UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA SUSTEP PROGRAM
FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS
IN JAPAN
LEARNING FROM GOOD PRACTICES IN SELECTEDTHREE SMALL MUNICIPALITIESWritten by the participants of the SUSTEP Field Trip Local SDGs Towns in Japan,
May-June 2021
Edited by Naoko Kaida
June 2021

SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

Cite this report as:
SUSTEP. (2021). Local SDGs in Japan: Learning from good practices in selected three small
municipalities (SUSTEP ield trip report). SUSTEP Program, University of Tsukuba. http://
www.envr.tsukuba.ac.jp/~sustep/

Contact:
Naoko Kaida, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Information and Systems,
University of Tsukuba (naoko.kaida@sk.tsukuba.ac.jp)fiSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANTABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of ContentsiPrefaceiv

About this tripv

Participants/Contributing authorsix

Group Reports

1

1. Osaki Town, Kagoshima Prefecture2

1.1 Introduction

2

1.2 Background3

1.3 Strategies

4

1.4 Achievements

5

1.4.1 Implementation achievements

5

1.4.2 Economic bene its

6

1.4.3 O ering international cooperation

6

1.4.4 Recognition

7

1.5 Challenges

7

1.5.1 Challenges for Osaki Town in the past and present

7

1.5.2 Future visions and challenges: Can the Global Standard Osaki be really a global standard?

8

1.6 Remarks/Recommendations

8

2. Nishiawakura Village, Okayama Prefecture10

2.1 Introduction

10

2.2 100-year forest plan (business)

10

2.3 Renewable energy

12

2.3.1 Strategies

13

2.3.2 SDGs

13

2.3.3 Future Challenges

13

2.4 Local venture14

2.5 Immigration in Nishiawakura Village

15

2.6 Education for Sustainable City

16

2.7 Tourism

17

2.8 Conclusion

18

3. Kamikatsu Town, Tokushima Prefecture (Part 1)

21

3.1 Introduction

21

3.1.1 Happa business Irodori

21

3.1.2 Zero waste

21

3.1.3 Sustainable tourism

22

3.2 Kamikatsu’s SDGs and Achievements

22

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN3.3 Strategies to Achieve the Goals

23

3.3.1 Zero Waste

23

3.3.2 Declining population

23

3.4 Future Challenges and Recommendations

24

3.4.1 Future Challenges

24

3.4.2 Recommendations

25

3.5 Conclusions

26

4. Kamikatsu Town, Tokushima Prefecture (Part 2)28

4.1 Kamikatsu Town’s strategies to achieve SDGs

28

4.1.1 Happa business (IRODORI)

28

4.1.2 Zero waste in Kamikastu

29

4.2 Sustainable agroforestry management and socially innovative approaches30

4.3 Strategies for public participation and collaboration with businesses and industry

31

4.4 Future challenges

32

4.5 Solutions to combat challenges

32

4.6 Shared values between other towns and our countries

33

4.7 Conclusion

34

Individual Reports

35

Rathnayakege Hemali Rathnayake

36

Peshala Amaratunga

39

Aung Ko Ko

42

URANCHIMEG Batdelger

45

Huynh Thi Bao Vy

48

Kalam Kaniz Zakia

50

Liu Xiaohan

53

Nguyen Huu Quang

54

Suu Suu Phyoe

58

Yang Xin

61

Yue Shengran

63

Abdul Razak Zakaria

65

Phan Cao Duong

67

Aung Pyae Phyo

69

Fuad Md Akter Faruk

72

Hoang Thi My Hanh

74

Khin Zaw Win

76

Le Thu Hien

79

Nguyen Thi Mai Anh

82

iiSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANDelmaria Richards

85

Josephine Brent Yeanga

89

Adom Seth91

Zoom photo session with Kamikatsu Town, June 2, 2021

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANPREFACEYears 2020 and 2021 have been unusual and hard for everyone in the world due to the
COVID 19 pandemic, so to our students. Field trips in Japan and overseas organized by
SUSTEP (Sustainability Science, Technology and Policy) Program, University of Tsukuba, hadbeen all canceled, and the only feasible option was to conduct the trip online.
Two questions then came to my mind: how can we implement it to satisfy the students’appetite for learning, and how could we implement it online even better? It did not take a longtime till I wrote up the plan for this online ield trip to visit small towns in Japan. I selected
Osaki Town in Kagoshima Prefecture, Nishiawakura Village in Okayama Prefecture, andKamikatsu Town in Tokushima Prefecture believing they are among the best in Japan to learn
their innovative visions and practices toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while
being typical remote towns in Japan with decreasing and aging population. We utilized thebene its of conducting online to lexibly set up the schedule and “travel” from one town toanother from our own place in Japan and overseas, without which I could not have organized
it as an on-site ield trip to travel the three distant towns within a few days. Thanks toconsiderable support from our counterparts in the three municipalities, we had a wonderful
online ield trip (if not the best as on-site).
I sincerely thank Mr. Nakamura, Ms. Nakagaki, Mr. Matsumoto from Osaki Town, Mr. Ueyama
and Mr. Tabata from Nishiawakura Village, and Mr. Nonoyama, Mr. Asano, Ms. Nishikage, Mr.
Hyakuno, and many more from Kamikatsu Town for sharing their unique achievements andexciting ventures and visions ahead.
I also thank my SUSTEP Program colleagues for their kind suggestions and supports.
Last but not the least, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful contributions of the students
in facilitating the whole trip. The 22 participants are from nine di erent countries (Bangladesh,
China, Ghana, Jamaica, Liberia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam) and diverse academic
and professional backgrounds, and questions and issues they raised through their so-called
yosomono (outsiders) and wakamono (young people) lenses during the online sessions were
inspiring, fresh and even futuristic.
I hope this ield trip report will help readers deepen their understanding about the three small
but energetic municipalities in Japan with good SDGs practices and stimulate them to think
about sustainability and SDGs for their cities, towns, villages, and communities.
Naoko Kaida

June 2021

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANABOUT THIS TRIP
Text by: Zakaria Abdul-Razak, Delmaria Richards, Uranchimeg Batdelger, Quang Nguyen Huu, Hoang Hanh Thi My

The Local SDGs (sustainable development goals) Town’s virtual ield trip was one of SUSTEP’s
academic ield trips at the University of Tsukuba for the academic year 2021. It was organizedby Associate Professor Dr. Naoko Kaida, the Graduate School of Life and Environmental
Sciences.
The main objective of this ield trip was to accord students the opportunity to learn from andpractically experience actions undertaken by the rural populace in Japan to achievesustainability with prospects for the future. Three municipalities, Osaki Town, Nishiawakura
Village, and Kamikatsu Town, were purposively visited. These municipalities are well known inJapan for the unique strategies for the sustainable management of their natural resources. As
a result, the Cabinet O ice of Japan selected them as SDGs Future Cities among others.
This ield trip was conducted in ive days, with each day’s activity lasting for about ive and half
hours from 1 pm to 5:30 pm. We had an orientation session on May 20, 2021, where thecourse’s contents were explained in detail to all 22 participants. Students were divided into
four (4) groups and assigned group work to write a report on each town/village we virtually
visited. We were also assigned a short individual report to discuss lessons learned and theSDGs and SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities

Three municipalities virtually visited andTsukuba

Image from Eurostat website.

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANapplicability of the Japanese examples to our home countries. Due to travel restrictions under
the COVID 19 pandemic situation, all the activities in this trip were conducted online using theonline meeting applications of Zoom and Microsoft Team.
On May 25, we had a virtual presentation about Osaki Town and its e orts to achieve the SDGs
Future City goals. They shared with us their SDGs vision, plan, and a unique idea of an SDGs
Association. They also shared some challenges they are facing going into the future. Mr.
Nakamura, Ms. Nakagaki, and Mr. Matsumoto led the discussion. On May 26, we had a virtual
tour of Nishiawakura Village. The facilitators presented Nishiawakura Village’s SDGs vision andits steps to achieve SDGs Future City goals. Their future challenges were also shared. Here, Mr.
Ueyama and Mr. Tabata explained the genesis of the village SDGs’ vision and prospects.
On June 1, we had our irst virtual trip to Kamikatsu Town. A presentation of the Kamikatsu
Town pro ile, crisis and way-out in waste management, the tour of the Zero Waste Center, andan interview with the Zero Waste Center stakeholders and IRODORI farmers. Mr. Nonoyama,
Ms. Nishikage, Ms. Kobayashi, and Mr. Hyakuno explained that their practical experience andsuccesses work together to achieve set targets. Our second virtual tour of Kamikatsu Village
was on June 2. We had a presentation on Kamikatsu Town’s SDGs plan and ways to achieve
SDGs Future City goals. They also shared their future challenges for attaining the SDGs goals.
Mr. Asano and Mr. Kakimoto led the discussions. A question-and-answer period at the end ofeach day’s session allowed us to pose questions and share our thoughts during this virtual
ield trip.
FIELD TRIP SCHEDULEOSAKI TOWN, KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE, MAY 25TH 2021
Time
13:00

Program
Brief introduction

13:10

Part 1. Way to SDGs Future City
Osaki Town at a glance
Virtual tour to organic waste recycling
facility

14:10
14:25
14:35

Q&A
Short breakPart 2. SDGs Plan, SDGs Association
High recycling rate
Why did they apply for the SDGs Future
Cities?
Osaki Town’s SDGs plan (Circular Village,etc.)
How to involve stakeholders in the plan
(SDGs Association)
Vision to eliminate plastic packaging

Notes (speakers etc.)
Ms. Rui Nakagaki, PR expert,
Gassaku, Co., Ltd., Osaki Town
Mr. Shoji Matsumoto, Residential
Environment Division, Osaki
Town O ice
Mr. Kenji Nakamura, Osaki SDGs
Association, and Planning and
Coordination Division, Osaki
Town O ice
Ms. Nakagaki

Mr. Nakamura
Mr. Matsumoto
Ms. Nakagaki

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORT

15:35
15:50
16:00

16:30 17:30

Q&A
Short breakPart 3. Future challenges and visions
SDGs challenges to Osaki Town
Implications to small municipalities inJapan and overseas
Overall Q&A
Thank you greeting from student

LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANMr. Nakamura
Mr. Matsumoto
Ms. Nakagaki
Mr. Nakamura
Mr. Matsumoto
Ms. Nakagaki

NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE, OKAYAMA PREFECTURE, MAY 26TH 2021
Time
12:45
13:00
13:00

Program
Zoom starts. Join by 12:50.
Session starts.
Brief introduction

13:10

Part 1. Way to SDGs Future City
Nishiawakura Village at a glance
Value creation from biomass
Virtual tour to renewable energy
generation
Why did they apply for the SDGs Future
Cities?
Q&A
Short breakPart 2. Nishiawakura Village’s SDGs Plan
SDGs Plan (100 Year Forest Plan)
How to involve stakeholders in the plan
How to attract young immigrants
Q&A
Short breakPart 3. Future challenges and visions
SDGs challenges to Nishiawakura Village
Implications to small municipalities inJapan and overseas
Overall Q&A
Thank you greeting from student

14:10
14:25
14:35

15:35
15:50
16:00

16:30 17:30

Notes (speakers etc.)

Mr. Takahiro Ueyama, Counsellor
for Community Recreation asSpecial Appointment, Director,
Industry and Tourism Division,
Nishiawakura Town O ice
Mr. Ueyama

Mr. Sunao Tabata (Founder andCEO, Hyakumori, Co., Ltd.)Mr. Ueyama

Mr. Ueyama

KAMIKATSU TOWN, TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JUNE 1ST 2021 (DAY 1)
Time
13:00

Program
Brief introduction

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Notes (speakers etc.)
Mr. Satoshi Nonoyama (Founderand CEO, pangaea, LLC.)

SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORT

13:10

Session 1. Kamikatsu Town at a glance
Characteristics of the village
Depopulation and aging communities:
situations and reasons

13:40
13:55
14:05

Q&A
Short break
Session 2. Crisis and way out, Part 1
Happa business (IRODORI) (25 min video
with English subtitles)
Interview with IRODORI farmers
Q&A
Short break

15:25
15:35 17:30

Session 3. Crisis and way out, Part 2
Zero waste (25 min video with English
subtitles)
Virtual tour to the Zero Waste Center
Interview with the zero waste center
stakeholder
Q&A

LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANMr. Nonoyama

Ms. Kobayashi, IRODORI, Co., Ltd.
Ms. Nishikage and Mr. Hyakuno,
Irodori farmers
Mr. Nonoyama

Ms. Suga, Kamikatsu Town O ice
Ms. Fujii, executive board
member, Zero Waste Center
Mr. Nonoyama

JUNE 2ND 2021 (DAY 2)
Time
13:00

Program
Session 4. Way to SDGs Future City
Why did they apply for the SDGs Future
Cities?

14:00
14:15
14:25

Q&A
Short break
Session 5. Kamikatsu Town’s SDGs Plan
SDGs Plan
How to involve stakeholders in the plan
(SDGs Council)
How to attract young immigrants (throughstartup human resources development)
PR activities and business
Q&A
Short break
Session 6. Future challenges and visions
SDGs challenges to Kamikatsu Town
Implications to small municipalities inJapan and overseas
Overall Q&A, ideas from students
Thank you greeting from student

15:25
15:40
15:50

16:20 17:30

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Notes (speakers etc.)
Mr. Asano, Industry Division,
Kamikatsu Town O ice*Was in charge of SDGs
planning at the time of
application
Mr. Nonoyama

Mr. Asano
Ms. Kakimoto, Immigration
Coordinator, Kamikatsu Town
O ice
Mr. Nonoyama

Mr. Asano
Ms. Kakimoto
Mr. Nonoyama
Mr. Asano
Ms. Kakimoto
Mr. Nonoyama

SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANPARTICIPANTS/CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

NameProgram1

Rathnayakege Hemali Rathnayake

Ph.D. Program in Sustainable Environmental
Studies

2

Amaratunga A M Dona Peshala Ranjani

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

3

Aung Ko Ko

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

4

Uranchimeg Batdelger

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

5

Huynh Thi Bao Vy

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

6

Kalam Kaniz Zakia

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

7

Liu Xiaohan

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

8

Quang Nguyen Huu

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

9

Suu Suu Phyoe

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

10

Yang Xin

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

11

Yue Shengran

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

12

Zakaria Abdul-Razak

13

Duong Phan Cao

14

Aung Pyae Phyo

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

15

Fuad MD Akter Faruk

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

16

Hoang Hanh Thi My

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

17

Khin Zaw Win

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

18

Hien Le

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

19

Thi Mai Anh Nguyen

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

20

Delmaria Richards

Ph.D. Program in Sustainable Environmental
Studies

21

Josephine Brent Yeanga

Master Program in Environmental Sciences

22

Adom Seth

Master Program in Environmental Sciencesix

Ph.D. Program in Sustainable Environmental
Studies
Ph.D. Program in Sustainable Environmental
Studies

SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANGROUPREPORTSTOPICS
Summary of achievements, strategies and future challenges of the municipality assigned toeach group (Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town (Part 1 and 2)).

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN1. OSAKI TOWN, KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE
Visited online on May 25, 2021
Authors: Khin Zaw Win (Chapter editor, Introduction, Remarks/Recommendations), Suu Suu
Phyoe (Background, Remarks/Recommendations), Huynh Thi Bao Vy (Strategies, Remarks/
Recommendations), Rathanayakege Hemali Rathnayake (Achievements, Remarks/
Recommendations), Josephine Brent Yeanga (Challenges, Remarks/Recommendations), Phan
Cao Duong (Challenges, Remarks/Recommendations)

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Osaki (大崎町, Ōsaki-chō) is a town which is located in Soo District, Kagoshima Prefecture,
Kyushu region, Japan (Figure 1). The coordinate of the town is 31° 26′ 32″ N 130° 58′ 39″ E(Wikiwand, n.d.). Osaki Town is in the eastern Osumi Peninsula, the southern part ofKagoshima Prefecture and it faces the Paciﬁc Ocean (Shizume, 2020). The total population ofOsaki Town is 12,831 people with the households of 6,720. The area of the town is 100.67 km2
and agriculture is its main industry. Despite being a small town in the country, it has many
areas as top in Japan, including products and other ﬁelds. The main areas in which it stands as
Top 1 in Japan include: 1) Production of farmed freshwater eel, passion fruit, chicken meat andpure kudzu powder, 2) Percentage of garbage recycled, 3) Hometown Tax (town and village
category), 4) Percentage of professional baseball players produced, and 5) Rhinoceros beetle
statues. Osaki is the birthplace of star baseball player Kosuke Fukudome (Wikiwand, n.d.).

Figure 1. Location of Osaki Town in Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan
Source: Osaki Town (2021)

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANAmong its main top 1 areas in Japan, impressive waste recycling rate of Osaki Town over 80%
is highlighted in this report. It could expand the lifespan of the landﬁll site through recycling ofrecyclables and composting of organic waste (including raw garbage and plant waste). Whilethe national recycling rate of Japan is around 20%, implementing over fourfold to the national
rate is noticeable, and it is interesting how that a small town in Japan could develop thesystem successfully and had ranked the ﬁrst in national scale (perhaps even in the global
scale) in recycling rate not only for a year but for 12 consecutive years. In the ﬁscal year 2019,
Osaki Town was selected as a “SDGs Future City” under the “SDGs Models of Local
Governments” project. In this report, we will discuss which conditions played key roles as the
background of Osaki Town in its success, how they developed and implemented strategies inthe town with various stakeholders to reach the targeted goals, which achievements theyobtained for their works in recycling as the national scale, which challenges they faced, arefacing and possible challenges in the future and some of the remarks or recommendations on
their model.

