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Japan for Sustainability Newsletter #191
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July 31, 2018
Copyright (c) 2018, Japan for Sustainability
Japan for Sustainability (JFS) is a non-profit communication platform to
disseminate environmental information from Japan to the world, with the
aim of helping both move onto a sustainable path.
See what's new on our web site: http://www.japanfs.org/en/
E-mail: info@japanfs.org
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Dear Readers,
As reported in previous issues, Japan for Sustainability (JFS) will stop
writing, delivering and posting new articles at the end of July 2018.
For further information, please read the following webpage.
https://www.japanfs.org/en/information/jfsnews/jfsnews_id036090.html
We will keep most of our online content available for at least the next
three years on the JFS website as an archive of sustainability
information in Japan, as recorded over the course of 16 years, from 2002
to 2018.
Article search functions on the website will be kept available as well.
We hope it will be helpful.
Starting in August 2018, JFS's partner organization, the Institute for
Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society (ISHES,
https://www.ishes.org/en/) led by the JFS's chief executive Junko
Edahiro, will start releasing sustainability information from Japan
similar to what JFS has been doing, albeit more modest in volume and
frequency. Please see the end of this e-mail for further details and a
link to subscribe.
This will be the final issue of the JFS monthly newsletter.
We hope you enjoy it!
Japan for Sustainability
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In the July 2018 issue of the JFS Newsletter:
- Shimokawa, Hokkaido: Advancing SDG-Based Community Building
- Thank You Note from Junko Edahiro on Behalf of JFS
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Shimokawa, Hokkaido: Advancing SDG-Based Community Building
https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036141.html
Japanese Governmental Efforts toward the SDGs and 'SDGs Future Cities'
In response to the United Nations' adoption of the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the Japanese government established a cabinet body,
the SDGs Promotion Headquarters (below, "the Headquarters") in May 2016.
Headed by the Prime Minister and composed of all of Japan's ministers of
state, the Headquarters meets semiannually to ensure a whole-government
approach to achieving the SDGs effectively.
In the SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles spelled out by the
Headquarters, Japan's vision is to "Become a leader toward a future
where economic, social and environmental improvements are attained in an
integrated, sustainable and resilient manner while leaving no one behind."
The Japanese government has identified eight priority areas out of the
17 SDGs.
1. Empowerment of all people
2. Achievement of good health and longevity
3. Creating growth markets, revitalizing rural areas, and promoting
science, technology and innovation
4. Sustainable and resilient land use, promoting quality infrastructure
5. Energy conservation, renewable energy, climate change countermeasures,
and sound material-cycle society
6. Conservation of the environment, including biodiversity, forests and
the oceans
7. Achieving peaceful, safe and secure societies
8. Strengthening the means and frameworks for the implementation of the
SDGs
The SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles also indicate the following
three directions of Japan's SDG models to transform companies, regional
communities and society through promotion of the SDGs and thereby
achieve economic growth and spread it further to the rest of the world.
1. Promotion of Society 5.0, which is interlocked with the SDGs
2. Regional vitalization driven by the SDGs and creation of resilient,
environmentally friendly, attractive communities
3. Empowerment of future generations and women to bear responsibility
for the SDGs
Japan faces many problems, including aging and depopulation, especially
in rural areas, so regional revitalization has become a key word. In
line with this, as a project for local government SDG promotion toward
regional revitalization, the national government is inviting local
governments to propose projects for achieving the SDGs. It is also
selecting local governments that have proposed excellent projects as
SDGs Future Cities, with strong support from a taskforce of ministries
and agencies involved in local government SDG promotion.
On June 15, 2018, the Cabinet Office announced that 29 local governments
had been selected as SDGs Future Cities.
https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tiiki/kankyo/teian/pdf/result01.pdf
(Japanese)
The following 29 local governments were selected as SDGs Future Cities.
