April 21, 2022 Ayaka Shoji There are 1.4 million tons of wasted clothes in Japan. Recently, there has been a boom in used clothing in Japan. Buying used clothes could be one of the ways to reduce apparel wastes. The twelfth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, an agenda for global community set in 2015 by the United Nations, is “the responsibility to make and use.” This article will focus on the responsibility to make and use clothes. However, it is not an easy thing to

April 8, 2022 Minami Takamatsu Japanese Beech, a indigenous tree in Niigata Prefecture has created a new market in the traditional furniture industry. Niigata faces the Sea of Japan and there is a heavy snowfall area with an average of 462 cm in winter. A program called Snowbeech Project utilizes the Japanese beech in the sustainable way. The project team, led by Tomohiko Kamitani, a professor of forest ecology at Niigata University, consists of craft writers, architects, and

April 20, 2022 Miyu Iwamoto There is one unique activity in Japan called “a village with 700 citizens turns into one hotel.” In Kosuge village in Yamanashi Prefecture, the woodland accounts for around 95% of whole village area. The villagers have been carrying out activities to protect the natural environment for over 100 years. The reason why the mountain village started such an innovative service is because of the depopulation. They wanted to save beautiful natures, wild a

October 11th, 2021 Arisa Nokuo and Rena Katsumata Through the interview with Mr. Toda, who is engaging in building a risk management system at Taiyo Nippon Sanso Co., Ltd., about the relationship between BCP and CSR, we could learn some interesting case studies as below. The Risk of Mine Operation Palette: Even though the African continent is famous for copper or gold, why does the JX Nippon Mining & Metals have no base in Africa? We suspected that conflict minerals were the

Due to the spread of COVID-19, many university students have become dissatisfied with two issues: The prohibition of face-to-face classes and the continued payment of high tuition fees despite the lack of in-person classes. Dissatisfaction with Online Classes Since April, most Japanese universities have conducted classes online in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Initially, while the prospect of attending classes from the comfort of one’s home may seem like a good ide

Saori Kikutani February 27, 2019 Do you think how many animals are euthanized per year in Japan? Unfortunately, euthanasia is the only option for many animals in Japan. According to a survey by the Animal Welfare and Management Office, a not-for-profit animal rescue organization survey, the number of killed dogs was 10,424 and that of killed cats was 45,574 in 2016. The total number of the killed dogs and cats was 55,998. About 155 animals are being killed per day, or one ani

Sae Kanazawa February 27, 2019 In Japan, poverty level of single-mother family is one of the serious social problems. There are about 52 billion households in Japan. Among them, about 1.24 million are single-mother households. “Poor family” here means a household with less than half of the average-annual family income. The Causes of Poverty Why does single mother family become poor? Why can not they earn enough income to maintain their living? The reason lies in the differ

July 26, 2018 Misa Ogura Currently in Japan, local revitalization is a buzz word. Yokosuka city is not an exception. Yokosuka city is located in the southeastern part of Kanagawa prefecture. It is known for Sarushima, the only uninhabited island in the Tokyo Bay, a popular summer BBQ venue foryoung people. Surrounded by the Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay, Yokosuka area is a perfect place for marine sports. And in May 2017, the ANA Windsurfing World Cup was held at Tsukui Beach. Bec

July 26, 2018 Mamiko Yuasa Even though the Paris Agreement had set up from 2 years, however, the supply of primary energies occupy fossil fuels more than 90% in Japan (see Figure 1.). This country had Great East earthquake on March 11, 2011, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had broken. Japan were taken the place to the fossil fuels and have a plan to create 40 new fossil fuel facilities. The reason why, other country labeled Japan as “an environment developing countr

July 13, 2017 Akari Aoki, Megumi Kitazawa, Mai Watanabe, and Misa Ogura In Japan, people usually graduate from college in March and start working as freshmen employees from April 1. Most Japanese companies officially start recruiting of college students in June and from the next April the newly-employed are sent to in-company vocational training program. Big Japanese corporations have the practice of life-long employment system so that it is very important for college-grads t