Kyoto City streetcar cars preserved at Kyoto Computer Gakuin (KCG) Shirakawa Campus were introduced in the June 10, 2025 Kyoto Shimbun morning edition of "Rakuchu Rakugai Fushigi Sansaku" (Wonderful Exploration in and Around Kyoto).The article, "Culture is nurtured by technology, and the desire to pass on to future generations," introduces the inside of the tramcar, which is full of retro atmosphere, with pictures and the thoughts of Shigeo Hasegawa, the founder and first president of KCG, who worked to preserve the tramcar, and also the hanging advertisements from when the line was closed down.
KCG preserves two Kyoto streetcars on the Shirakawa School grounds.The Kyoto tram, the first streetcar line in Japan, was completely discontinued in 1978.Shigeo Hasegawa, the first president of the institute, relocated two streetcars to the institute in order to have students studying cutting-edge computer technology think about the meaning of "culture" through the streetcars that were no longer in service.The first dean of the school, Dr. Motoo Hasegawa, hoped that students would think about the activities of their predecessors through the streetcars, which are a concentrated collection of the wisdom and thoughts of the people who lived in a certain era, and feel the engineer's mission to create culture.In the school grounds, the stones, tracks, stops, and overhead wires that were laid on the road at that time have been preserved as they were.The exterior of the train is currently being repainted, and the train will be seen in July, faithfully reproduced in its original color.
You can learn more about KCG's streetcars in the "Kyoto Streetcar Story" section of the KCG's website, KCG Archives.
https://www.kcg.ac.jp/museum/shiden/