1.2 BACKGROUND
Osaki Town, with a population of 12,831 people, has been recycling since 1998. It has a waste
separation system called the Osaki system that sorts the garbage into 27 categories toameliorate its recycling rate. This system has many beneﬁts: (1) diminishing about 84% of thevolume of waste at a landﬁll site, (2) extending the life span of the landﬁll site, (3) generating
revenues from recyclable waste, and (4) providing job opportunities. However, there is ahidden story behind these high achievements elucidated in the following paragraphs.
The waste management system in Osaki Town was uncomplicated in that it did not have any
separation system for garbage, and the residents disposed of all the waste together at a
landﬁll site. The town did not provide any incineration plant to manage the waste generated
by the residents. Hence, the town had the problem of limitation in landﬁll site capacity. The
town considered several possible waste management strategies to prolong the lifespan of the
ﬁnal disposal site.
Building an incineration plant was a possible way to reduce waste disposed at the landﬁll site.
However, a high amount of construction and maintenance cost impeded this plan toimplement as one of the waste management strategies in the town. Another way was toestablish a new landﬁll site. However, there was strong opposition from the residents becauseof the unpleasant smell or odor produced by mixed waste disposed at the landﬁll site.
Therefore, proper separation and recycling of garbage became the best way to diminish thevolume of waste produced at the ﬁnal disposal place and extend the longevity of the landﬁllsite.
To start a waste disposal system without incineration with the help of separation of 3 items(cans, bottles, PET bottles) by residents and collection and processing done by a waste
recycling company. Osaki Town’s local government collaborated with 153 self-governing
community organizations and government offices to hold brieﬁng sessions to raise the3

SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

residents' awareness about recycling and its beneﬁts. Then, the town initiated its recycling
system in which the garbage is sorted into 27 items ; (1) cans, (2) returnable bottles, (3) brownbottles, (4) colorless transparent bottles, (5) other bottles, (6) PET bottles, (7) cardboard, (8)newspaper and ﬂyers, (9) magazines and miscellaneous paper, (10) copy paper, (11) shredded
paper, (12) paper cartoons, (13) paper boxes and wrapping paper, (14) other paper containers
and paper bags, (15) ﬂuorescent lights, (16) dry batteries, (17) used clothes, (18) wasted
cooking oil, (19) plastics, (20) spray cans and cassette cylinders, (21) metals, pet and kettle,
etc. (22) disposable chopsticks, skewer, (23) potteries, (24) small appliances, (25) raw garbage,(26) landﬁll waste, (27) large-sized waste, with the cooperation of the local government,
residents, and enterprises (Osaki Town, n.d.; UN SDGs, n.d.).
As a result, Osaki Town achieved a high recycling rate of 83.1% as of 2018, while a national
recycling rate was only 19.9%. In addition, it has been ranked ﬁrst place in terms of waste
recycling for 12 consecutive years since 2006 in Japan.

1.3 STRATEGIES
Osaki Town was recognized and respected by experts and many other municipalities withoutstanding achievements in recycling. For implementing garbage separation system
successfully in Osaki Town, stakeholders, here as Government, residents, and enterprises,
involve and play their respective roles in the mechanism. The role of Government includes inpolicy making and deﬁning relevant places and mechanism for waste recycling as well as
giving explanations and training local leaders. Residents have the responsibility, to separate
garbage properly in their home and workplace as well as take out the separated garbage andsort garbage by type at the sorting station. Enterprises collect garbage as per contract withthe government, inspect garbage and ship inspected garbage as products. That is the result of
the cooperation, collaboration, and trust among the stakeholders. Osaki Town was awarded
2nd Japan SDGs Award by the central government in 2018. Since then, the Osaki government
started the idea of building a sustainable town from a high recycling town. Osaki Town was
selected as a SDGs Future City in 2019. To achieve the SDGs by 2030, Osaki Town’s local
government has set up many plans. They aim to achieve a circular society with the
involvement of private companies. It means that all products produced in the town will be
consumed and recycled in the town, and re-used for another round of production,
consumption, and recycling.
Additionally, they plan to establish SDGs school educational institutions and research facilities
to collaborate with manufacturing companies. Osaki Town SDGs promotion council has been
established to enhance the cooperation between the Osaki government and various
stakeholders. The council consists of Osaki Town government, Minaminihon Broadcasting(local mass media), Kagoshima Sogo Shinkin (ﬁnance sector), Solanomachi (food and general
education), and Gassaku (facilitation of the council). Osaki Town’s goal is to abolish plastic
containers and one-time plastic consumption by 2030. The SDGs promotion council aims toprovide alternative measures to replace one-time plastic use by 2024 and obtain 80%
penetration by 2027.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN1.4 ACHIEVEMENTS
The main objective of introducing an integrated solid waste management plan for Osaki was
to ﬁnd physical solution for ﬁnal waste disposal. Since 2002, the project has been successfully
implemented in achieving its main objective and brought multiple beneﬁts in theenvironmental, social, and economic aspects to the city.

1.4.1 IMPLEMENTATION ACHIEVEMENTS
EXTENDING THE LIFESPAN OF THE PRESENT LANDﬁLL SITE
The implemented project has been successful in reducing the waste amount to ﬁnal disposalsite by 84% along the last 20 years. In 1998, it was 4,832 tons per year and reduced to 607
tons per year in 2018 (Figure 2). That has enabled to manage the existing land ﬁll site for next
35 45 years, while avoiding the environment pollution and social adversaries had been
expected by other options of incineration facilities and ﬁnding another landﬁll site.

Figure 2. The amount of waste to landﬁll site in Osaki Town by years
Source : Osaki Town (2021)

ACHIEVING 100% PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND STRENGTHENING THE COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS
Community participation is the key to success the project. The city council has achieved tocollect all the solid waste separated into 27 categories at source including both organic andinorganic materials. That could be considered as the main achievement of implementation
phase.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANMoreover, residents can meet while gathering at the collection points and build face-to-facerelationships through collective sorting. They can sort recyclables while teaching each otherthe rules and strengthen their relationships.
83.1% WASTE RECYCLING RATE
Compared to the national average recycling rate in Japan 19.9%, 83.1% of waste recycling rate
by Osaki Town indicates the key achievement of the project. The city has been recognized as
No.1 in highest waste recycling rate in Japan for 12 consecutive years 2006 - 2017.
RAPESEED ECO PROJECT
Project of converting municipal organic waste to compost fertilizer, utilizing for rapeseedﬁelds and producing canola oil, and other byproducts is an outcome of the resource
circulation framework of the city.

1.4.2 ECONOMIC BENEFITSREDUCED PER CAPITA SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT COST
Compared to the national average annual solid waste management cost per capita 16,400 yen
in Japan, Osaki Town has managed to decrease up to its two-third, 10,400 yen per year.
Reducing the municipal expenditure would beneﬁt the society in its other service
enhancements.
RECYCLING INCOME AND JOB CREATION
In 2018, the income generated by recycling was 6.6 million yen. Being able to utilize part ofthe income for student loan scheme is one of the additional social beneﬁts achieved from thesolid waste management plan. Moreover, the recycling center in Osaki Town handles
recyclable garbage from 100,000 people (including neighboring municipalities) and employs
about 40 people.

1.4.3 OFFERING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The town is oﬀering technical and management knowhow to other cities based on successive
experience of the project including:(1) Depok City, Indonesia (2012 2014) for domestic solid waste management planning throughcommunity participation,(2) Denpasar City, Bali, Indonesia (2015 2016) through JICA partnership program, and(3) Recruiting short term international students to the recycling project with the view for
future developments in waste management related solution in Asia.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

1.4.4 RECOGNITION
The town has been highly recognized for its resource management performances in Japan as
follows.
(1) FOOD ACTION NIPPON Award 2015 for canola oil “Yattane! Nattane!! ” (meaning “We did it!
The Canola Oil!!”) produced from recycling including composting(2) Won the “Grand Prize” in the Food Industry Division(3) Fiscal Year 2015 Person of Distinction for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society, thedriving force behind Japan’s No.1 resource recycling rate(4) Won the “Prize of Minister of the Environment” in the Group Division(5) 9th Collaborative Town Development Award Project to reduce garbage with the “garbage if
mixed, resources if separated” slogan,(6) Won the “Runner-up Grand Prize”(7) 2ndJapan SDGs
December 21, 2018

Award,

Deputy-chief’s

Award

(by

Chief

CabinetSecretary),(8) Osaki Town as SDGs Promotion Declaration, January 14, 2019(9) Osaki Town as “SDGs Future City” under the “SDGs Models of Local Governments” project
Creating a circular village, further efficient and eﬀective resources management is the next
target of the town. So far achievements and recognitions have shown greater potential of thetown to develop an eco-based circular economy.

1.5 CHALLENGES
1.5.1 CHALLENGES FOR OSAKI TOWN IN THE PAST AND PRESENTAt the beginning of the waste generation/recycling system, Osaki Town faced somechallenges for the conﬁdence in the Town’s success. There was no incineration plant, which
was a serious problem for the town, and the waste generated was dumped in the landﬁll sitewith limited capacity. With the landﬁll approaching the end of its functionality, the only way
forward was to prolong the life of the landﬁll by building an incinerator but it was to costly toconstruct and maintain. The construction of the new landﬁll contrasts with the residents of thesurrounding area. In order to prolong the life of the existing landﬁll, it was necessary toestablish rules of garbage classiﬁcation and speciﬁc explanations to the residents that would

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANmake them comfortable to embrace the good idea of garbage sorting. Indeed there were a lotof burdens on the local residents to separate waste in the early stage.
The per capita garbage production of the Osaki Town is still 844 g per year. With compared to
the national average per capita garbage 918 g, it is smaller but not a considerable di erence.
So, the town should explore opportunities to reduce the per capita garbage production atsource, and the town will then be able to reduce waste management cost further.

1.5.2 FUTURE VISIONS AND CHALLENGES: CAN THE GLOBAL STANDARD OSAKI BE
REALLY A GLOBAL STANDARD?
Osaki Town has been successful with a waste-recycling project towards a sustainable
development goals (SDGs) initiative. They have a variety of excellent visions such as thefurther international expansion of the Osaki model or becoming “Global Standard: Osaki”, anda further increase in recycling rate. Although such a vision is clear, it likely experiences
challenges as well. Herein, we speciﬁcally present challenges making the Osaki model be a
global standard, which can be applied in most countries. First, the system of waste
management is distinctive in diﬀerent countries, especially the developing world. Many
developing nations have a low rate of recycling separation or even without separation.
Although they can separate waste into detailed categories, they do not have comprehensive
systems or plants to recycle a variety of waste types. To build such a recycling plant is costly
and takes considerable time and lasting eﬀorts. They then seem to solely reuse common
waste such as paper and plastic items. Also, clear waste-recycling guidance, acts, policies,and regulations may not be properly introduced in many countries.
Another difficulty is the attitude towards making source separation and the limited
understanding of the SDGs. Many people have not likely known the SDGs in the developingworld. To overcome these challenges, the developing nations need support in terms of soundﬁnancial and technical issues from those who have been successful in waste recycling like
Japan. To be speciﬁc, we ﬁrst make awareness and concerns practiced, and make people
aware of SDGs initiatives and their importance in waste recycling and management.
Promoting the purchase of environmentally friendly products and services is also a good idea.
These are important issues in future.

1.6 REMARKS/RECOMMENDATIONS•

Exploring recycling of paper diapers to get a higher recycling rate than the present
impressive recycling rate is a noticeable thought which ﬁts with the local conditions.

•

Implementation of full recycling of organic waste, including kitchen and forest wastes, andsupplying fertilizers (including Rapeseed Eco-Project) from that recycling industry, is amodel which is impressive, and other cities can implement green waste recycling as a
beneﬁcial mechanism.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN•To abolish using one-time packaging and plastic products by 2030, Osaki Town will needto ﬁnd alternative measures in cooperation with the enterprises.

•

For the awareness-raising program for the residents, Osaki Town should establish a sharing
platform such as a workshop program in the school or cooperation with the local
government.

•

To achieve the local SDGs a part of being a SDGs Future City, Osaki Town should survey
residents’ perceptions as Kamikatsu Town has worked on.

•

Even though Osaki Town provides opportunities for the immigrants to reduce depopulationin the town, they lack some visible platform to access it, such as local venture schools.

References
Shizume, C. (2020, November 23). Kagoshima’s Osaki Town’s ambitious plans to achieve SDGs
by 2030. Zenbird. https://zenbird.media/kagoshimas-osaki-towns-ambitious-plans-toachieve-sdgs-by-2030/
Osaki Town. (2021, May 25). [Lecture slides distributed in the SUSTEP online trip]. Global
Standard: Osaki Town–Toward a sustainable town
Osaki Town. (n.d.). How to separate and dispose household garbage correctly. Retrieved June
19, 2021, from https://www.town.kagoshima-osaki.lg.jp/diversity/documents/eigo.pdf
UN SDGs. (n.d.). Osaki Recycling System of Japan (separation-collection-processing) achieved
83.4% recycling rate with 27 items separation by community and makes not only
environmental but also economical and social outcomes. United Nations SDGs Partnership
Platform. Retrieved June 13, 2021, from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
partnership/?p=30108
Wikiwand. (n.d.). Osaki, Kagoshima, Retrieved June 13, 2021, from https://www.wikiwand.com/
en/%C5%8Csaki,_Kagoshima-

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

2. NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE, OKAYAMAPREFECTURE
Visited online on May 26, 2021
Authors: Peshala Amaratunga, Aung Pyae Phyo, Hien Le, Yang Xin, Kaniz Zakia Kalam, Adom
Seth

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Nishiawakura Village is located in the northeast of Okayama Prefecture with a population of
1,416 people as of March 2021. It covers 57.93 km2, of which 93% are mountainous forests.
Cedar (sugi) and cypress (hinoki) are the main species, accounting for 84% of the total. Fromthe 1990s, because of the economic downturn and other reasons, there was a trend ofneighboring municipalities merging in Japan. In 2004, Nishiawakura also held a merger
negotiation with neighboring municipalities. However, about 60% of residents in Nishiawakura
opposed merging. The village had the weakest inancial constitution in Okayama at that time.
Therefore, after withdrew from the negotiation, they had to ind a new way for its survive.
When they recognized their geographical advantage, the village started regional vitalization
based on resources wood. After 17 years of e orts, it has become a model of local economic
revitalization. It also was selected as a SDGs Future City in 2019.
This report describes the e ort they have made and the achievements they have got from six
aspects. Our opinions of their future challenges are also included in this report. The six
aspects include: 100-year forest business (Peshala Amaratunga), renewable energy business(Aung Pyae Phyo), local venture (Hien Le), immigration (Yang Xin), education of sustainable
city (Kaniz Zakia Kalam), and tourism (Adom Seth). The compilation was done by Yang Xin.

2.2 100 YEAR FOREST PLAN (BUSINESS)
Nishiawakura, once faced continuously decreasing population and a weak economy. In orderto change this situation, villagers started to develop themselves. Finally, with sustainable
forestry, the village became a model for the success of regional revitalization. The 100-year
forest business attracted attention from all over Japan. This 100-year forest concept wasstarted with the e orts of creating high quality life in countryside and low carbon society.
Most arti icial forests of the Nishiawakura have been planted in the postwar period, which
consisted of sugi and hinoki. Imported wood was inexpensive at that time and local forestry
was challenged in the timber market. Therefore, less attention was given to forest
management, such as thinning. This led to degradation of arti icial forests. However, amidst
this unfavorable situation, the village came up with the vision of “100-year forest Plan”. The

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concept evolved as “look at the lessons of the past 50 years and plan for the next 50 years”.
Most importantly, this helped reduce greenhouse gases creating a low carbon society. This
created a healthy and fresh living environment preventing landslides in the mountainous areasof the village as well.
One of most important strategy of this initiative was a comprehensive approach,collaboratively planned with village o ice, forestry cooperative, private businesses, andothers. Village o ice used special budget for this initiative. Targeting the economic
sustainability, forest management plan was carried out. According to this plan, forestry
practices such as timely thinning, has been started to operate. Two projects have beenpromoted at same time, one is 100-year-old forest creation and the second one “Mori-nogakko (Forest School)” project, which aimed develop wood products for end users.
The 100-year forest business was mainly promoted by local government, together with thevillage o ice. They managed the forests on behalf of private forest owners, thinning andmaintaining roads that are require for forest operations. The village signed a ten-year longterm forest management agreement with the forest owners and carried out all operations
legally. The pro it earned through wood is shared with owner and rest was used for the 100year vision. 3,000 ha of forests in Nishiawakura is privately owned and 1,000 ha is company
owned and another 1,000 ha is government owned. Currently around 1600 ha of private
forests are managed by the village based on trust contracts with the private owners. 1,300 haof village forests obtained Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certi ication, which is aninternational certi ication. Consequently, it added value to the local wood. This was animportant achievement of the 100-year plan.
The village was not limited only for thinning forests and selling wood but started promoting
value-added wood products and supplied end-users. In doing so they were able to win theloyalty of customers. To promote and develop sale of products (e.g yukahari tiles, used forwood looring) and utilize the local resources, a company, ‘Nishiawakura Forest School’ wasestablished in 2009 as another important strategy. Under this company, a new woodprocessing company has been established. This helped achieving marketing and nurturing
new entrepreneurs. This ultimately led supplying interior materials for houses and othermaterials for larger buildings as well. Along with all this success, company started to plan
forest tours and events, opening other income paths in the village.
The 100-year forest business will face many future challenges. One such challenge ismaintaining the same forest cover continuously in the coming years. New forests will takelonger period to grow up to the economically optimum size, while current forest stock willcontinue to reduce rapidly. On the other hand, the managing overaged trees will not be
economically bene icial. There will be natural challenges from overpopulated deer and pest
damages for the new seedlings. Some climatic factors like snow also may bring unfavorable
impacts on forests. On ecological perspective, the species diversity also very low in arti icial
forests as almost all of them are monoculture cultivations, unlike the natural forests. They lackbroadleaved tree species. This will impact biodiversity of the Nishiawakura Village.

