Supporting the publication and publicization of research results both at home and abroad
4. Providing research opportunities for graduate students, and developing teaching materials.