Hokkaido Prefecture; Sapporo in Hokkaido; Niseko in Hokkaido; Shimokawa
in Hokkaido; Higashi Matsushima in Miyagi; Semboku in Akita; Iide in
Yamagata; Tsukuba in Ibaraki; Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama in Kanagawa;
Kamakura in Kanagawa; Toyama City in Toyama; Suzu in Ishikawa; Hakusan
in Ishikawa, Nagano Prefecture, Shizuoka City in Shizuoka; Hamamatsu in
Shizuoka; Toyota in Aichi; Shima in Mie; Sakai in Osaka; Totsukawa in
Nara; Okayama City in Okayama; Maniwa in Okayama; Hiroshima Prefecture;
Ube in Yamaguchi; Kamikatsu in Tokushima; Kitakyushu in Fukuoka; Iki in
Nagasaki; and Oguni in Kumamoto.
The national government is also selecting some projects proposed by the
SDGs Future Cities as Local Government SDG Model Projects for funding.
Ten projects proposed by the following ten local governments out of the
29 have been selected as Local Government SDGs Model Projects.
Niseko in Hokkaido; Shimokawa in Hokkaido; Kanagawa Prefecture; Yokohama
in Kanagawa; Kamakura in Kanagawa; Toyama City in Toyama; Maniwa in
Okayama; Kitakyushu in Fukuoka; Iki in Nagasaki; and Oguni in Kumamoto.
To commend companies and other organizations for their excellent efforts
to contribute toward achieving the SDGs, the Headquarters established
the Japan SDGs Awards. Shimokawa in Hokkaido handily won the Prime
Minister Award at the 1st Japan SDGs Awards, announced in December 2017.
SDG-Based Community Building in Shimokawa
Shimokawa, Hokkaido, where I have been helping with community building
since last year, is one of the leading SDGs local governments in Japan;
it has not only won an SDGs Award but has also been selected as a SDGs
Future City and a project proposed by the town has been selected as a
Local Government SDGs Model Project.
The town of Shimokawa is located in the central northern part of
Hokkaido, and has a population of about 3,300 in an area of 644.2 square
kilometers -- almost same as the total area of Tokyo's 23 wards. With
about 90 percent of it forested, the town's main industries are forestry
and agriculture. Situated in a heavy snowfall area, where the
temperature drops to as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius in winter,
Shimokawa has produced many ski jumpers, including the legendary Noriaki
Kasai.
The town was selected as an Eco-Model City and a Future City (two
environmental city programs run by the Japanese government) in the past
and has been acclaimed for its continuous efforts in proactive town
development. In recent years, an increasing number of people have
relocated there from urban areas, putting a brake on depopulation, which
would have worsened otherwise. Its path from the beginning, however, has
not been that smooth.
After being settled in 1901, Shimokawa's population increased as
agriculture, forestry and mining were developed and railway service
started in the area. In 1949, the municipality's status changed from
"village" to "town." Though its population peaked at over 15,000 in 1960,
soon afterward it started to decrease due to declines in its main
industries (agriculture, forestry and mining). Railway service was
discontinued, further accelerating the town's depopulation (to about
3,300 currently).
"We cannot just let it happen!" "We should do something!" The town
residents, sharing a sense of crisis, began working hard to carry out
various projects, drawing on their creativity. Thanks to their efforts,
Shimokawa has become an exciting, energetic, attractive town that I
always look forward to visiting.
Yet the town people still face a sense of crisis, saying, "We have to
keep moving forward; otherwise we will spiral into decline." Out of this
sense of crisis, the town is trying to pursue town development more
proactively. Specifically, as of 2018, the town has been pushing forward
with improved town development for the two years since 2017 by
integrating the SDGs in the formulation process of its Comprehensive
Plan, the town's highest level plan.
In September 2017, the "SDGs Future City Task Force" was established
within the Shimokawa Town Comprehensive Plan Council. This task force,
consisting of ten resident committee members and town officials, has
served as a base organization for the process of creating a vision of
Shimokawa in 2030 and formalizing that vision. I helped design and
facilitate the process.