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2.3 RENEWABLE ENERGY
Nishiawakura Village has been selected by the government as one of the “Eco-Model Cities”
leading to the realization of a regional model that maximizes the use of local resources whileachieving both a low-carbon footprint and sustainable development [6]. Based on thereferendum result, Nishiawakura Village back out the merger negotiation with neighboring
districts in August 2004 [5]. The village searched for a way to survive through regional
vitalization based on forests and actively introduce small hydroelectric generation, woodbiomass, and photovoltaic generation [5].
Waterpower is one of the resources that generate electricity in Nishiawakura [3]. The stable
volume of river water and electricity generation depends on the well-managed forests [3]. The
village already operated two hydraulic electricity generation stations of 290 and 5 kilowatts
and plans to establish another hydraulic electricity production station, of 199 kilowatts, start
operation around 2020 [3]. The 290-kilowatt station gets an income of about 70 million yen a
year by selling electricity [3]. After inishing the new 199-kilowatt plant can create about 50
million yen [3]. Nowadays, local energy sources can supply approximately 40% of regional
power demand in Nishiawakura [3]. When the new plant starts operation, the electricity supply
rate will increase to 70% of total power usage in the village [3].
The village cuts trees to thin the forests and improves roads for forest work [3]. Two logs are
sold as good wood on the market, three are selling as plywood material, and ive were sold as
low-quality wood with no commercial value [3]. The low-quality logs remain in the forests
because of high transportation costs [3]. Nishiawakura Village starts to promote the usage of
low-quality wood as fuel and thinking it is best to utilize such wood within the village for
irewood boilers [3].
Nishiawakura has three hot spring resorts [3]. They used to consume 213,000 liters ofkerosene in boilers to heat the spring water every year [3]. Now, wood boilers are using lowquality wood with a low commercial value from 5,500 ha of the forest instead of the kerosene,
and the replacing amount is about 80%[3]. Nishiawakura Village used to spend over 10 million
yen as kerosene costs each year, but these costs are now directly going to the wood biomass
and hydroelectric station [3]. The cost of irewood is cheaper than kerosene, therefore people
from Nishiawakura Village prefer irewood electricity to use in three hot spring facilities [3].
They can now save 2 million yen in fuel costs annually [3]. The villagers started to use irewood
boilers in three hot spring facilities in 2014 [5]. Regional woody biomass for heat supply
system is widely used in 2019, and the main facilities of Nishiawakura Village were also
developed [5].
Nishiawakura Village promotes electricity and heat production from irewood boilers,
hydraulic, solar energy (photovoltaic power) [5]. The electricity from solar energy will go toresidences and public facilities [5]. Villagers participated in the operation of solar power
generation, and they will set up a new solar panel [5]. These activities can get the newlifestyles and lead to a low-carbon model community for Nishiawakura Village [5].

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN2.3.1 STRATEGIES
Environmental System Operations can implement the customers’ needs from the provision of
products and services that utilize renewable energy, such as solar energy and wood biomass,
and unused energy [8]. In the wood biomass sector, a heat supply system will construct withthe cooperation of the government and private sector at the district level [8]. Anotherimportant factor for wood biomass is the e icient operation to meet the requirement of thevillage [8].
Nishiawakura Village promotes biomass usage to achieve four objectives: fuel cost reduction,
stopping the out low of money from the Nishiawakura Village, supporting forestry, andcombating climate change [3]. They are trying to utilize woodchips generated in the lumber
sawing process, too [3]. Woodchip boilers and underground pipelines are installed in
Nishiawakura Village for sending hot water to public buildings for example a nursery school,
the village o ice, the elementary and junior high schools, senior-care facilities, and clinics [3].
Due to the centralized control system, the heat energy and hot water supply system forindividual facilities can fully manage and control [3]. After inishing the district heat supply
system, the heat demand of the village can cover about 40% of total usage [3].

2.3.2 SDGSIn September 2015, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that
included the SDGs aim for an integrated approach to addressing multiple issues [4]. In
December 2015, the adoption of the Paris Agreement aims for substantially zero greenhousegas emissions by the latter half of the 21st century to achieve the 2 degrees Celsius targets [4].
A major paradigm shift is required to create a new form of civilized society [4]. Climatechange is identi ied as a high-priority issue in the SDGs [7]. Protecting lush forests that act ascarbon sinks, absorbing and storing CO2, helps mitigate climate change [7]. Nishiawakura
Village considers developing the environmentally friendly concept and they try to use
Sumitomo Forestry’s concept [7]. After that, Nishiawakura Village promotes the use of wooden
structures and materials as a construction material in an urban area (high-rise buildings) [7].
Due to these kinds of activities, they can get bene its from forests and can improve in climatechange mitigation measures [7].
The Sumitomo Trust Bank worked together with Nishiawakura Village and the bank got theidea from doing other businesses and searched the best solution was to stabilize the forestry
business by starting a hydroelectric power generation business [7]. In 2018, the Sumitomo
Mitsui Trust Bank made a survey about forestry trust, and the bank gives the responsibilities forcommercial trust in Nishiawakura Village [7].

2.3.3 FUTURE CHALLENGESFor Nishiawakura Village, there will have to be many challenges concerning renewableenergy. For hydroelectric power, the climate conditions are changing day today. Climatechange a ects the water low conditions ( low rate, water depth) in the river. The water low
amount is huge in raining season and less in summer and wintertime. The low conditions of

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANrivers also a ect hydroelectric power generation. Nishiawakura Village covered 95% forest
area. The climate change e ect and man-made activities (production of wooden furniture,
construction materials) can act the deforestation in the future. For biomass (wood boiler),deforestation is a big issue and can reduce the ability of wood boilers. The other issue is the
production of carbon dioxide from the wood boiler. Carbon dioxide gas (greenhouse gases)
are harmful gases for the environment and our earth. The last issue is not accounted for today
because the area of the forest is big, and the forest can absorb carbon dioxide from the woodboilers. However, the production of carbon dioxide from wood boilers should consider as themain problem of climate change.

2.4 LOCAL VENTURE
Nishiawakura Village has a very unique idea called to “Local Venture School” to attract young
people to come here to live and study. Indeed, this idea has been successful beyond
expectations when more and more people from other places have moved to the village tomeet the sustainable development goals. Speci ically, there were more than 100 people
having moved to the Nishiawakura Village. Moreover, 13 companies established with a total
annual turnover of up to 800 million yen (as of September 2017).
In 2015, Nishiawakura start organizing the Local Venture School course. The content of thiscourse is that each student who registers to participate in the Local Venture School course will
try to establish a new business in the village and ind ways to develop it.
More speci ically, starting with the irst round of selection, the residents of the village will besent feedback to directly evaluate the participants of the course. Besides that, the participants
are also supported by the village o icials to work in groups, and guidance ield trips relate tolocations in the participant’s business project. Going through several evaluation rounds, only
participants that have passed the inal selection can start developing their business projects.
In addition, the participants who have passed the inal selection round will receive
professional training courses, stipends, and other supports as a reward.
A prominent feature that helps to attract everyone’s participation in the course is prioritizing
the passion and interests of the participants themselves. Create a free environment to develop
business thinking focusing on the interests of participants and residents of Nishiawakura
Village.
Another program to support the Local Venture School course is Nishiawakura Local Life
Laboratory. This program is for entrepreneurs who are willing to come to explore and develop
the village. After the end of this program, the entrepreneurs can decide to continue toparticipate in the Local Venture School course to establish a new business or complete the
Nishiawakura Local Life Laboratory course and leave the village. However, the majority ofentrepreneurs and participants often choose to continue working and living in the village.

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2.5 IMMIGRATION IN NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
Because of the low fertility rates and low mortality rate, population aging has become more
and more serious in the world, especially in Japan. According to the data from the Statistics
Bureau of Japan, the population aged over 65 in the total population is 28.7% in 2019 [10]. And
this number is expected to rise in the near future [11]. The top-heavy population pyramid ofJapan implies lots of social issues, such as the decrease of the working age population,
increase of health care costs, and unsustainable pension system. This aging problem is also
serious in Nishiawakura Village. Nishiawakura has 607 households with a population of 1,416
people as of March 2021. The rate of aging is 37%, which is higher than the average rate ofJapan.
How to reduce the impact of population aging on village development is an urgent problem
for the local government to solve. In 2006, the local government took measures to try toincrease the population in this village. The stratagem is promoting the local ventures. They set
up a bureau to publicize their idea. In 2015, a local venture school was built to foster humanresources to start local businesses in this village. According to the Nishiawakura website, overthe last decade, 45 businesses have been created and the employment is more than 200
people. The scope of businesses is very wide, including clothing, real estate, and inn. Besides,
because of the rich forest resources in this village, people take advantage of it and startbusinesses like wooden furniture and toys. They do not only sell wood directly, but also
promote the development of wood products to optimize the value of the wood. The economic
scale has risen to 2.1 billion yen in 2020. Such regional revitalization attracts more and more
immigrants to live and work there. Data show that the e ort is working. Fig.1 is the population(in households) in Nishiawakura Village from 1999 to 2017. It is clear that the population has
increased by 10% after 2007. Obviously, such rapid increase is not due to the number of births.

Figure 1. Population (in number of households) in Nishiawakura Village, 1999 2018
Source: Nishiwakura Village website

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANBesides, the number of children in the village also increased from 126 in 2011 to 158 in 2017. It
means that immigration is not only adults but also children, i.e., families [12]. Their joining
brings vitality to the small village.
One future challenge for the population increase in Nishiawakura Village is the housing
shortage caused by rapid population growth, but I believe that there is su icient land to build
houses. The most important one, I think, is how to maintain its continued attraction tooutsiders and even immigrants who already live there. A start-up company is not easy tosurvive nowadays. How to keep the local venture growth is very challenging. It takes constante ort for the future expansion of immigrants.

2.6 EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE CITY
Education is a critical factor in achieving sustainable development goals. It requires aprofound transformation of how we think and act. By changing the behaviors of individuals
through education can make a di erence in creating sustainable development. The behavior
of individual citizens is constructed at a young age and will become active citizens andleaders of tomorrow, consolidating habits, behavioral patterns and forming identity andinterpersonal relationships. The essential feature of ESD (education for sustainable
development) deals with the process of teaching and learning. It focuses on the developmentof skills and action competence for sustainability [13].
Nishiawakura is one example of becoming a sustainable city. The feature of the town torevitalize and revamp the dying economy by circulating natural resources by adding values.
The land of the village has 95% forest cover. The 100 years of a forest management plan is aninnovative idea to make the town livable. Sustainable use of water resources and electricity
generation is another example. The population declining trend has reversed, yet it does notreach the target. Local ventures took lots of initiative by diversifying the use of wood product.
This had changed the color of the village and many people migrate to the village. In addition,
they also took part in building sustainable city by applying innovative idea like GIS mapping
for forest area and make available for farmers.
However, it is also important to involve the young generation in building sustainable city. The
idea is to work with students practically in order to acquaint them with the basic ideas andeducate them about the principles of sustainability. In order to do so, the village has involved
the elementary school and junior high school students. The objective is to interact between
man and nature, to experience the goodness of Furusato (hometown in Japanese), training
and nurturing ive senses through familiar nature experiences. To learn about the 100-year
forest concept strategy of the village and experiences the wood crafting. The utilization ofwater resources and express from the nature and people of Nishiawakura. To think about what
to do to "liven up our hometown". Besides, e orts have taken for junior high school bydeclaring their action or plan for SDGs. it enables students to learn about education forinternational, environmental education, energy education, education on world heritage siteand local culture properties and other education. These strategies have taken by the authority

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANto engage young learners to carry the torch of SDGs to the next generation. They have theirown version of sustainable goal. This activity nurtures students to think critically about theirenvironmental footprint and give greater decision-making power while encouraging ecofriendly lifestyles. The villagers also organize education for villagers so they can be aware ofthis village strategy.
The major challenge of the village is population declination, along with labor work force.
Although population demography improved slightly, it still needs more younger immigrants tobecome a sustainable city. Along with aging society further challenges to enhance their
originality and create a process aiming at innovation in socio-economic systems that
continuously creates new value. Thus, provides opportunity for younger generation. Energy
challenge is another major issue. By producing more hydropower, it can contribute to national
grid and become sustainable. By accumulating successes, cities are expected to become selfinancing independence, establishing inancially and socially autonomous role models forother cities in Japan and around the world.

2.7 TOURISM
Nishiawakura’s tourism depends heavily on forests and trees. The forest generates signi icant
inancial in lows that can bene it village people and also, re-invested into the management offorests and natural spaces for their long-term conservation, restoration and valorization.
Nishiawakura is well noted as a wood business town that attracts temporal visitors into thevillage. Forest covers the larger part of the total land area dominated by cedar and cypress
trees. The nature of the forest serves as an ecotourism destination associated with over 100
years of cedar and cypress wood with a long and short canopy. It provides employment,
generates income, and contributes to the quality of life of rural communities.
Among the strategies and achievements, Nishiawakura has made a successful transformation
as a sustainable modern ecological village that prioritizes forest as a reformation to promotesustainable development. The forest serves as a source of income to the local residence,o ers employment to them like carpentry works, timber milling, and wood architects, andprovides raw materials to the local wood manufacturing industry. Nishiawakura Village is avalue creation that adds value to sustainable tourism. The town produces timber products as
primary raw material and uses them to manufacture wood products like loor tiles, furniture, as
well as building and construction materials. Wood products are exported to other prefecturesin Japan. The town has quite a few people who migrated from other prefectures to settle in thearea even though the native population seems to decline gradually over decades.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
During the online group discussion, a participant from the village elaborated that the mostappealing challenge is the number increasing aging population. In Nishiawakura Village, theyoung once used to move to city and other prefectures during high school education andintend not to return back to the village even after school. Many young people move away tolive in urban areas, leaving the older population behind. Depopulation could possibly in luence

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future sustainability of the forest management. Older generations cannot transfer theirknowledge onto their younger counterparts. However, assessing and carefully considering theneeds of tourists is at the heart of sustainable tourism planning the local forest management
could implement ive A’s (Accessibility, Attraction, Activities, Accommodation, Amenities).
ACCESS
There should be a clear de ined route for tourist within the forest. Since logging is undertaking
with the forest, its good forest creates easy route for visitors. This would help to overcome
dangers during visit.
ATTRACTIONS
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit for its exhibited cultural value, there
should be historical signi icance of amusement opportunities in the village. Some examples
include historical places, zoos, art galleries, carnivals, cultural events, among others. Many
tourist attractions are also landmarking.
ACTIVITIESAttractions are links to activities, and these are the things that tourists do. For example,
specialist photography catalog, and treetop walk attraction may have numerous trails throughthe surrounding forest area for fauna and bird watching and botany activities. All these could
be introduced in the village to attract more people.
ACCOMMODATION
In order to peak up visitors, the village needs to invest in accommodation, otherwise tourists
will have nowhere to sleep. Successful accommodation development, more than ever before,
depends on building the right type of facility to suit the needs of business tourists to theplace.
AMENITIES
Amenities are required to meet the needs of tourists while they are away from home, such as
shopping and restaurants. Therefore, high degree of cooperation is needed, particularly where
tourist services may be seen to be competing with the needs of local residents.

2.8 CONCLUSION
Nishiawakura’s approach embodies the social forestry concept that re lects human andenvironmental relationship. Activities of logging exert signi icant pressures on forests andecosystems, underlining the apparent di iculty to combine them with forest conservation.
There is a need to ensure to plan and regulate tourism adequately and to manage forests andrecreation sites according to their usage. Strict protection policies should be instituted to berelatively help reduce local pressures on the forest, even though it is generating incomes for
local communities. The local forest division should make e orts to promoting a transition

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towards local sustainable territorial development schemes by integrating tourism into natural
resources conservation strategies and rural enterprise development.

