Bunka Gakuen, AFP launch news service for universities
TOKYO - Top Japanese fashion school Bunka Gakuen and Agence France-Presse on Tuesday launched a service providing global news and archive material to Japanese universities and higher learning institutions.
The AFP services will be used as teaching tools for academic research and in publications for students and teachers, Bunka Gakuen chairman Sunao Onuma and AFP chairman and chief executive Pierre Louette told a joint press conference.
The service, called the AFP World Academic Archive (AFP-WAA), includes AFP's news wires in English, French, Spanish and German, as well as its photo and video services, still graphics, animations and archive material.
Under the alliance, Bunka Gakuen will serve as AFP's marketing agent, promoting and selling the service to other academic institutions in Japan. Onuma is chairman of the Association of Private Universities of Japan, which groups more than 380 institutions.
"Our various news and other services are ideal for academic use. News is an excellent tool for teaching and is an exciting medium that breaks the tedium of conventional teaching methods," Louette said.
"Our extensive archives are a rich source of research material," including more than eight million pictures, he said.
"AFP is delighted to be working with Bunka Gakuen whose name is synonymous with quality in education," he added.
Onuma said that AFP-WAA would be launched in early 2009 for use by teachers, lecturers and professors at Japanese universities.
"Through this database, students will be able to face the world in real time directly from classrooms," said Onuma.
The Bunka Fashion College is one of the world's leading fashion schools. Its graduates include some of the biggest names in fashion, such as Kenzo Takada and Yohji Yamamoto. Bunka Gakuen also operates a women's university and a language institute.
AFP, set up in 1835, is the world's oldest news agency with a global network of more than 2,000 journalists in more than 180 countries and territories
The agency operates in all major global languages and has five regional editing centres in Hong Kong, Washington, Montevideo, Nicosia and Paris, where its headquarters are based.
The agency operates in all major global languages and has five regional editing centres in Hong Kong, Washington, Montevideo, Nicosia and Paris, where its headquarters are based.