The specific process was as follows: First we used "backcasting," an
approach for considering "how you want to be at a particular time in the
future," setting aside current realities and all restrictions, to create
a vision of the town in 2030. Next, we used "system thinking," an
approach for creating real transformations by understanding the links
and interactions among various factors that can produce positive cycles
to help the town realize its vision. Then, the task force went to work
to come up with concrete measures and projects that would actually
produce positive cycles. The task force met 13 times in total during the
period from September 2017 to April 2018.
The process was made as open as possible, and this more than anything
else came to characterize Shimokawa's vision creation work. In this
type of work, the conventional approach would have been to involve only
town officials and a few of the town's resident in creating the vision.
Instead, the task force members, who are town residents themselves,
organized a meeting to write public comments together with other
residents after explaining the vision they had created. They later
organized another meeting to present the vision they had finalized after
incorporating the public comments.
In the course of this half-year process, each task force member was assigned
individual "homework." They had to identify people who had not been
present but were important for the future of this town, interview them
to learn about their visions for the town, and consider the matter further
based on the results gathered from other members. In addition, a morning
"girls meeting" was organized to collect opinions about town development
and current issues from mothers who were busy taking care of children
and could not attend evening meetings. Study sessions for the town
council members on the SDGs and community building were also held a
full three times.
In this way, through a careful process of consideration, Shimokawa has
set seven goals for what it wants to become:
(1) A town where citizens continue striving together -- embodying the
town's own values, such as the fortitude to keep facing crisis and
hardship, as well as broad-mindedness and tolerance for embracing
diverse people and values
(2) A town where nobody is left behind-- enabling all of its citizens to
continue to expand their possibilities, have a place where they belong,
and play a role so as to live a healthy and meaningful life
(3) A town where humans, resources, and money are cycled in a
sustainable manner -- becoming independent and autonomous by achieving
the following: an enduring cycle and perpetuation of humans, natural
resources (e.g., forests and water) and money; further growth of
agriculture, forestry and other industries; and local production of food,
wood, energy, etc. for local consumption
(4) A town where citizens can care for each other like a family -- enabling
its citizens to continue to live safely with peace of mind by placing
importance on developing human-to-human relationships, and caring for
and supporting each other
(5) A town where culture and resources handed down from generation to
generation are esteemed while new value is created -- preserving things
that are old but valuable while creating new value -- a practice for
which a new popular term was coined recently in Japan: Onkokishin
(6) A town regarded as a role model by other municipalities around the
world -- contributing to the achievement of a decarbonized society
(under Paris Agreement) and globally sustainable development (under the
SDGs) by enhancing and deepening the town's past efforts
(7) A town bringing smiles to children and nurturing happiness for
future generations -- caring about all future generations and nurturing
them throughout the entire region, so that children can grow cheerfully
and freely
In the materials presented for the award, logos indicating goals corresponding
to each of the 17 SDGs were attached to each section of the town's goals.
What is significant about the SDGs initiative, however, is not classifying
players' efforts into one or another of the 17 goals as if they were 17 small
boxes and attaching corresponding logos to them. I think what is really
important is, first of all, for the local people to visualize a desirable town
with a sense of reality and subjectivity, then to check for any missing aspects
using the SDGs framework, and finally to perceive the 17 goals not as
individualized goals but as goals mutually connected.
Since Shimokawa is an inland town, the local people there are usually
not conscious of the ocean. For that reason, initially there were few
opinions about Goal 14 (life below water) of the SDGs. Later, though,
they began thinking about the links between the forest, their lives and
the ocean, and expressing various opinions about them. In this way,
providing awareness of "links" that people usually do not consider may
be one way utilizing the SDGs framework can be effective.
As mentioned above, the town provides opportunities for considering how
the SDGs relate to oneself not only to the task force members but also
to people in a variety of positions, helping create broader perspectives.