References
1. Coca, N. (2018, December 6). Learning from the past: Japan’s tree planting e orts provide
lessons for other countries. Ensia. https://ensia.com/features/japan-reforestationdeforestation-lessons-indonesia-china
2. Edahiro, J. (2018, February 28). Nishiawakura’s Initiative for self-dependence attracting
motivated young people to migrate to the village and start businesses. Japan for
Sustainability. https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036016.html
3. Edahiro, J. (2018, March 30). Nishiawakura’s initiative for 100% energy self-su iciency, and amunicipal ICO scheme (JFS Newsletter No. 187, March 2018). Japan for Sustainability. https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036040.html
4. Shibuya, J. (2020, September 29). Circulating and ecological economy. IGES/MOE. https://www.iges.or.jp/sites/default/ iles/inline- iles/S2 2_Mr.%20Jun%20Shibuya_MOEJ.pdf
5. Nishiawakura Village (n.d.). Nishiwawakura Village, Okayama Prefecture [Eco-Model City].
Cabinet O ice. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from http://doc.future-city.jp/pdf/torikumi_city/
nishiawakura_pamphlet_en.pdf
6. Public Relations Department Japanese Bankers Association. (2020, June). The Chugoku
Bank, Ltd., in JBA SDGs REPORT 2019 2020. Japanese Bankers Association. https://www.
zenginkyo.or.jp
7. Sumitomo Group Public A airs Committee. (n.d.). SDGs and Sumitomo-How to create thefuture, theme 5: SDGs and Sumitomo: Environment. Sumitomo Group. Retrieved June 15,2021 from https://www.sumitomo.gr.jp/english/act/sustainability/theme5/
8. Yazaki Corporation. (2018, November). Yazaki Group CSR report 2018. https://www.yazakigroup.com/global/pdf/ser2018.pdf
9. Hashimoto, Y. (2017, October 21). Nishiawakura’s initiative based on people discovering theirown desires (JFS Newsletter No.181, September 2017). Japan for Sustainability. https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id035920.html
10. Statistics Bureau Portal Site of O icial Statistics of Japan. (2019). http://www.estat.go.jp.
11. Muramatsu, N., & Akiyama, H. (2011). Japan: super-aging society preparing for the future.
The Gerontologist, 51(4), 425 432.
12. Nishiawakura Village website. (n.d.) Retrieved June 15, 2021 from http://
www.vill.nishiawakura.okayama.jp.
13. Pauw, J. B. D., Gericke, N., Olsson, D., & Berglund, T. (2015). The e ectiveness of education
for sustainable development. Sustainability, 7(11), 15693 15717.
14. Edahiro, J. (2015, January 24). Toward a sustainable Japan: Challenges and changes insociety and population. United Nations University. https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/toward-asustainable-japan-challenges-and-changes-in-society-and-population
15. Hasegawa, M., Pulhin, J. M., & Inoue, M. (2013). Facing the challenge of social forestry inJapan: The case of reviving harmonious coexistence between forest and people in Okayama
prefecture. Small-scale Forestry, 12(2), 257 275.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN16. Arizona, Y. (2020, June 22). Multi-dimensional challenges, multi-sectoral innovations: The
resilience of common forest management in Japan. Syl Association. https://www.syl .org/
news_voices/28043/

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN3. KAMIKATSU TOWN, TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE(PART 1)
Visited online on June 1 and 2, 2021
Authors: Aung Ko Ko, Liu Xiaohan, Yue Shengran, Fuad Md Akter Faruk, Nguyen Thi Mai Anh

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Kamikatsu Town is a small town located in Shikoku Island with 100 170 m above the sea level.
It has the population of less than 1,500 people, 53% of which belong to aging population. The
town is approximately 110 km2 in area where 88% of the land is occupied by the forest, 80% of
which are planted trees. Kamikatsu Town has three distinctive features: Happa business called
Irodori (‘colors’ in Japanese), zero waste management and sustainable tourism.

3.1.1 HAPPA BUSINESS IRODORIThe company IRODORI created a market for decorative leaves to garnish traditional Japanesecuisine, and established the “Irodori” brand. Farmers, the local agricultural cooperative, andthe company IRODORI are engaged in this business together. The company IRODORI
coordinates farmers, and o ers promotion, marketing, and communication with customers.
Independent farmers supply leaves to the company. The average age of farmers is 70 years
old, and its majority is women. The total market sales amount to 260 million yen(approximately 2.35 million USD). The “Irodori” brand covers 70% of the market. In the
beginning, IRODORI o ered merely 20 30 types of garnish, but now o ers 320 types ofdecorative leaves branded as Irodori. In 1986, Irodori’s business began with only four female
farmers, who used to harvest leaves and branches for lower arrangements. In 1987, Irodori
started as a project of the agricultural cooperative of Kamikatsu. Since 1999, IRODORI has
been an independent semi-governmental corporation.

3.1.2 ZERO WASTE
Kamikatsu was originally a forestry town that used to exercise open incineration as its main
form of waste disposal. Over time, the prefecture informed the town that they could no longer
continue using open incineration for waste disposal. Already faced with a declining and aging
population, Kamikatsu Town was not able to a ord a new incinerator. Hence, the town decided
to explore an alternative method of waste disposal. In 2003, Kamikatsu became the irst town
in Japan to implement the zero-waste policy. Since their declaration to eliminate land ill andincinerated waste by 2020, the residents have worked together to ful ill the principles of the“3Rs” of reduce, reuse, and recycle. As the town does not operate its trash collection service,
the residents take their garbage themselves to the town’s single waste collection center,
where they separate it into more than 45 di erent categories. Meanwhile, they compost

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kitchen waste and food scraps at home. With the town having devised such a waste system,
the residents have gained a keen awareness of the need to reduce waste completely. Throughtheir collective e orts, the residents of Kamikatsu now recycle more than 80% of their overall
waste.

3.1.3 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Kamikatsu is a unique destination to study in terms of sustainable tourism development. The
town has been trying to achieve SDGs in the future. It is a beautiful village set in a valley withwonderful local products, onsen hot-springs and hiking trails to attract visitors. Historically,
domestic tourism to Kamikatsu has focused on its local, high-quality foods, leisure activities
such as hot-springs, and active fun in warmer months such as hiking, camping and kayaking.
Recently, the town’s zero-waste policies has attracted a new type of visitors drawn tosustainability planning. Thousands of academics, media, government planners andresearchers come to the town each year.

3.2 KAMIKATSU’S SDGS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Kamikatsu Town established its brand image with the irst zero waste declaration in Japan. The
town never had waste collection trucks running in town. They aim to nurture villagers not todirty the earth. They promote reuse and recycling of wastes, do their best to demolish waste
incineration and land ill by 2020, and make partners around the world as many as possible to
make the global environment better.
Kamikatsu Town has been selected as SDGs Future City in 2018. It is achieving SDG9, SDG11,
SDG12, SDG13, SDG15, and SDG17 by a large margin. It has a long-term commitment toward asustainable town. It has contributed to making sustainable communities in three parts;
economy, environment and society to revitalize the local economy, lead a circular society on
the environment and create an attractive town for the young generation. Community
recreation strategy includes industry promotion utilizing Irodori mountains, developing an
Irodori business plan to involve new tourism programs, nurturing next generations ofagriculture and forestry, circular community planning projects using the zero waste brand,
environmental education curriculum, collaboration projects with private companies,
education tourism utilizing the resources of Kamikatsu Town, extending education tourism
based on sustainable tourism. The targets of Kamikatsu Town are:(1) Happa business (Irodori): Develop next generation training programs utilizing Irodori
mountains.
(2) Zero Waste: Winning the town brand with the irst zero waste declaration in the country.
Establish as an all-town project by lipping the idea (The town never had waste collection
trucks.) Put control on the water tap in collaboration with the manufacturer. Ethicalconsumption.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN(3) Sustainable tourism (Pangaea): Urban immigrants turn rural rich resources into tourism
values. Residents’ needs for cognition lead to tourism development. Economic
revitalization and employment promote immigration.

3.3 STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS
3.3.1 ZERO WASTE
REDUCE
Organic waste composting at home: All organic wastes are composted at home. Residents
process their organic waste, such as food waste, through an electric composting machine.
This machine decomposes the organic matter with the help of microorganisms. For thepurchase of the machine, the town government will provide a subsidy (four- ifths of the price),and citizens will only have to pay 10,000 yen.
REUSE
Kuru-kuru Shop: This is a special store located in a garbage collection center. The goods inthis store are all provided by residents of the town. Residents (those in Kamikatsu only) can put
items they no longer need but can still use in the store, and people who need these items(including people from outside to the town) can take away for free.
Kuru-kuru Craft Center: Used fabrics (especially kimonos and carp- lags) are collected here.
The sta (mainly elderly people in the town) will make them into new craftwork goods.
Through clever and well-made design, many wonderful products are created in the center thatare popular even among young people.
RECYCLE
Detailed waste separation rules: Kamikatsu Town has implemented detailed waste separation
rules. There are currently 45 categories, including cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic
containers, and so on. Where each kind of waste will be sent, what it will be recycled for, andhow much it will cost/sell, are all explained in the posters. The waste must be washed anddried before disposal. If necessary, sta at the recycling station will also provide instructions
and assistance to improve residents’ waste sorting.
Waste pickup services: Since there are no waste collection trucks for collection in the town,
residents need to send their waste to the town’s waste collection center by themselves. The
waste collection center is opened every day during the speci ied hours (7:30 14:00) except for
the New Year period at the end of the year (December 31 January 2). For the aging people who
are unable to carry their waste, the town’s Zero Waste Academy sta provide a pick-up service
once every two months. This is a service with a fee (general waste: 210 yen per 45L wastebag), of which the town government pays 200 yen and the residents pay 10 yen. This in fact is
expected to motivate the residents to reduce their waste disposal by charging the fee.

3.3.2 DECLINING POPULATION

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANThe population of Kamikatsu Town has been declining in recent years due to the lack of highschool education and the e ects of decreasing birth rate and the aging population. In order tokeep the bottom line of 1,000 people by 2040, Kamikatsu Town considers attracting more
people to come for carrying out their business through the brand merits of zero waste andIrodori. New businesses will bring jobs, which will attract more people to come and work, andthe population will grow or at least decline at a minimum rate as a result. At the same time,
this can also contribute to the economic development of the town. For example, company
Pangaea, based on the spirit of zero waste, has launched an eco-tourism business that attracts
people to come and experience the “Happa Business” (e.g., school ield trips, new employee
training trip). These educational trips are bringing in pro its while getting more people
involved in the Zero Waste initiative.

3.4 FUTURE CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.4.1 FUTURE CHALLENGESFOR ZERO WASTE
5R achievement: Kamikatsu adamantly aims at achieving a 100% recycling rate while currently
at just over 80%. Recognizing the remaining 20% as not an obstacle but an opportunity, it is
now aiming for a 100% rate by the year 2030 (Ong, 2020). Some items such as leather, rubber,
PVC, footwear, and severely soiled items must be burned, while some other items such as noncombustible material that does not remove dirt or cannot be disassembled, gypsum board,plaster, and shell must be land illed (PED, 2020). Thus 5R (3R + refuse and repair) could
facilitate Kamikats’s zero waste challenges.
Manpower: Waste disposal is an issue that cannot be solved by Kamikatsu alone (IFG, 2019). All
the people need to collaborate with each other to secure the ecosystem. Hundred years ago,
Japan’s population was about 40 million, now almost 120 million, and perhaps within the next
100 years, it may be back to 40 million again. Today one in four is over 65 years old (andalready over a half in Kamikatsu), it will be one in three by 2035, and by 2060, two in ive will
be over 65. Demographics are changing along with aging and put a huge burden on theyounger generation in terms of manpower in waste disposal and collection as well as othermatters (Edahiro, 2015).
FOR HAPPA BUSINESS (IRODORI)
Aging people: In Japan, more than 60% of the farmer population is aged above 65 and in
Kamikatsu Town 53% are aged people. The rapidly aging farming society in Japan would not
only decrease Japan’s food self-su iciency percentage but also result in a low domestic
farming business (Usman et al., 2021).
Generation gap: Due to a fascination with jobs related to science and technology, the young
people in Japan do not want to adopt farming as their career path. They want to live, study inthe city also rather than the rural areas (Usman et al., 2021).

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

Food habit change: Japan has seen the largest change to its diet in the last more than hundredyears and mostly the younger have been transformed into an imbalanced meal laden withprocessed foods, highly saturated fats, empty calories, and few fresh vegetables. Day by day,new food items and recipes rather than traditional ones are added to the menu list (SilcoxQuimby, 2014).
FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM (PANGAEA)
Biodiversity loss: Promoting tourism to enjoy natural values may introduce over crowds byurban immigrants, leading to over exploitation of resources and creating wastage andbiodiversity losses.

3.4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
5R PROMOTION BY THE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SHOPPING CAMPAIGN
The collaboration with prefectures, municipalities, logistics business associations, consumer
organizations, educational institutions, social institutions, families, and society etc. canundertake in this campaign by various activities to grow more consciousness about thenature, its conservation, environmentally friendly products, how waste pollutes the nature andhow we should avoid it, and so on (Ministry of the Environment, 2014).
EASY MIGRATION FACILITY
Japan may o er easy migration from overseas to face o manpower shortage. Recently, thecountry’s parliament passed a bill to raise the number of visas granted to unskilled and semiskilled workers by about 500,000 by 2025 (Dekle, 2019).
SMART AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is a labor-based activity. This physical activity may be minimized by using
advanced technologies according to human commands (Matsuoka, 2020).
PROPER DOCUMENTATION, TRAINING FOR PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
To transmit indigenous knowledge to new generation, authorities may focus on proper
documentation and publication, training for practical experience with o ering subsidy,
concession, etc.
ADOPTION WITH CHANGES
People may seek new agricultural products, byproducts which may be eatable, adorable, add
aesthetic value, etc.
CONSERVE THE NATURE
O ering geo-tourism, wild social resources conservation campaign, tree plantation, isolating
to conserve forest areas, etc. could be fruitful to cope up with tourists as well as bene its.
MENTAL SUPPORT CONSULTANCY

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANCountrywide counseling program for people, focusing on aged peoples’ society, mass-media
campaign on mental health improvement, and community-based get-together programarrangement may earn mental strength.

3.5 CONCLUSIONS
Kamikatsu Town is a small town but has made remarkable achievements in reaching the SDGs.
Referring to Kamikatsu Town is to mention Happa business (Irodori), zero waste andsustainable tourism. These have become the unique brand of Kamikatsu Town with the large
share of the Irodori brand in the market, a high rate of waste sorting and recycling, andattractive o ers in the direction of sustainable tourism. By 2030, this town is expected toachieve SDG2, SDG3, SDG4, SDG8, SDG9, SDG11, SDG12, SDG13, SDG15, and SDG17. To date,the town has achieved 6 out of 10 targets. The e orts of the local government and community
have revitalized the economy, created jobs for the local workforce, including the elderly in themodel e ectively for the whole model and the elderly themselves, attract and retain
immigrants with their families and jobs to settle down in town.
Kamikatsu Town has identi ied important strategies and implemented solutions to continue
developing in its direction in the long term. Regarding Happa business (Irodori), the locality
continues to follow the motto of sustaining health by being a player and contributor for theelderly, developing programs to train the younger generation to use the irodori mountains.
Concerning zero waste, the focus points are the 3R, namely the use of home compostingmachines, thorough reuse and recycling from waste and, importantly, care for the elderly
people, who have limited working capacity. In future plans, Kamikatsu Town puts control onwater tap in collaboration with the manufacturer and promotes ethical consumption. The town
is also ambitious to establish a town-wide project by lipping the idea (The town never had
waste collection trucks) and win the town brand with the irst zero waste declaration in the
country. In terms of sustainable tourism, the local government’s policy is urban immigrants
turn rural rich resources into tourism values, residents’ needs for cognition lead to tourism
development. Economic revitalization and employment promote immigration. Moresustainable tourism programs are expected to be established with expansion to other regions.
Despite certain achievements, there are still many challenges faced by the people and thegovernment of Kamikatsu Town. The common challenges of the whole Japanese society are
population decline and population aging, and the di iculty in calling the younger generation
into rural areas is partly caused by generation di erences and food habit changes. In thecontext of Kamikatsu Town, the challenges can come from the ambition of the 5R
achievement and loss of biodiversity among others.
Facing these situations, solutions that promote 5R, smart agriculture, attract immigration,transfer indigenous knowledge, adapt to changes, conserve the nature, and take care ofcommunity mental health are expected to address the challenges for Kamikatsu Towne ectively.

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References
Dekle, R. (2019, January 16). Why can’t Japan allow large-scale immigration to solve labor
shortage problem?. The Globe Post. https://theglobepost.com/2019/01/16/japan-laborshortage-immigrants/
Edahiro, J. (2015, January 24). Toward a sustainable Japan: Challenges and changes in society
and population. United Nations University. https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/toward-asustainable- japan-challenges-and-changes-in-society-and-population
Haga, K. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship in aging societies: theorical re lection and acase study from Kamikatsu, Japan. Journal of Innovation Economics Management, (3),119 141.
Ideas For Good (IFG). (2019, March 1). Kamikatsu’s success formula becoming a Zero Waste
town. Zenbird. https://zenbird.media/kamikatsus-success-formula-becoming-a-zero-wastetown/
O ice of Sound Material-Cycle Society, Policy Planning Division, Waste Management andRecycling Department, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of the Environment. (2014). History
and current state of waste management in Japan. Ministry of the Environment. https://www.env.go.jp/en/recycle/smcs/attach/hcswm.pdf
Jjwalsh. (n.d.). Inspiration of zero-waste town. GetHiroshima. Retrieved June 19, 2021, fromhttps://gethiroshima.com/features/inspiration-of-a-zero-waste-town/
Matsuoka, K. (2020, September 20). AI & drones come to the farm in Japan. c&en. https://cen.acs.org/food/agriculture/AI-drones-come-farm-Japan/98/i36
Murray, M. (2019, November 18). An introduction to Tokushima’s Kamikatsu: Stunning natureand zero waste. Setouchi Finder. https://setouchi inder.com/en/detail/4528?pg=3
Ong, R. (2020, July 9). Kamikatsu’s Zero Waste Center “WHY”: It’s inally complete. Zenbird.
https://zenbird.media/kamikatsus-zero-waste-center-why-its- inally-complete/
Planning Environment Division (PED), Kamikatsu Town. (2020, March 1). Items that cannot berecycled in Kamikatsu Town and are in trouble. Kamikatsu Town. https://zwtk.jp/2020/03/01/
Sakano, A. (2015, April 19). Zero waste: A small town’s big challenge. World Economic Forum.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/04/zero-waste-a-small-towns-big-challenge/
Silcox-Quimby, R. (2014, April 21). Changing food culture in Japan. Good Food World at Home.
http://www.goodfoodworld.com/2014/04/changing-food-culture-in-japan/
Usman, M., Sawaya, A., Igarashi, M., Gayman, J. J., & Dixit, R. (2021). Strained agricultural
farming under the stress of youths’ career selection tendencies: a case study from
Hokkaido (Japan). Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1 8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599 020 00688 4

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN4. KAMIKATSU TOWN, TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE(PART 2)Visited online on June 1 and 2, 2021
Authors: Zakaria Abdul-Razak, Delmaria Richards, Uranchimeg Batdelger, Quang Nguyen Huu,
Hoang Hanh Thi My

In this chapter, we discuss the summary of achievements, strategies, and future challenges of
Kamikatsu Town. We conclude this report by proposing some solutions to combat thechallenges hampering the SDGs in Kamikatsu.

