Shinshu University was established in 1949 and has eight faculties on five main campuses in Nagano prefecture. The University has made environmental sustainability one of its core principles and was the first National University in Japan to apply the ISO 14001 standard to its campuses. The University also has as a principal objective for all faculties to educate students with an “Eco-mind”, and received a Good Practice award from the Ministry of Education from 2004- 7 for it.
Students are not only offered environmental sustainability options in their main courses but also a range of opportunities for practical experience. The Science Faculty offers a degree in environmental sciences; there is also a specialist group on mountain ecology, monitoring some of the special features of Nagano high altitude environment. The Engineering department has a number of research and teaching programmes in several areas of environment technologies.
In particular the Technology Environment Coalition Centre is working to apply environmental technologies to the needs of Nagano’s firms. Finally, Shinshu was the first Japanese university to design an Innovation Management course specifically aimed at managers and engineers working at small and mediumsized companies, and this course is currently in the process of being adapted to deliver a new ‘Green’ Management of Technology Masters Degree with the additional option of combining with a doctorate to give a double degree.