OSSIP student group wins Grand Prize at WEST Thesis Competition

Over two days starting on Saturday, December 3, 2022, the WEST (We Evolve Students' Tomorrow) Thesis Competition was held at Doshisha University, where students living in mainly western Japan made presentations about their policy proposals.

Of the 69 theses entered into this thesis competition, the thesis on the development of fish farming by improving management written by the Miyazato Group, a group of students under the supervision of Professor AKAI Nobuo of the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), received the Grand Prize. Their thesis will be posted on the WEST Thesis Library.

The prize-winning thesis by the Miyazato Group, “Towards the Development of Fish Farming by Improving Business Management” pursues a vision of stabilizing domestic supply by increasing domestic production, in the face of an inflation of fish prices.

To increase domestic production, this group focused on fish farming, development of which has been the slowest in all of aquaculture. As the thesis points out, the problem is the difficulty of expanding business due to low profitability, which prevents growth of fish firming. The group verified that high feed cost, a major part of total cost, was not passed on much to selling prices and clarified the relationship between high feed cost and low profit.

Then, they performed business process simulation to check if the changed management policy worked as anticipated. Based on the results of these analyses, the group proposed two management policies to stabilize fish farming business.

This thesis earned the award for its topic choice, which has significance in food security, its novel and creative analysis, and its realistic measures for improving business management not by reflecting feed cost in rising prices, but by cutting production cost.

Through writing their thesis, the students gained a deep understanding of not only fish farming, but also agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in Japan as a whole, and cultivated their logical thinking power.

Writing this thesis with an awareness of problems and creating bonds among students in different years through group activity became a precious experience for them.