4.1 KAMIKATSU TOWN’S STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE SDGS
Local SDGs towns in Japan share several commonalities, including but not limited to surviving
the tremendous municipal merger of the Heisei Era, possessing unique programs toaccomplish the sustainable development goals (SDGs), multi-stakeholder participation, plus
government endorsement and support. These plausible strategies have brought successes insustainable community development. Nonetheless, notwithstanding the signi icant
accomplishment of all three areas (Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town),
Kamikatsu Town stands out for its Irodori venture, zero-waste program, sustainableagroforestry management, as well as its socially innovative approaches of attracting young
immigrants to an aging town. All four strategies are paramount in meeting the community’s
overarching goal of ecological progressive harmonic revitalization. This section brie ly
explains the strategies employed to achieve the goals successfully. The strategies in focus are
zero waste, “Happa” business, forestry management, industry innovation, and education
tourism. The successes of these schemes are assessed thus far.

4.1.1 HAPPA BUSINESS (IRODORI)
Irodori (“to color”) is the concept of altering the shape or appearance of things to add beauty.
It is an essential part of the “Happa” business, which was started in the 1980s by the presidentof IRODORI. Co. Ltd, Tomoji Yokoishi. This business came about to diversify the agriculturalindustry to cash crops, considering the increased competition in timber production and thedestruction of orange trees by the 1981 cold wave. In the past, the main agro-products wererice and oranges. With diversity, especially considering Irodori’s growth in the agro-industry,
there has been economic revitalization in Kamikatsu Town. The business involves selling fresh
lowers and leaves to decorate Japanese dishes.
Farmers have tablets and computers to access a members-only web page on the Kamikatsu
Information Network. Here, they ind order information from buyers. Orders are then shipped

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to di erent locations through Kamikatsu JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives). The products
include plum, cherry, and peach blossoms, green maple leaves, plus, nandina; all used as foodgarnishes. It saw expansion in 1999 when IRODORI Co. Ltd. became a public-private
partnership (PPP). After 30 years, 200 farmers are now involved in shipping 320 products
locally and internationally to France, Germany, Thailand, etc.
Reasons for the success of the “Happa” business include the lighter weight of leaves, enabling
the elderly women farmers to handle them with much ease, market research for the leaves andknowing the customers’ expectations, and the use of distribution channels. Sales are also
improved through product standard improvement, where special trimming techniques are
utilized to guarantee high quality.
Furthermore, the innovation of becoming an agricultural marketing company by collecting
demand data then disseminating it directly to framers and IRODORI Co. Ltd. has contributed
to the increases. As demand and con idence among stakeholders are increasing favorably, thebusiness becomes attractive to young people, thus so-called “U Turn” and “I Turn” immigrants
are integrated into the “Happa” business, where locals and outsiders are encouraged to returnor immigrate to engage in jobs within the industry. Moreover, the business attracts outsiders
through study sessions in the internship program where experienced Irodori farmers train andmentor youths for increased participation. The collaboration between farmers and interns
fosters improved relationships and information sharing among di erent generations.
Numerous bene its arise from the Happa business, including income generation, vitalityboosting of elders, supporting women farmers, providing internships, and increased
technology utilization. International interns can be taken as part of a homestay program. The
business might lead to an expansion of the international market share while encouraging
immigration.

4.1.2 ZERO WASTE IN KAMIKASTU
Living a zero-waste lifestyle means striving to eliminate or massively reduce the solid waste
going to land ills, incinerators and employing recycling options; thus sustainable, and reusable
options are adopted. As over 100 major cities across the globe declared zero waste in theearly 2000s, so did Kamikatsu Town. In 2003, it was the irst among ive cities in Japan to
declare zero waste. The town prides itself on being a forerunner in sustainable solid waste
management.
According to a presentation given by Mr. Nonoyama during our virtual ield trip in June 2021,
the zero-waste lifestyle in Kamikatsu Town aims to reduce waste by promoting the 3Rs,
reduce, reuse, and recycle, without the utilization of land illing and incineration by 2020. A
Zero Waste Center was developed to aid in achieving its goals. The move was partly
in luenced by the 1997 Containers/Packaging Recycling Act which brought sweeping changes
to waste management across Japan, including Kamikatsu. After that, it started with nine
categories of separation but now has 45. The essential element is to reduce then reuse, withrecycling being the last option. In the town, zero-waste refers to “making waste, over-

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANconsumption, and spending into zero,” that is, reducing waste from the production stage. A
reduction or total elimination of single-use plastics is also a focal point (Nonoyama, 2021).
Since 2017, residents transport their waste to one waste collection center, Hibigatani Waste
Collection Center, then segregates them into 45 di erent categories. Elderly residents who
cannot regularly take their waste to the center are assisted by the sta of the waste collection
center, who visit these homes and collect the sorted waste once every two months(Nonoyama, 2021).
The uniqueness of Kamikastu’s zero waste project includes a stringent waste characterizationof 45 di erent categories, the signs at Hibigatani Waste Collection Center indicating thedestination and deliverables of various wastes (Figure 1), the transparent display of pro it andloss from waste management, a Zero Waste Academy (established in 2005), and a non-pro it
organization for research and promotion of zero waste projects to educate the residents andoutsiders regarding the community’s commitments to the zero-waste concept. Householdcompost can be done collectively then the excess is sold to outside markets.

Figure 1. Hibigatani Waste Collection Center Disposal Sign, Kamikatsu Town.
Source: Pangaea, LLC. (2021)

4.2 SUSTAINABLE AGROFORESTRY MANAGEMENT AND SOCIALLYINNOVATIVE APPROACHESNature conservation through sustainable use of agroforestry resources is a dominant theme in
the town’s SDG strategy. After the increased market competition, the timber industry declined;
now, the area is covered with 90% forest. Moreover, the growing and retailing of leaves and

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lowers are done sustainably. Additionally, there is a promotion of sustainable health andeducation tourism. The current and future socio-economic, environmental impacts are
considered when addressing the needs of tourists.
In Kamikatsu Town, visitors can experience a wide array of eco-friendly activities including
kayaking, aesthetics (rice terraces in Kashiwara), join nature camp (for a botanic experience
with plant species observation), geo-tourism (fossil excavation), and trekking throughmountains. Additionally, collaboration with big corporations like Sunstar Group to promotehealth tourism is commendable and o ers visitors the opportunity to enjoy nature coupledwith essential products.
Kamikatsu Town should promote a limited number of small craft items for sale to promote
greater use of forest resources. Additionally, kitchen and garden waste can also be coupled for
greater compost output or bio gasi ication to produce steam or electrical energy.

4.3 STRATEGIES FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND
COLLABORATION WITH BUSINESSES AND INDUSTRY
Kamikatsu Town had a goal of zero waste. It is moving forward to a sustainable and beautiful
town, which was the irst in the country to declare as the zero waste town from 2003 andjoining the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan in 2005. Kamikatsu Town has
developed 3rd master plan for sustainable socio-economic promotion. The goal is tocommunicate both social-economic and environmental issues for sustainability. Since 2015,
Kamikatsu started developing a scheme for communication strategies with the national
government and corporations. The town has been planting lowers and trees and growing
garden plants in greenhouses for early blooming plus market distribution. Under the master
plan, the town has been contributing beautiful lowers and plants.
IRODORI, Co., Ltd. has developed the Irodori business, popular among locals because of its
coloring and gorgeous leaves. The corporation serves as a link between individual producers
and markets, carries out business activities, provides information that connects calls or emails
with producers, operates an information network system for handling orders, and performs
other actions. In this business, elderly farmers can aggressively be involved in this Irodori
business that helps them earn income and happiness there. More than 50% are females, andelderly who are average age is 65 with around 200 households.
To aid the program, a tracking information system has been developed and set up in the homeof each farmer. It analyzes data by checking sales, performing ranking, relates data, andinally, send information to enable sales. As a result, the town realizes well-being by promoting
natural resources with local public participation. Owing to this business, more people are
becoming energized with increased con idence in their participation. Many foreigners visit the
town to familiarize themselves with the Irodori business. Today, the business has grown torecord sales of 260 million yen every year.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANNatural resource management in Kamikatsu Town by several cooperating entities, including
the cooperative agricultural sector, and other primary objects of the area, cooperates andoperates the business. The business provides the elderly with income and contributes to thetown’s local socio-economic structures. Therefore, the business boosts the economy of thetown. Consequently, it has direct impacts on other industries through the increased number ofvisitors to the town. They namely visit to engage in eco-tourism, observing the business, andor attending seminars. Kamikatsu Town is continually striving to develop healthy eco-tourism
further. Several primary tours, such as visiting hot springs with local ingredients and factory
tours, promote collaboration with the town’s o ice. For example, a famous ive-star company
called Sunstar Group is collaborating by networking within the systems.

4.4 FUTURE CHALLENGES
As introduced in the previous sections, brie ly, like many other municipalities in Japan,
Kamikatsu Town’s population is shrinking. However, aiming at the region’s revitalization, socalled the “sustainable development in Kamikatsu way” (Nonoyama, 2021), the town is working
toward a socio-economic system based on its unique characters and the valuable practicalexperiences of its old towners (Suzuki, 2012).
According to Kamikatsu Town’s members we virtually visited in June 2021, to accomplish its
sustainable development goal, Kamikatsu Town must tackle seven main challenges:
prospering with abundant nature; creating sustainable energy; making a way in the world
while carrying on its unique tradition and culture; parenting collectively, having a sound mind
in a sound body eternally; the region’s attractiveness leading to the economic development;
and preparing and supporting mutually. These challenges cover the whole socio-economicand ecological system of Kamikatsu Town. Therefore, it will bring out a sustainable socialecological environment for the town’s citizens to work and live collectively by surpassingthese.

4.5 SOLUTIONS TO COMBAT CHALLENGES
To tackle the future challenges, Kamikatsu Town, by its SDGs future urban planning (Kamikatsu
Town, 2018), determines what strategies or targets it needs to work toward its sustainable
goals.
There are, in total, eight main strategies: (1) industrial promotion utilizing Irodori; (2) promotionof new entrants in agriculture, forestry, and isheries business; (3) recyclable town
development utilizing the zero-waste brand; (4) promotion of seasonal tourism; (5)employment support for young people and successors training; (6) promotion of sustainable
and beautiful town development; (7) promotion of zero waste policies and facilities; and (8)formation of healthy longevity that is active throughout life. Moreover, the crucial point inworking with these strategies is that the approach must be sustainable and integrated(Kamikatsu Town, 2018).

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANKamikatsu Town seemingly acknowledges that the backbones of its “sustainable developmentin Kamikatsu way” are the Irodori business and the zero-waste brand. Therefore, by asustainable and integrated approach, all strategies are considered based on the prospering ofthese two backbones. The approach fundamentally promotes and utilizes the Irodori businessand the zero-waste brand toward sustainable development. As a result, it helps revitalize
Kamikatsu Town, bringing up people’s living conditions eternally and in a very Kamikatsu way.
What is more, it can be considered that the place’s unique character should be the core of any
attempts toward its future development. Kamikatsu Town, with its way of sustainable
development, turns out to be a typical and symbolic example of this inding.

4.6 SHARED VALUES BETWEEN OTHER TOWNS AND OUR
COUNTRIES
Globally, waste rates are rising with rapid population growth and urbanization. Annual waste
generation in the world is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 to 3.40 billion tons in 2050
if with no e orts. Over 90% of waste in low-income countries is often disposed of in
unregulated dumps or openly burned, causes serious health, safety, environmental outcomes,
and contributes to global climate change (World Bank, 2019). The waste characterization will
help determine the number of total wastes and the types of waste. It is crucial because it helps
us decide the waste amount generated and which type of waste must be focused on to ensure
a successful recycling approach. Kamikatsu Town’s current recycling rate is more than 80%, anachievement compared to 20% of Japan’s national recycling rate.
To gain this success, Kamikatsu’s residents put much e ort into recycling, for example, sorting
waste at source, reducing environmentally unfriendly production, and increasing reusable
products to prevent the spread of waste in daily life. Similarly, traditional jobs like the Happabusiness (Irodori) contribute to the uniqueness of this Japanese town. Although the Kamikatsu
Town is facing a severe lack of young labor force and limited immigrants, the residents there
showed that aging people between the ages of 70 to 75 years old are still robust and active.
Currently, Kamikatsu’s residents are trying to train and transfer their knowledge about doing
business and agriculture to young people. Moreover, to comply with the economic
development and sustainable development goal, Kamikatsu Town is also focusing on tourism
for anyone that wants to experience the rural lifestyle in Japan like the 100 years of the forest,
Kuru-kuru Shop (a waste recycling/reuse shop), in a zero-waste town.
Although Kamikatsu Town is small, its actions will be successful and can be a template forother towns and cities worldwide to learn from; especially regarding citizen engagement andraising awareness. For example, what is produced in town, is recycled and used there. Similar
policies comparable to waste separation, redesigning products into reusable items will beworkable in other places in and out of Japan, especially in Asian countries where rapid
population growth and economic development create massive demand.

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4.7 CONCLUSION
All the projects promote small and medium-sized businesses alongside industry innovation,
having positive spillover e ects for U-turn and I-turn. Moreover, Irodori internships andeducational opportunities for all age range ensure the stability of the programs. The town’s
projects are salient for its survival, given its population. We learn that to achieve sustainable
societies, the loops between production, consumption, and disposal must be closed.
Therefore, we need to reduce waste from upstream (at the production stage). For this, clear
ecological goals accompanied by philosophies communicated and agreed upon by majority
stakeholders are necessary.
The most successful point reached by Kamikatsu Town is that they can achieve fullparticipation of all social stakeholders: central and local arms, the government, manufacturers,
enterprises, communities, households, and so on to understand their responsibilities for thecommunity future generations. Kamikatsu Town clearly understands that to achieve its zerowaste goal, the most challenging part will be how to keep its traditional and uniquecharacteristics while trying to connect with the outside world, which has more education,
opportunities, technologies, and so on.
Many people argue that Kamikatsu is a small, closed community, an isolated town, which canbe among the advantages to Kamikatsu Town becoming a symbol. However, we believe that
other towns and cities worldwide can employ some of the same strategies to achieve zerowaste, alongside the general SDGs goals. Nevertheless, when doing so, the proper steps andtimelines with the policies are paramount for success.

References
Kamikatsu Town. (2018, July). Kamikatsu SDGs future urban planning. Kamikatsu Town. http://
www.kamikatsu.jp/docs/2018082900017/ ile_contents/kamikatsu_SDGs.pdf
Kamikatsu Town. (2021, April 1). Reiwa 2nd Year Kamikatsu Town SDGs Promotion Committee
Activity Report: Shared Vision. Kamikatsu Town. http://www.kamikatsu.jp/docs/
2021032400017/
Nonoyama, S. (2021). [Lecture notes in SUSTEP online trip]. Sustainable community planning:
Sustainable development in Kamikatsu way. Pangaea, LLC.
Pangaea, LLC. (n.d.). [Video in SUSTEP online trip]. Introduction about Irodori ad zero waste in
Kamikatsu. Pangaea, LLC.
Suzuki, N. (2012). Creating a community of resilience: New meanings of technologies for
greater well-being in a depopulated town. Anthropology & Aging, 33(3), 87 96. https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2012.58.
World Bank. (2019, September 23). Solid Waste Management. The World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-management.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTINDIVIDUALREPORTSTOPICS
Brie ly report and discuss the followings:• Lessons learned from the three municipalities,• Applicability to your country, and• Suggestions for the municipality(ies) you virtually visited.

