Students prepared for the various field conferences. The key points were to think about awareness-raising materials (solutions to local issues) and consider methods, etc. They had to decide on a theme, roughly explain what they will do and if they are related to any SDGs. They had to come up with reasons or evidence that awareness-raising materials lead to problem solving. The ideal situation is for local issues in Toyoake City to be solved. Ideally, the educational materials created by the students will actually be used somewhere and lead to solutions.
The Regional Collaborative Creation Project
Toyoake City is home to people from a variety of backgrounds, including elderly citizens, foreign residents, people with disabilities, those raising children, and LGBTQ+ residents.
Seijoh High School aims to create a “coexistence society" where Toyoake residents of all backgrounds can understand each other, and in order to achieve this, we will identify local issues and work to resolve them.
From 6/6 the students going to Okinawa will focus on various efforts in Okinawa Prefecture and Toyoake City.
Each group will research Toyoake City’s efforts and compare them with Okinawa Prefecture’s SDGs.
In addition to this they will think of a slogan to write on the planters of the Flower Road Project which should be about tackling the SDGs from Toyoake City’s perspective. Therefore, they researched Toyoake City’s efforts and its characteristics and issues, and shared the information within each group.
The Taiwan and Korea Groups needed to present and select local issues, and consider them for the field-specific conferences. The key pointswere as follows:
1. Each group will decide on one local issue.
2. Research the background of the local issue and use it to develop awareness-raising materials in the future.
The student groups had to choose one of 14 issues for the field conference and 11 issues were selected:
1 Elderly citizens – The older they are, the less involved the older men are in the community.
2 Elderly citizens – Most elderly people take medicine, but they do not take it properly.
3 Elderly citizens – There is little social awareness of dementia.
4 Foreign citizens – There is little awareness of the risks and responses to natural disasters in Japan.
5 Foreign citizens – There are few opportunities to interact with Japanese people outside of work and school.
6 Foreign citizens – There are few places where foreign children can learn outside of school (cram schools, etc.).
7 People with disabilities – There are limited means of transportation, and the Himawari bus may not be able to take them to their destination.
8 People with disabilities – Low wages and rising prices make life difficult.
9 Child-rearing generation – More children on waiting lists (0-2 years old) are applying to be admitted to childcare facilities, but not all of them can be admitted.
10 Child-rearing generation – According to the birth trend survey, the percentage of people who say they “don’t want children" has increased 4.8 times for men and 3.4 times for women over the past 40 years. What should I do to make myself want to have children?
11 Child-rearing generation – Some families live in fear due to dating violence or domestic violence after marriage.
12 LGBTQ+ – In a prejudiced area, people fear rumors will be spread and they cannot express themselves in the way they dress, so they are unable to take part in community activities.
13 LGBTQ+ – It may be difficult to use places with clear gender markings, such as changing rooms and restrooms.
14 LGBTQ+ – Even if LGBTQ+ awareness is raised in the community beforehand, when a disaster occurs, people may not be able to identify themselves based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at evacuation shelters.