For instance, several members of the town council asked questions
regarding the SDGs at a recent general inquiry session. Also, a routine
test at the town's junior high school included questions on the SDGs.
This is wonderful, isn't it!
The town identifies the following four aspects as advantages of
incorporating the SDGs into its comprehensive town development plan, and
intends to use them as a tool for its future development.
(1) Discovering or being aware of new challenges by reconsidering the
region in light the 17 goals
(2) Developing a high-quality approach for community building by looking
at the current situation from the perspective of a desirable
future, and considering and adopting measures to achieve such a
desirable future
(3) Establishing a system to develop the town through collaboration with
a wide variety of people
(4) Communicating the town's attractiveness and potentials within and
outside Japan, using the SDGs framework, to boost public
perception of the town and attract settlers, visitors, businesses,
investment and other involvement in the town
In helping the town develop I came to realize the effectiveness of using
the SDGs framework to help even small local towns consider their own
community development from a global viewpoint and understand
interrelatedness. In view of this, for future community building,
backcasting, systems thinking, and the SDGs are certain to be the "three
sacred treasures"!
Written by Junko Edahiro
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Thank You Note from Junko Edahiro on Behalf of JFS
https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036143.html
Sixteen years ago, in 2002, where were you and what were you doing?
Japan for Sustainability (JFS) was established in 2002 with great
ambitions of doing something to address the increasingly serious global
environmental problems. We aimed to contribute to the world by spreading
the message on sustainability-related efforts, ideas, and technologies
in Japan, and by pushing Japan to do even more. Many of Japan's
outstanding efforts and technologies for sustainability were not widely
known in the world, blocked by the language barrier. Our slogan was,
"The world doesn't know how hard Japan is trying!"
Since then, with financial support from about 80 businesses and
organizations and the contributions of a cumulative total of 900
volunteers, JFS has published 5,054 articles (of which 560 were in our
newsletters) during the past 16 years, for over 11,000 readers, in 191
countries.
This July 2018 issue is going to be the last JFS monthly newsletter. We
would like to express our deepest appreciation to everyone who has
supported JFS's activities in various ways for the past 16 years.
After we announced our intention to end our activities at the end of
July, we received many comments such as "That's regrettable" and "Thanks
for everything!" from around the world. We realized and appreciated that
people have definitely received and utilized the information we sent out.
In the retrospect, 16 years have passed quickly.
Over these years, climate change and other global environmental issues
have worsened. In addition, new issues like ocean plastic pollution have
emerged. (Or perhaps we should say that they have drawn new attention.)
On the other hand, renewable energy resources have been soaring, and
that is encouraging. And momentum is shifting away from coal-fired power
generation and gasoline-powered vehicles.
In the past, environmental issues tended to be addressed in the realm of
environmental researchers, government people, and NGOs. They were a
minority in society. Today, however, businesses in most types of
industries work on environmental issues, and so do investors, schools,
and the youth.
At the same time, the topics we covered have expanded from a relatively
narrow focus on "environmental" issues to much broader issues of
sustainability, including social and economic factors, corporate social
responsibility (CSR), and the United Nations' Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). It has become clear that environmental issues cannot be
solved if we work on "the environment" alone.
In spite of (or perhaps thanks to) our original aspirations to "Let the
world know about Japan's endeavors and give the world a little push,"
today, many countries (developing countries included) have surpassed
Japan in some sustainability initiatives, and Japan has fallen behind in
more than a few areas, regrettably. We think we also need to push Japan
to make further efforts under a modified version of our original slogan:
"Japan doesn't know how hard the world is trying!"
At the same time, I still believe that Japan can and should have a role
as one of the world's first countries to face certain issues, and as a
country that in many ways is positioned between the East and the West.
- Facing a rapidly declining and aging population, how can we create a
sustainable and happy society?
- How should we perceive and deal with the roles and linkages of urban
and rural areas, which today are out of balance?
- How should we think about the economy, which many people still think
must continue to grow, even it is already far beyond the Earth's
carrying capacity?