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANRATHNAYAKEGE HEMALI RATHNAYAKE
1. OSAKI TOWN
Osaki Town has been recognized for its integrated solid waste management plan as a stepped
forward for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. While the key element of the project isbeing the motivated community participation, they have achieved 84 percent of reduction in
inal land ill waste and 83% of recycling rate in 2018. That has enabled to resolve the major
issue of land ill facility by extending the life cycle of present land ills site for next 35 45 years.
The future challenge of the project is to introduce the waste reduction strategies by reducing
plastics and abolishing single time used packaging which it drives to considerable decrease of
per capita waste generation and overall city waste management cost. The city’s next initiative
for achieving SDGs by 2030 is to establish circular economy though compost manufacturingfrom organic waste and utilize as resource input for agriculture and develop value added local
production venture.
In Sri Lanka averaged daily per capita waste generation is nearly same as Osaki Town around
800g of which 65% is biodegradable. The country recently brought up a policy decision to go
for totally organic agriculture, which may consequently result in high demand for compost
fertilizer. This enables to motivate for a circular linkage between food and agricultural waste
used for compost manufacturing and fertilizing for agriculture. That has the potential of thetotal biodegradable waste generated is to be the resource for compost manufacturing. The
quality of compost manure depends on the state of waste segregation at source, to be notmixed with inorganic compounds. Therefore, the e ective contribution of the citizen is the key
to success the process. Presently composting projects have been implemented in some citiesof the country, but it should be further implemented as a national policy, where biodegradable
waste is supplied to the collection centers trough a standardized collection system or utilized
by the community themselves for home gardening. Likewise, country should irst have to step
to segregate the organic resource content of the national solid waste generation, where thenremain 35 percent is the target for recycling.
2. NISHIAWAKURA TOWN
Nishiawakura city has been recognized as a SDGs Future City in 2019. The successive elementsof the city revitalization process are forestry management plan and related local venture,
managing energy demand by renewable energy generation, attracting immigration andecotourism, its contribution to the climate mitigation by stimulating the carbon sinking
process through maintaining a biomass carbon capital and removing the carbon dioxide fromthe air is also a signi icant bene it from this eco city model to the globe.
In applicability to Sri Lanka there are some notable potentials in countryside in terms of forest
management. Considering the timber production, 42 percent of country’s timber supply
comes from home gardening, 11 percent from the forest plantation and rest from imports andother agricultural plantations (FAO, 2009). Since private sector has the major capacity, thepublic private collaboration might be a good initiative to create an integrated economic-

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANenvironment development plan in regional wise. Further the agricultural cities like Mahaweli
development towns which developed to supply irrigated water to the dry zone have gone
through huge transition of forestry to agriculture land use. The carbon loss has occurred dueto these transitions can be o set by such kind of forestry management projects within the
Mahaweli development regions, by adding with multiple bene its of preserving ground watertable and natural water schemes, enhancing the environment quality, and introducing revenue
streams through forestry management related entrepreneurship to attract younger
population.
3．KAMIKATSU TOWN
Kamikatsu Town has achieved its identity and recognition towards achieving SDGs throughIrodori happa business, zero waste declaration and sustainable eco- tourism. The remarkablefeature of Irodori happa business is that it enables elderly population to be a player and acontributor to the economy and thereby being themselves a healthy community. Zero-waste
concept of the city considers much on reuse and recycling with community participation. By
providing composting machines to the houses, they have further reduced the burden on city
resources on kitchen waste management and on the other hand it is conceptually a mini scale
resource circulation method that utilize the nutrient content of their kitchen waste to homegardening.
In Sri Lanka if considered the main city of Colombo, still most of the houses have a small-scalegardening space and most of them are provided with composting bins. Yet that kind ofelectric composting machines would be more attractive in kitchen waste recycling. I believethat kitchen waste collection from houses except from town center commercial spots should
be strongly limited and motivate to dispose only other waste items in clean and proper
manner to achieve the zero-waste target. Considering happa business, in Sri Lanka, especiallyelderly and women entrepreneurship programs would be easily adopted to engage that kindof businesses., In the countryside it can be adjusted to compatible local resources, which is
unique or available at the region and can be managed by public private collaboration. I would
like to suggest for introducing plant leave based packaging industry where the waste is goesto the organic manure production. That enables to limit countries plastic imports and circular
the natural resource of the country and lead for green economy.

References
FAO, 2009, Forestry Outlook study, retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/am624e/
am624e00.pdf.
Kamikatsu’s success formula becoming a Zero Waste town, retrieved from https://
zenbird.media/kamikatsus-success-formula- becoming-a-zero-waste-town/
Nonoyama S, sustainable Community Planning, Kamikatsu Town, Tokushima Prefecture
SUSTEP Online Trip, June 1&2, 2021
Osaki Town, Global Standard: Osaki Town - Toward a sustainable town, SUSTEP Online Trip,
May 25, 2021

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANShizume, C., 2020, Kagoshima’s Osaki Town’s ambitious plans to achieve SDGs by 2030,
November 23, 2020, Retrieved June 9, 2021, from https://zenbird.media/kagoshimas-Osakitowns-ambitious-plans-Sdgs-by-2030/
Ueyama, T, E ort for regional revitalization that no one is left behind, Nishiawakura Village,
SUSTEP Online Trip, May 26, 2021

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANPESHALA AMARATUNGAINTRODUCTION
Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu are three cities selected under revitalization of local areas
through progressive SDG approaches. Most importantly all the towns followed their own way
towards achieving SDG goals, from the resources they owned. They achieved economic,
socially and environmental sustainability within a limited budget. They acted as role models toall other cities, not only in Japan, but other countries as well. They succeeded throughcollaborative approach with various stake holders.
LESSONS LEARNED
Osaki Town practiced zero incineration waste management, which is very eco-friendly. It isvery impressive that residents are highly motivated, and they separate household waste into
27 categories, which is an unimaginable process. They achieved challenge of dumping waste
in the same site by extending life of same land ill site. They had three options to prolong thesame land ill site, (1) to build an incineration plant (2) to have a new land ill site and (3) to makethe current system e icient and use same site for a longer period. They followed third option
and came up with this e icient waste sorting and recycling. Due to their waste separatinge iciency, the ratio of recycling to land illing increased. They could achieve recycling rate
more than 80% which best not only in Japan but all over the world. Consequently, the waste
extent goes to land ill, reduced by 84% in 2018 compared to 1998. Finally, they could extend
the land ill life up to 35 45 years. Most importantly, the power of community is the way totheir success. They maintain a good social relationship with each other. Osaki Town has beenable to create job opportunities for recycling as well. The residents follow a healthy lifestyle,enjoying local foods.
Nishiawakura Village, facing decreasing population and weak economy, could overcome theirchallenges with 100-year forest plan and other new business activities. Following the thematic
slogan of forestry industry “brighten our forests, brighten our life, brighten our future” theyfound solutions for their own problems, achieving SDGs. The village maintains 93% of highforest cover enabling to create a healthy and fresh environment. The two pillars of their vision
are to create a low carbon society and local venture and attract young generation. The village
aims to create a high-quality countryside life by activating these pillars. Biomass industry,hydro power generation and eco-tourism development plans are important aspects of village
revenue. The local venture could attract young generation come to the village. The theme
behind their development is “No one left behind” which is a good lesson for every village who
seeks their own success.
Farmers in Kamikatsu Town are independent business owners, whose main livelihoods createdupon agriculture, forestry and happa (Irodori) business. It is interesting to know that the
majority of citizens, who engage in happa business, are averagely more than seventy- iveyears old. Even the di icult period like covid 19, the young farmers did not compete with thesenior farmers, respecting them as adults. The residents are highly motivated that they

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contributed lot to make the zero-waste concept a reality. They also work happily towards
achieving SDGs. Community recreation strategy of Kamikatsu Town is very impressive. An
industrial promotion programme started utilizing Irodori mountains. This aimed to develop
tourism and encourage next generation by integrating agriculture and forestry. In forest area
town government developed a plan for better production system. Irodori farming manual was
prepared and promoted training to aware the students about technical know-how of thebusiness. Zero waste concept utilized in many public and private projects. Health tourism wasdeveloped using rich nature with forest resources as well. Another interesting point came out
from citizen’s hearing is that they do not like arti icial Cedar trees but want to have “Satoyama”
forests.
APPLICABILITY TO MY COUNTRY - SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka can apply the zero incineration waste management practices as we learned from
Osaki Town and Kamikatsu Town. The waste separation is not properly practiced, and it isnecessary to change attitudes of people through positive thinking approach. Lessons can betaught through the high motivational attitudes of local residents in these Japanese SDG towns.
The life span of open dumping sites can be extended, following proper recycling methods
without burning. The government o icers of Municipalities should be educated on proper
waste separation and recycling. These practices should be added to the school curricula aswell.
In Sri Lanka the forestry sector is not much signi icant with forest plantations. The Rathnapura
Municipality can focus on making pro it from forestry as much of the plantations concentrated
around that area. The lessons learned from Kamikatsu can be applied for this. There are
beautiful waterfalls located in the region. Therefore, eco-tourism and producing
hydroelectricity is much possible in this municipality. The residents need to make aware with
the SDGs and appoint them as leaders of implementing projects. Rathnapura is also blessedwith precious gemstones, which has opened paths to businesses and employment in the area.
Local ventures can be introduced with gem industry and other local products. International
study tours can be promoted regarding gem mining process in the rivers and inside theunderground tunnels.
Another city is “Kithulgala” which is small town in Rathnapura district. Kithulgala is famous forjaggary and treacle (syrup) made up of “Kithul tree” (Fishtail palm). It is a very healthy foodthat can be used instead of sugar. The area is famous for water rafting a famous bird watchingarea as well. The natural forests play important role in biodiversity conservation as well.
Therefore, the eco-tourism can be promoted through local ventures, speci ic food products
and study tours as we learned from Nishiawakura and Kamikatsu.
SUGGESTIONS
Since Osaki Town has been identi ied as an “education platform” for SDGs, and a town ofrecycling, the knowledge can be spread all over the world. Therefore, it is important to train
the young generation and give them thorough knowledge of SDGs as well as develop theirforeign language (English, French, etc.) skills. Then the knowledge can be shared with schools

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in other countries. They can organize mutual study tours with international students. This will
help whole world turning to a circular economy.
The technical know-how of Osaki Town can be spread through international workshops andseminars. Recycling facilities can be installed to manage waste comes from animal husbandry,
even though, it is considered as commercial waste. The special food items like passion fruitand eel can be used to promote the tourism, both locally and internationally. Therefore,
Japanese government can support Osaki Town to conduct a massive awareness andpromotional campaign all over the world. They can work collaboratively with JICA to make thisa successful project. Products can be developed with collaboration with researchers andbusiness entities.
Nishiawakura is very successful with forestry business, which is important for the economy ofthe village. One suggestion for Nishiawakura is, have a good plan for biodiversity
conservation. It will help increase species of both lora and fauna. This will support to increase
the eco-tourism as well. Cable car or rope line system also can be operated in the mountain to
attract more local and foreign tourists. Forestry researches also can be facilitated atinternational level.
In order to eliminate disposable containers and discontinue single-use plastics in Kamikatsu,
open markets can be introduced. There, all fruits and vegetables can be stored without
wrapping. A scale can be used to weigh the required amount of vegetables. This is practiced
in supermarkets and fairs of some countries (e.g, Sri Lanka). In restaurants, instead of plastic
containers natural wrappers can be used (In Sri Lanka, Banana leaves and lotus leaves are very
popular). Japan also has large lotus leaves and they can be used as an alternative. The oranges(citrus) grown in the area can be promoted through a special marketing name. Researchers
can do experiments to improve the quality and taste of various citrus varieties in Kamikatsu. To
overcome the impact of Covid-19 pandemic the business owners can help each other for theirincome earning. The person who gets highest orders can buy products (e.g., happa business)from others and help each other during di icult situations. This can be practiced for therestaurants as well. Innovative ideas of people can be encouraged with incentives andsubsidies. Spread the news through media broadcastings. Leisure activities can be planned in
Irodori mountains, which will attract more young people.

References
Coca, N. (2018). Learning from the past: Japan’s tree planting e orts provide lessons for othercountries. Retrieved on 14th June 2021, from https://ensia.com/features/japan-reforestationdeforestation-lessons- indonesia-china.
Edahiro, J. (2018). Nishiawakura's Initiative for Self-Dependence Attracting Motivated Young
People to Migrate to the Village and Start Businesses. Retrieved 15th June 2021, fromhttps://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036016.html.
JICA (2012). Pro ile of Environmental and Social Considerations in Sri Lanka. Retrieved on 18th
June 2021 from, https://openjicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12080032.pdf.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANAUNG KO KO
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE THREE MUNICIPALITIESWe learned about the sustainable management of three municipalities during the online ield
trip: Osaki Town in Kagoshima Prefecture, Nishiawakura Village from Okayama Prefecture andKamikatsu Town in Tokushima Prefecture. All three municipalities have unique characteristics
that are in-line with sustainable development, and are trying to achieve sustainable goals in
the future.
With a 13,000 population, Osaki Town has ranked irst in nationwide recycling for 12
consecutive years. Through community-led e orts, the town now has a 27-item waste sorting
system. This e ort allows for more than 80% waste reduction compared to 1998, generates
municipal recycling revenue and creates new jobs. The most critical stakeholders in the town
are self-governing associations. The people belong to each self-governing association and dodaily activities, including recycling with 27 items separation. Participating in the waste
separation activities as a place for communication to strengthen bonds among the community
is an interesting social behaviour of Osaki. The local government is responsible for issuinglaws and rules of recycling, investing in a waste recycling company and managing the disposal
site.
Most arti icial forests in Nishiawakura, as in other regions throughout Japan, were planted
during the country's postwar years of rapid economic growth. With the subsequently broader
distribution of inexpensive imported wood, Japan's forestry became dwindled, leading toinsu icient attention to forest thinning. The degradation of arti icial forests was also caused by
the lack of thinning and other forest management e orts. Facing these circumstances, thevillage established "a 100-year vision of forests" in 2008. This initiative aims for cherishing thethought of ancestors who planted the trees 50 years ago for future generations and formaking concerted e orts to raise the forests for another 50 years into splendid 100-year oldforests. The 100-year old forest is being promoted mainly by the local government. With thevillage o ice on behalf of the owners, the local government keeps the forests, thins them out
and maintains forest roads. The village sells wood derived from forest thinning under proper
management as logs and promotes the wood products for end-users to increase the valueadded local wood.
Kamikatsu town is a small town located in Shikoku Island with less than 1,500 people, 53% of
which belong to the aging population. The town is approximately 110 km2 in the area where
the forest occupies 88% of the land. Kamikatsu town has three distinctive features: Happabusiness called IRODORI, zero waste management and sustainable tourism.
The Irodori company created a market for decorative leaves to garnish traditional Japanesecuisine, and established the “Irodori” brand. Farmers, an agricultural cooperative, the “Irodori”
company are engaged in this enterprise together. The average age of farmers in the village is
70 years old, and the majority are women. Irodori’s business began with only four female

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANfarmers in 1986. In 1987, Irodori started as a project of the agricultural cooperative ofKamikatsu. Since 1999, Irodori has been an independent semi-governmental corporation.
Kamikatsu town used to exercise open incineration as its primary form of waste disposal. Overtime, the town could not a ord a new incinerator with a declining and aging population.
Therefore, the town decided to explore an alternative method of waste disposal. In 2003,
Kamikatsu became the irst town in Japan to implement the zero-waste policy. Since the timeof declaration to eliminate land ill and incinerated waste, the residents have worked together
to ful ill the “3Rs” principles of reducing, reusing, and recycling. The service for trashcollection is not operated in the town and the residents have to send their waste to the waste
collection center by separating it into more than 45 di erent categories. With the keenawareness to reduce waste, the residents compost the kitchen waste and food scraps at theirhome. Through their collective e orts, the residents of Kamikatsu now recycle more than 80%of their overall waste.
Kamikatsu is a unique destination to study in terms of sustainable tourism development. The
city has been being tried to achieve SDGs in the future. It is a beautiful village in a valley withfantastic local products, onsen hot-springs and hiking trails to attract visitors. Recently, thetown’s zero-waste policies to achieve sustainability have attracted a new type of visitor.
APPLICABILITY TO MYANMAR FROM THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM WASTE MANAGEMENT OF OSAKITOWNGenerated waste in Osaki Town used to be brought to the land ill as the town had no
incineration facility in its district. However, Osaki became the leading municipality for 12
consecutive years in Japan due to its recycling rate. So, how does Osaki maintain number one
for such a long period? The same with local authorities in Japan, Osaki had to face the land ill
capacity problem. As the town could not incinerate waste, they tackled this problem byseparating the waste into di erent categories to prolong the life span of land ills. Therefore,
Osaki established an original sorting method named ‘Osaki System’, calling for di erent waste
separation and collaborating with businesses to advocate its initiative. By applying this wastesorting strategy, the government of Myanmar could initiate some garbage sorting systems
depending on the regions as the majority of towns in Myanmar do not have incineration
plants.
Garbage sorting in Osaki is not just ordinary garbage sorting because waste is sorted into 27
categories to maximize recycling. This steady e ort of waste separation began to appear in
numbers gradually, and the amounts of land ill waste and recycled waste reversed after
implementing garbage sorting. In 2017, Osaki’s recycling rate was over 80% to that of thenational average in Japan. As waste separation is not usual in Myanmar except in large cities, it
may sound odd for the people for the irst time. However, awareness to the public likeeducating the public with training for separating various kinds of wastes into kitchen wastes,
burnable and unburnable wastes will maximize the recycling and life span of land ill sites in
Myanmar.

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While making remarkable progress in solving its waste issues, Osaki is making another step
toward promoting SDGs. Osaki aims to reduce plastic and achieve to abolish single-use
containers by 2030 completely. It also aims to provide a bene icial alternative by 2024 andtargets 80% penetration by 2027. Moreover, Osaki wants to accelerate the circular economy,
promote SDGs, make renewable energy, and build a new social system.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WASTE RECYCLING OF OSAKI TOWN
On average in Japan where the recycling rate is almost 20%. However, the recycling rate ofOsaki town is more than 80%. The recycling cost will get cheaper when citizens fully corporate
in sorting and washing garbage. It will also reduce the costs in recycling plants because there
is no need to sort and wash using expensive equipment. Conversely, the more thegovernments spend the money to recycle, the more recycling rate may go up. However, thiswill not be acceptable in terms of iscal policy. Citizens’ cooperation is a “must” for achieving
sustainable waste management. In addition, the cleaner recyclable garbage is, the higher the
selling price.

References
Edahiro, J. (2015). Toward a Sustainable Japan: Challenges and Changes in Society andPopulation. Retrieved from https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/toward-a-sustainable-japanchallenges-and-changes-in-society-and-population
ECD, MONREC (2017). National Waste Management Strategy and Action Plan for Myanmar, theRepublic of the Union of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. Retrieved from https://optoce.no/
wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Myanmar-National-Waste-ManagementStrategy_Mar-2018.pdf
Edahiro, J. (2018). Nishiawakura's Initiative for Self-Dependence Attracting Motivated Young
People to Migrate to the Village and Start Businesses. Retrieved from https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036016.html
Haga, K. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship in aging societies: theorical re lection and acase study from Kamikatsu, Japan. Journal of Innovation Economics & Management, 18, p.
119 141. Retrieved from https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-of-innovation- economics-2015 3page-119.htm
Khaing Zar Yee, (2019). Overview of solid waste management in Myanmar. Retrieved fromhttps://www.pic.org.kh/images/2019Research/20191014_Overview%20of%20Solid%20
Waste%20Management%20in%20Myanmar.pdf
Jain, A. (2017). Waste Management in ASEAN Countries. p.7. Retrieved from https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/waste-management-asean-countriessummaryreport

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANURANCHIMEG BATDELGEROBJECTIVE
The aim is to introduce and share Japan's Local Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) andlearn from good practices that focus on natural resources and beautiful cultural villages as
Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu Town. In addition, participants and organizer discussed
their own experiences. A total of 22 participants have joined, and Naoko Kaida has
successfully instructed the online trip.
INTRODUCTION
The Japanese government declared a total of 17 SDGs for support in the countries withstakeholders. Those Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu Town were all selected in SDGs
program from 2019. Each town and city has owned their business based on the natural andcultural way from history. Even though the town/villages have faced several problems,
challenges, and successes, they always learn from national and international levels.
A total of participation was 22, and they discussed, shared their recommendations, learned
from Japanese practices, and exchanged their acknowledgments. They hope that they willcontribute all the experience from the online trip to their countries.
DISCUSSION
Osaki Town: a total population is 12,831, and SDGs main is to reduce plastic containers andone-time plastic consumption as minimum as possible. The number one is ish, passion fruit,chicken production, and waste (organic and non-organic) recycling business. The main
activity is each household participated in the land ill disposal of waste without incinerators.
The recycling system established cooperation, collaboration, and trust between households,
enterprises, and local government for organizing the collection, explanation/guidance, andpermits. The three participation has own responsibilities, for example; the household
separates and sorts; besides, enterprises inspect the garbage and train the student, whoneeds recycling systems. The towns implemented the project, which did succeed in reducing
the waste to be inal disposal by 84% over the 20 years. Without incineration, land ill sites will
have to face the challenges such as limited land ills, contaminations, etc.
Nishiawakura Village: a total population is 1437, and household 607. The village aims to createhigh-quality countryside and work for over 100 years in the forest business and renewableenergy business. Forest in Nishiawakura was planted arti icial for economic growth and forest
management for avoiding degradation of the arti icial forest. The business mad job creationand economic development under-supported projects, named Mori-no-gakko are responsible
for SDGs goal as clean energy. The businesses are conducting such as forest eels, hot springs,
and wooden products. The village adopted solar, ire, small biomass, and hydropower plants
as facilities for introducing renewable energy. For example, solar power uses depend on powerusage, which resident is 100 kW and private is 90 kW. According to renewable energy, thelocal government has been working to support the tourism business, promote migration, and

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANelderly participation. Last decades, people moved from the countryside to the village thepopulation has been increasing compared to 2009. Even though the population is rising, there
has met a challenge for high school. The local government is preparing for the future city
under SDGs; to promote sustainable development in the three aspects of the economy,society, and the environment.
Kamikatsu Town: a total population is 1489 with agriculture as Irodori and citrus and zerowaste. The town covered 80% of planted forest. From the history of e orts, happa business,
how it developed from foresty to happa launched by Mr. Yokoishi. He founded the business in
Okasa to understand the possibility of working with farmers. The business just started withfour farmers; currently, the number of farmers increases by over 200 farmers. The Irodori
business is spread all over the county, independent of farmers managed by Irodori
Corporation. In this business, elderly people aged over 60 as farmers can very aggressively be
involved and support their life's income and they would like to participate. Irodori businesscontains three-cycle systems: information to the company, shipment to the farmers, andproduction dispatch to the JA. The Kamikatsu village was declared a zero-waste town, in 2003.
It is moving forward to a sustainable and beautiful town. Natural resource and management in
Kamikatsu Town, the cooperative agricultural sector, and business contribute to the town's
local social economics. Therefore, the business contributes to motivating the economy of thetown. Low carbon technology sets in the villages contain solar power systems in someresidents, such as schools and facilities. To increase the number of visitors to the town,
observe the business, or attend seminars on eco-tourism. Kamikatsu Town is developing
healthy eco-tourism but not fully developed. Several tours, such as the primary type, are hotsprings with local ingredients and factory tours promoting collaboration from the town o ice
and ive-star company famous in Japan for collaboration with networking systems. Therefore,
the town has recently challenged the declining population, then, ongoing plan to support thepeople living in the town and running the business.
CONCLUSION
According to SDGs, the online trip introduced and visited three towns: Osaki, Nishiawakura,
and Kamikatsu, which were watched purposively by virtual. Those towns are selected SDGs
proposed villages, and it will be making future sustainable development technology in theexamples. I have learned how communication is essential to develop business from support,
collaboration, participation, and e orts from the government. Besides, SDGs in Japan aredeveloping around Asia, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and even Mongolia are adopting these
improvement and comprehensive goals. Even though COVID 19, I am excited to participate in
the future Japanese perspective of towns experience and practice in a virtual trip.

References
Kamikatsu Town, Promoting Local government SDGs for Invigoration of Localities, March 28,
2019
Kamikatsu Town, Satoshi Nonoyama, Sustainable Community Planning, Online trip, 1&2 June,
2021

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANNishiawakura Village, Regional Creation Promotion O ice Manager, Takahiro Ueyama, E orts
for regional revitalization that no one is left behind, 2020
Osaki Town, Global Standard: Osaki Town
Questions and answers from the online trip, Local SDGs Towns in Japan: Learning from goodpractices

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANHUYNH THI BAO VY
OSAKI TOWN
Osaki is a small town in the Southern part of Kagoshima prefecture, with a total population of
12,831 people (Shizume, 2020). The town has been well-known by other municipalities inJapan due to its outstanding achievement in the recycling system. The town has successfully
sorted garbage into 27 categories to diminish the pressure on land ill sites. Proceeding withthe success as the number one recycling town, Osaki local authority has started building asustainable town from a high-rated-recycling town. The establishment of the SDGs Promotion
Council marked the new stage in the development process of the Osaki Town. For long-term
visions, the Promotion Council has planned the strategies towards an Osaki circular town,
educational institutions and research facilities, etc.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
Nishiawakura is a village located in the northeast of Okayama Prefecture. It has a population of
1,416 people, with a total area of 57.93 square kilometers. The village was 93% covered byforestry, and forestry is the main livelihood of local communities. The 100-year forest business
was managed and promoted by the local government in 2009. This plan has helped improve
the living standards of local communities, create more job opportunities, and attract morepotential immigrants.
KAMIKATSU TOWN
Kamikatsu Town has been well-known for its unique business called Irodori and zero-waste
town. As Osaki Town and Nishiawakura Village, Kamikatsu Town is a typical example of thetown which successfully ultilizes the available resources at the locality for the businessdevelopment.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM CASE STUDIES OF THE THREE TOWNS
Utilizing the local resources as motivators for the sustainable development of the local
economy.
Successfully achieving the long-term goals requires periodic strategy plans with theparticipation of whole communities from governments, private sectors, households, andindividuals.
Providing the immigrants, especially the young people with high life conditions and job
opportunities as they may have been the potential generations in the town with the limitation
on population.
CHAM ISLAND – A SUITABLE VILLAGE IN HOI AN CITY, VIETNAM, FOR LEARNING GOOD PRACTICES
Cham Island is located 15 kilometers from Hoi An City’s mainland. Cham Island is a small
village with a total area of 1,317 hectares and around 2,400 local people (Ngoc, 2018). Chamf

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANIsland is an attractive destination for tourists as a World Biosphere Reserve. Plastic bags are
not permitted to use on the island by the local government to diminish the negative impactsof plastic waste on the environment. However, there is no solid waste treatment system in thetown, and all solid waste generated from local households would be transported to themainland for treatment. Moreover, the solid waste classi ication at source has not been
implemented on the island. Therefore, the local authority of Cham Island can apply the lessonsof Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town in waste separation at source.

References
Ngoc, Q. T. K. (2018). Impacts on the ecosystem and human well-being of the marine
protected area in Cu Lao Cham, Vietnam. Marine Policy, 90(December), 174 183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.12.015
Shizume, C. (2020). Kagoshima’s Osaki Town’s ambitious plans to achieve SDGs by 2030,
November 23, 2020, Retrieved June 13, 2021, from https://zenbird.media/kagoshimas-Osakitowns-ambitious-plans- to-achieve-sdgs-by-2030/

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANKALAM KANIZ ZAKIAINTRODUCTION
Japan is a country of very distinct landscapes and cities with an extended history of resistanceto natural disasters. To cut back GHG emissions, Japan advocates environmentally friendly
technologies to move low-carbon cities, boost various collaboration of private and public
sectors, essential change of the socio-economic system and physical structure, and reduceresource consumption. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are highly promoted. Japan's local
governments are taking a lead role toward a sustainable city (Hara et al., 2014). One of the newJapanese economic policies is to promote small-scale or decentralized energy systems toform communities with more sustainable and low-carbon emissions. The strategy is toassociate local inancial institutions that hold enough funds available for appropriate
investment and the local governments who have the authority to push quali ied businesses
that will bring social bene its and employment opportunities based on locally available
resources (MIC, 2014). It may signi icantly bene it the SDGs as decentralized renewable powersystems and their local governance will be crucial in integrating several SDGs. The online tour
around the three local villages has a di erent strategy to reach the SDGs.
OSAKI TOWN
With 12,821 people, Osaki Town has been recycling for 20 years and achieved an 83.4%
recycling rate in 2017 and recorded irst in ranking the recycling rate surveyed by the Ministryof Environment for 11 years. The city has started the recycling business by incorporating Nonincineration Waste Disposal System, including separating 27 items by citizens and collecting
and processing by a waste recycling company, Osaki System. To start the non-incineration
Waste Disposal System, the local government of Osaki Town held a meeting with 4,000
households townspeople co-organized with 153 self-governing associations and governmento ices in Osaki Town over a total of 450 times for about four months. As a result, local
government o ices said to citizens, “Recycling makes change garbage to pro itable
resources” to understand town people. Then Osaki Town of local government, enterprise andresidents’ cooperation sorted 27 items and introduced economic outcomes like creating newjobs and social consequences like making a scholarship program using recycled products. The
main goal of the Osaki system is citizens’ support with high environmental consciousness andprofessional skill of recycling and visiting homes to those who are di icult to sort and collectgarbage. The participatory and inclusive approach in decision-making overcome the barriersof adopting a recycling system rather than a new dumping site or incineration.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
Nishiawakura faced a constant decreasing population and a weak economy. To change thissituation, villagers started to develop themselves. Finally, with sustainable forestry, the village
became a model for the success of regional revitalization. The 100-year forest businessattracted attention from all over Japan. This 100-year forest concept was started to createhigh-quality life in the countryside and low carbon society.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANThe composition of forests is mainly based on inexpensive and imported wood sugi and hinoki
and challenged the local forestry. Therefore, forest management, such as thinning, has given
less priority and led to the degradation of arti icial forests. The new concept evolved as “lookat the lessons of past 50 years and plan for next 50 years”. Most importantly, this helped
reduce greenhouse gases, create a low carbon society, and create a healthy and fresh living
environment preventing landslides in the village's mountainous areas. The primary strategy ofthis initiative was a comprehensive approach, collaboratively planned with the village o ice,
forestry cooperative, private businesses, and others. They targeted economic sustainability
and promoted 100-year-old forest creation and the second one “Mori-no-gakko” project,which added value to the local wood. The pro it earned through wood is shared with theowner and the rest was used for the 100-year vision. Moreover, hydropower production
contributes to the local economy.
KAMIKATSU TOWN
Kamikatsu’s town o ice has tried unique approaches to waste management like no
incineration, garbage collection or land ill, 100% composting by households and businesses,
and a centralized garbage sorting station. 100% composting alone helped the town quickly
reduce waste by one-third. Although zero-waste has been a di icult transition to the town, due
to the collaboration between the city o ice, a local NPO, local stakeholders and young
entrepreneurs, new sources of income via tourism and new industry have been added.
In addition, the beautiful part is the elderly farmers in Kamikatsu evolved into entrepreneurs as
entrepreneurial partners in the development process of the Irodori enterprise. Thus their latent
innovative spirit revitalizes the regional economy and becomes healthier and happier at thesame time.
CHITTAGONG CITYWith a land area of 157 km2 and 170 million population, Chittagong is the second-largest city in
Bangladesh. The strategic location and friendly business environment make it a national
economic hub of Bangladesh. The city contributes more than 50% of Bangladesh's tax
revenue earnings and 11% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Despite its immense potential,
Chittagong faces enormous challenges because of high population growth, and this is directly
related to the increase in waste generation. The average production of solid waste in the urban
areas of Chittagong is 1,550 tons per day. The growing number of population becomeschallenging to manage household waste. Due to land shortage city is also facing to ind new
open dumping or land ill site. Sometimes authority burns waste to reduce it, it directly andcauses air pollution. There is no direct solid waste management policy in Bangladesh;however, Renewable Energy Policy 2008 was introduced to recover the energy. The National
3R Strategy 2010 was launched to recover resources from waste. To install an incineration
plant is expensive and operational and maintenance is also complicating so the city can follow
the strategy of Osaki Town to manage their waste. Several actions can be applied by public
engagements, contributions of local businesses and manufacturers, the establishment ofcenters for reused and remade products, campaigns, and successful encouragements of local
authorities.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANCONCLUSION
All the local government has taken di erent sustainable development plan as these cities
declared distinct sustainable goals. For becoming a zero-waste city, the most signi icant
challenges are the segregation of waste. It is time-consuming and required many e orts that
could only be applicable in such a small town having residents with high personal
responsibility and enthusiasm, not applying governmental enforcements. This hassle can be
reduced by diminishing waste generation though they have reward system to change people
behaviours and establish recycling and composting culture.

References
Coca, N. (2018). Learning from the past: Japan's tree planting e orts provide lessons for othercountries. Accessed on 13 June, 2021. https://ensia.com/features/japan-reforestationdeforestation-lessons-indonesia-china.
Haga, K. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship in aging societies: theorical re lection and acase study from Kamikatsu, Japan. Journal of Innovation Economics Management, (3),119 141.
Hara, K., Newman, P., & Takao, Y. (2014). Sustainable Development Goals: How Can Japanese
Local Governments help? In World Sustainability Forum 2014 e Conference Proceedings
Paper.
MIC (Ministry of Internal A airs and Communications) of Japan. Chihou Zaisei no Jyoukyou;
Tokyo, Japan, 2014; http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_seisaku/hakusyo/chihou/pdf/h26.pdf.
Mia, M. A., Nasrin, S., Zhang, M., & Rasiah, R. (2015). Chittagong, Bangladesh. Cities, 48, 31- 41.
Osaki recycle system of Japan. Osaki Town o ice. Accessed on 16 June, 2021 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org /partnership/?p=30108
Sujauddin, M., Huda, S. M. S., & Hoque, A. R. (2008). Household solid waste characteristics
and management in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Waste management, 28(9), 1688 1695.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANLIU XIAOHANTHE EXPERIENCE OF KAMIKATSU TOWN: ZERO WASTE AND THE INSPIRATION TO THE WASTE
MANAGEMENT IN SHANGHAI
We got a lecture from Satoshi Nonoyama san in the part of Kamikatsu Town internship. The
lecture is about zero waste, happa business and sustainable tourism. I learned a lot from thisprogram, and I got some lessons from the zero waste in Kamikatsu Town, it is a goodexperience for Shanghai to learn it.
In China, the policy of waste sorting has been in force for nearly two years (start from 1st July2019), and the policy has been progressing. Shanghai has basically built a whole-processclassi ication and collection system. But the waste management policy in Shanghai is still inthe early stage, so it need to learn some successful experience from the other cities.
Compared with the system of the waste management in Kamikatsu Town, I can o er somesuggestion to shanghai for waste management. The government should raise citizens'awareness of garbage collection and source reduction. Do a good job in publicity andeducation about the waste management. Re ine and clarify garbage classi ication standards.
Combined with SDGS, corresponding detail targets to a great extent.

References
An Introduction to Tokushima’s Kamikatsu: Stunning Nature and Zero Waste. https://
setouchi inder.com/en/detail/4528?pg=3
Haga, K. (2015). Innovation and entrepreneurship in aging societies: theorical re lection and acase study from Kamikatsu, Japan, Journal of Innovation Economics & Management
2015/3 (No. 18), p.119 141, https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-of-innovationeconomics-2015 3-page-119.htm
Usman, M., Sawaya, A., Igarashi, M., Gayman, J.J., & Dixit, R. (2021). Strained Agricultural
Farming under the Stress of Youths’ Career Selection Tendencies: A Case Study from
Hokkaido (Japan). Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 8:19 https://doi.org/
10.1057/s41599 020 00688 4

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANNGUYEN HUU QUANGINTRODUCTION
This report will discuss the lesson learned to what extent a region can successfully attempt its
sustainable development goals based on its unique character from the works of three local
municipalities in Japan: Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town. In the irst
place, these municipalities face a similar challenge as many other regions in Japan: theshrinking population. They have to choose whether passively become a part of “The GreatHeisei Consolidation” (Takaharu, 2007) and fade away or actively ind a way to revitalize andprosper eternally. Fortunately, It turns out that Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, andKamikatsu Town have found their way toward sustainable development. Although the successstories of these local towns are di erent in details, the town’s sustainable development isdeeply based on their unique character. This inding can be considered as the most prominent
inding throughout this SUSTEP online trip.
OSAKI TOWN
Located in the eastern Osumi Peninsula, the southern part of Kagoshima Prefecture, with
13,000 people and agriculture as the primary industry (Shizume, 2020), Osaki Town has asimilar background to many other ordinary municipalities in Japan.
Firstly, the Osaki Town’s story started with the attempt to tackle its municipal waste treatment
issues. The town has no incineration facility. Although it has a land ill site to bury its waste, theissue is that the site will not last forever (Osaki Town, 2021). In aiming to increase the longevityof this land ill site, Osaki Town decides to carry out its unique recycling system. The system,
then, is called Osaki System. The Osaki System turns out to be a signi icant success. It makes
the town the number one in Japan regarding the municipal waste recycling rate for more than
one decade (Shizume, 2020; United Nations, n.d.).