- What is true happiness and what do we really need to be happy?
- Many people say that modern Western civilization is in a form of
gridlock today, but how can we communicate about Eastern wisdom with
the rest of the world and create a new sense of values and a new
paradigm together?
Although JFS operations will stop, the efforts to create a sustainable
and happy society will continue. JFS's partner organization, the
Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy and Society (ISHES),
directed by myself, plans to publish these aspects of initiatives being
done in Japan, and work to convey the wisdom of Eastern thought to the
rest of the world, little by little. Starting in August 2018 ISHES will
publish a monthly newsletter. If you are interested, we invite you to
subscribe.
https://www.ishes.org/en/newsletter/index.html
One final note, in July we held a "thank you" party for volunteers and
individual supporters -- the people who supported JFS activities for so
many years.
One of about 40 participants was a student in her second year of university
studies for forest conservation. During our review of JFS's past 16
years, when we mentioned our separate website designed to educate
children on sustainability, she spoke up and said, "I used that website
when I was in elementary school! It was one of the triggers that got me
interested in environment, and that led me to my current studies at
university."
Another participant said volunteering for JFS got her motivated to get
involved in agriculture and start a transition town movement in her own
town. I was extremely pleased to hear that.
It is often hard for us to know for sure how much of our information
really reaches people via the web, and also difficult to get enough
feedback from readers on our impacts. But nothing would make me happier
than knowing that we have contributed to these kinds of aspirations for
the next generation of young people and that new initiatives are being
launched in various areas.
In closing, I am sure that we will continue to interact with many of you
in the coming years. I look forward to working together whenever the
opportunity arises.
And I am truly thankful for everyone's interest and support, and for
what we have accomplished together.
Best wishes for a bright future for everyone,
Junko Edahiro
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After JFS -- An Invitation to the ISHES Newsletter
https://www.ishes.org/en/newsletter/index.html
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As shown by the worsening issue of climate change, the impacts of human
activities are exceeding the limits of the Earth today. What we need now
is not the extreme pursuit of economic growth and short-sighted pursuit
of profit, but to create a truly sustainable and happy society. How can
we do that? We need a new paradigm. How can Eastern wisdom help in this
pursuit?
Japan is a frontrunner in terms of having to face many issues today that
many other countries may one day face, including a rapidly declining and
aging population and regional depopulation. How is Japan trying to
overcome these challenges? What lessons and best practices can be shared
with the world from Japan's experience?
The English newsletter of the Institute for Studies in Happiness,
Economy and Society (ISHES, https://www.ishes.org/en/)
will look for breakthrough ideas in the wisdom of Eastern thought and
describe various initiatives being done in Japan.
We invite you to subscribe.
https://www.ishes.org/en/newsletter/index.html
Our warmest regards,
Japan for Sustainability
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[JFS Web Site Additions of the Month]
- This month's cartoon:
"Transfer of the leading role" (2018/07/09)
https://www.japanfs.org/en/manga/manga_id036113.html
- JFS Newsletter No.190 (June 2018)
'Good Companies in Japan' (Article No.4):
'Eightfold Satisfaction' Management for Everyone's Happiness(2018/07/16)
https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036118.html
"Nai-Mono-Wa-Nai": Ama Town's Concept of Sufficiency and
Message to the World(2018/06/29)
https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036106.html
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The Japan for Sustainability newsletter is a free monthly newsletter
to keep you up-to-date on the latest developments in Japan.
Japan for Sustainability bears no liability for the newsletter's
contents or use of the information provided.
We welcome your comments. Please send them to: info@japanfs.org
Back issues of the newsletter are also available.
http://www.japanfs.org/en/newsletter/index.html
Copyright (c) 2018, Japan for Sustainability. All Rights Reserved.
We invite you to forward our articles or use information on the JFS
website and in your newsletters, as long as you also provide the proper
credit to "Japan for Sustainability, http://www.japanfs.org/index.html."
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