Figure 1. Osaki recycling system
Source: Osaki Town (2021)

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANBased on the success of the Osaki System, Osaki SDGs Promotion Council has been found in
2021. The council will lead Osaki toward its SDGs vision as the “Circular Village Osaki” (Osaki
Town, 2018, 2021) that aims to maintain its sustainable development based on the strategies:
circular economy, stimulating SDGs, renewable energy, and forming a new social system(Shizume, 2020).
In summary, based on the town’s original character, Osaki Town focuses on and makes theOsaki System the core motivation for realizing its sustainable vision.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
Located on the northeastern end of Okayama Prefecture and at the southern base of the
Chugoku Range, with about 1,500 people and forestry as the primary industry (Nishiawakura
Village, n.d.; Ueyama, 2020), Nishiawakura Village is a small village that chooses not to bemerged with others in the “The Great Heisei Consolidation” (Takaharu, 2007). It has to ind away to revitalize and prosper based on its unique character that has been surrounded byabundant forest.
The decisive di erence between Nishiawakura Village and Osaki Town is that it has forestry as
the backbone business. With the catch copy of “brighten our forests, brighten our life,
brighten our future” (Nishiawakura Village, 2018), Nishiawakura Village starts the “100 Year
Forest” concept in 2009 and make it the cornerstone of the village’s attempt toward its
sustainable future. The future in which a “high-quality countryside” is realized based on thestrategies: energy business using water resources from the abundant surrounded forest, acommunity where “no one is left behind,” and sustainably maintaining and utilizing its forest
treasure (Nishiawakura Village, n.d.; Ueyama, 2020).

Figure 2. A high-quality countryside framework in Nishiawakura
Source: Ueyama (2021)

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANConsequently, the approach of Nishiawakura Village toward its sustainable development goals
based on its unique background shows a similar characteristic with Osaki Town.
KAMIKATSU TOWN
Kamikatsu Town is a small town in Shikoku Island with about 1,600 people (IDEAS FOR GOOD,
2019). The town was found by merging Takahoko Village and Fukuhara Village during “TheGreat Heisei Consolidation” (Takaharu, 2007). It is an ordinary small town in hilly andmountainous areas of Japan (Pangaea, 2021).
What makes Kamikatsu Town di erent from Osaki Town and Nishiawaura Village? The answer
is the Irodori business and zero-waste brand. Although Kamikatsu is a merged town, it
seemingly acknowledges that the backbones of its “sustainable development in Kamikatsuway” are the Irodori business and the zero-waste brand. Therefore, by a sustainable andintegrated approach toward a sustainable and beautiful Kamikatsu, the town’s development
strategies are needed to be considered based on the prospering of these two backbones. It is
the approach that fundamentally promotes and utilizes the Irodori business and the zerowaste brand toward the town’s sustainable development goals. As a result, it helps revitalize
Kamikatsu Town, therefore bringing up people’s living conditions eternally and in a very
“Kamikatsu way.”
Again, it can be considered that the place’s unique character should be the core of any
attempts toward its future development. Kamikatsu Town, with its way of sustainable
development, turns out to be a typical and symbolic example of this inference.

Figure 3. The framework toward a sustainable and beautiful Kamikatsu Town
Source: Pangaea (2021)

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANCONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to borrow Mr. Nonoyama’s ending words about “returning to thestarting point” and the “fundamental of things” to discuss that no simple copy will work insustainable development. Thus, any region’s sustainable development plan is needed to be
based on its unique character.

Acknowledgments
First of all, I would like to thank all the members of three local towns from Osaki Town,
Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town for their informative and inspiring evoked sharings.
I would learn many things regarding sustainable development issues. Also, my great
appreciation goes to Professor Naoko Kaida for the signi icant e ort to organize and manage
the online trip to make this opportunity for exchanges an actual meaningful event.

References
IDEAS FOR GOOD. (2019). Kamikatsu’s success formula becoming a Zero Waste town |Sustainability from Japan - Zenbird. Zenbird. https://zenbird.media/kamikatsus-successformula-becoming-a-zero-waste-town/
Nishiawakura Village. (n.d.). Nishiawakura Village, Okayama Prefecture [Eco-Model City].
Retrieved June 18, 2021, from http://doc.future- city.jp/pdf/torikumi_city/
nishiawakura_pamphlet_en.pdf
Nishiawakura Village. (2018). Nishiawakura SDGs future urban planning. http://
www.vill.nishiawakura.okayama.jp/wp/wp- content/uploads/2019/09/
c674e8eb955336df2b011b2c2e2f7889.pdf
Osaki Town. (2018). Osaki SDGs future urban planning, Kagoshima Prefecture Osaki. Osaki
Town. (2021). Global Standard: Osaki Town - Toward a sustainable town. SUSTEP
Online Trip, Osaki Town, Toshima Prefecture, May 25, 2021.
Pangaea. (2021). Sustainable Community Planning - Sustainable development in Kamikatsu
way. SUSTEP Online Trip, Kamikatsu Town, Toshima Prefecture, Jube 1&2, 2021.
Shizume, C. (2020). Kagoshima’s Osaki Town’s ambitious plans to achieve SDGs by 2030 |Sustainability from Japan - Zenbird. Zenbird. https://zenbird.media/kagoshimas-osakitowns-ambitious-plans-to-achieve-sdgs-by-2030/
Takaharu, K. (2007). The Great Heisei Consolidation : A Critical Review. Social Science Japan,
September, 7 11.
Ueyama, T. (2020). E orts for regional revitalization that no one is left behind. SUSTEP Online
Trip, Nishiawakura Village, Okayama Prefecture, May 26, 2021.
United Nations. (n.d.). Osaki Recycling System of Japan (separation - collection - processing)achieved 83.4% recycling rate with 27 items separation by community and makes not only
Environmental but also Economical and Social Outcomes - United Nations Partnerships for
SDGs plat. Sustainable Development Goals - Partnerships Platform. Retrieved June 17, 2021,
from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=30108

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANSUU SUU PHYOE
OSAKI TOWN
Lesson learned: 1. waste characterization and recycling, 2. cooperation and collaboration
among stakeholders, 3. highest recycling rate, 4. composting, 5. SDGs Future City
Disposing of the mixed waste at the land ill site was the only waste management system inOsaki Town. Therefore, when land ill site longevity became limited, it came to ind a possible
solution for this problem. Nevertheless, high construction and maintenance costs hamperedbuilding an incineration plant. In addition, there was strong opposition from the residents
making a new land ill site because of an unpleasant odor emitted from that site. Thus, proper
sorting and recycling of waste became an optimal solution to extend the lifespan of a land ill
site. The town sorted garbage into three types: cans, bottles, and PET bottles. It developed an
Osaki recycling system in which the waste is sorted into 27 categories to enhance the town’s
recycling rate. It has a recycling center where the organic waste is treated to provide compost
at a reasonable price for the farmers in the town. As a result, the town achieved a highrecycling rate of 83.1% as of 2018, while a national recycling rate was only 19.9%. Thus, it has
been ranked irst in waste recycling for 12 consecutive years since 2006 in Japan(Osaki Town,
2021). The town was selected as an SDGs future city in 2019. It was evident that cooperationand collaboration among residents, enterprises, and the Osaki Town government can provide
a high recycling rate (Osaki Town, 2021).
Osaki Town should promote reducing the amount of waste at the source to reduce the cost ofwaste treatment per capita. It should ind alternative measures in cooperation with various
stakeholders to abolish using one-time packaging and plastic products by 2030.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
Lesson learned: 1. 100-year-forest business plan, 2. value-added products, 3. renewableenergy, 4. local ventures, 5. SDGs Future City
Nishiawakura Village has a population of 1,416 people as of March 2021. About 93% of the area
is covered by forest, especially cypress and cedar. In 2009, the city established 100-year
forest business plan to create high-quality countryside. In addition to logging, the village
encourages companies to produce value-added products such as furniture, instrument, etc.
The village also developed renewable energy systems such as solar power, hydropower, andirewood boiler to meet the energy demand at the site. Moreover, the village has local venture
schools, and it also encourages diverse local ventures by providing opportunities for migrants.
Providing opportunities for local ventures can solve the problem of the aging population in
Japan. Nishiawakura Village has been designated as one of the SDGs Future Cities in Japan in2019 (Ueyama, 2021) .

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANThe village has employed a clear-cutting system for logging. Thus, it should consider
reforestation and a orestation in the 100-year-forest business plan. The village should
promote the ecotourism industry as it is enriched with natural resources.
KAMIKATSU TOWN
Lesson learned: 1. Happa business, 2. zero waste, 3. aging population, 4. sustainable tourism,
5. SDGs Future City
Kamikatsu Town initiated its Happa business in 1986 under the encouragement of Mr. Yokoishi.
At present, 150 farmers (households) do Happa business generating 260 270 million yen per
year. Moreover, it is the irst town that declared zero waste in 2003. It has a waste collection
center where the residents sort the garbage into 45 types to recycle. It was chosen as an
SDGs Future City in 2018. It has promoted sustainable tourism as a partnership among
di erent stakeholders such as the local government, Pangea company, and SUNSTAR
company (Nonoyama, 2021).
The town has problems such as depopulation and an aging population, i.e., 53%, is 65 years
and above. The town should provide internship programs to attract young generations andprovide opportunities to rent land to encourage immigrants to initiate the Happa business. It
should set an eco-labelling such as zero waste to promote its local products and business.
APPLYING WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR YANGON CITY IN MYANMAR
Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar, is located in the southern part of the country. In
Yangon, the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generated is 1,981 tons/day, which is composedof organic waste (77%), plastic (13%), paper (7%), and others (3%) (Gamaralalage et al., 2017).
Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) collects MSW through door-to-door, curbside,bin container, and open or communal waste collection points (Environmental Conservation
Department, 2018). MSW is mixed and disposed of together at the inal land ill site.
Scavengers, waste collectors, and waste dealers generally carry out waste recycling activities.
In Yangon, waste dealers collect 86 tons of recyclable waste per day, which is composed ofglass (57%), cardboard (15%), paper (13%), plastic (7%), cans (7%), and others (1%)
(Environmental Conservation Department, 2018). Thus, open dumping at the land ill is the only
way for solid waste management in Yangon. It might face the problem of limitation in the life
span of the land ill site. It is better to sort waste into di erent types, such as paper and plastic,cans and bottles, and organic waste, so that YCDC can enhance recycling and generate
revenues from it. In addition, as organic waste dominates more than 70% of MSW, YCDC
should treat this waste through composting and provide or sell the products to the farmers.
Then, di erent stakeholders such as YCDC, researchers, residents, private companies,
broadcasting stations, and others should cooperate to sort waste into more di erent types
and enhance recycling in Yangon.

References

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

Environmental Conservation Department. (2018). National Waste Management Strategy and
Master Plan for Myanmar (2018 2030). Gamaralalage, D., Premakumara, J., Hengesbaugh,
M., Onogawa, K., Tin, O. M., Design, H., & Horizono, S. (2017). Waste
Management in Myanmar: Current Status, Key Challenges and Recommendations for Nationaland City Waste Management Strategies.
Nonoyama, S. (2021). Sustainable community planning [PowerPoint Slides].SUSTEP Field Trip
(virtual)
Osaki Town. (2021). Global Standard : Osaki Town Osaki Town : Overview [PowerPoint
Slides].SUSTEP Field Trip (virtual) Ueyama, T. (2021). E orts for regional revitalization that noone is left behind だれひとり 、 取り残さない地方創生の取組
Self-introduction [PowerPoint Slides].

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANYANG XINZERO WASTE
What surprised me the most was the concept of zero waste in Osaki Town. I noticed that therecycling rate increased from almost 0% in 1998 to more than 80% in 2018, and such a highrecycling rate has been kept for 12 years. The same thing happened in Kamikatsu Town.
Residents in Kamikatsu Town speared waste into 45 categories which is stricter than that in
Osaki Town.
The premise of zero waste is high-quality waste sorting. Sorted garbage can be sold if they are
economically pro itable and other organic waste can be reused after drying and fermentation.
It not only saves resources but also extends the life of the land ill.
Personally, I totally admire what people did in Osaki Town and Kamikatsu Town to create arecycling system and hope such system can be used in other areas/countries. However, I am
not sure if the waste sorting could be done properly or accepted by residents. In China, waste
is simply classi ied as recyclable waste and non-recyclable waste in most areas for past years.
Such classi ication activities are done consciously by people, so not all waste sorting is done
properly because of lacking waste sorting education. The result of it is that the component ofwaste delivered to the recycling station is very complex. It impedes the recycling rate.
Besides, there is no municipal system to supports all recyclable resources to be recycled. In
many cities, the main target for commercial recycling is only metal. Large-scale recycling,such as industrial waste, is carried out through recycling companies. Small-scale recycling,such as municipal waste, relies on scavengers or residents themselves. Therefore, waste
recycling has been greatly hindered, let alone zero waste society.
I think people in Osaki Town made a good demonstration of waste sorting and recycling. I
notice that, for organic waste, the processing time is very long. I understand that fermentationand drying take time. But for a large amount of organic waste, like waste generated in a big
city, it will take a large space and time for the process. So I wonder if they have any idea tooptimize it.
RESOURCE MAXIMIZATION
Regional revitalization is di icult in rural areas because of a lack of human resources andinancial support. However, Nishiawakura Village and Kamikatsu Town demonstrated a good
way to promote the local economy which is made to most of what you have.
Nishiawakura has a rich forest resource. To maximize the value of the forest, they do not only
sell wood directly, but also encourage local venture to sell wooden products to end-users. This
practice increases the added-value of wood. In the forest area of China, local government can
imitate it to increase local iscal revenue. In Kamikatsu Town, they have the leaf business(Irodori). It helps local people in a very romantic and economical way. Besides, due to the

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANcharacteristics of this business, the elderly can also be involved. It is a great demonstration forother areas that has a large number of elderly population.
In many rural areas of China, residents face the problem how to develop in a sustainable way.
The large emigration of young laborers restricts the economic development of thecountryside, and in turn, it increases the loss of young generations. However, luckily, thenatural resource is rich in China. How to revitalize the local economy and improve the qualityof life of residents by taking good advantage of what they have is a problem that must be
solved.
One disadvantage of Irodori business in Kamikatsu Town, I think, is fungibility. This businessmodel can be accepted by any other town who has leaf resources. Unlike wood products,
commercial demand of leaf is not big enough for a sustainable development. I wonder if they
have other business to support their town.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANYUE SHENGRAN
Waste is a problem with a global scale. With economic development, the standard of living isbeing greatly increased, while leading to the generation of more and more waste. If we cannot
handle properly, the impact on the environment will be huge.
Japan is one of the countries with the most advanced waste management system in the world.
Through the lessons learned from the three municipalities, I found that they have a common
feature that they all have an extremely completed recycling system.
In Osaki Town and Kamikatsu Town, waste is divided into more than dozens of di erent
categories. The number of such sorting is far more than in other areas, even in Japan where
the classi ication of waste is so meticulous. Each category of resources is handled by acorresponding company to ensure the recycling of resources.
In China, Shanghai became the irst city in China to adopt mandatory waste separation in July
2019 (Huang, 2019), and another 45 cities also will operate afterward. So far, there are still few
relevant studies available for inquiry. However, through the self-reports of some residents
known to the present author, it is not di icult to ind that the current results are still not verysatisfactory.
Currently, starting with Shanghai, garbage across China is basically divided into four
categories: recyclable garbage; kitchen garbage; hazardous garbage; and other garbage. The
number of categories is far less than that of Osaki Town and Kamikatsu Town. In addition,
unlike the two municipalities, waste disposal in China is still dominated by incineration andland ills, but composting or fermentation of food waste into biogas has been done well since
the past, especially in some rural areas.
According to Nakamura & Kawase (2011), by increasing the number of waste separation, thee ect of waste reduction and collection of recyclable waste can be expected. Yoshioka (2002)
also found that with the lower number of waste separation categories had a higher average ofhousehold waste generation, and the higher number of waste separation categories had alower average of waste generation. Although the more categories of waste separation may
due to more troublesome for residents (especially since China is still in the initial stages ofwaste sorting). However, as the behavior of waste separation becomes habitual, an
appropriate increase in the categories of waste separation will have a promising impact on
increasing the rate of resource recovery as well as promoting waste reduction. At the sametime, improving environmental education and publicity for young people and inding ways toenable more of them to participate will be of great importance in solving the waste problem
for now and the future. This is also what these three municipalities are working on.
Regarding the recommendations for the three municipalities in Japan, inding ways to engage
more people (especially young people) remains one of the most pressing issues to be tackled

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN(either for addressing population decline or for the spiritual continuation of the SDGs).
Combining traditional businesses with advanced technology to allow young generations topractice what they learned can be one of the directions to strive for in the future.

References
Huang, H. (2019). China’s radical new rules to recycle rubbish. Retrieved from https://
multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/china/article/3038540/china-waste- sorting/index.html
Nakamura, T., & Kawase, A. (2011). An empirical analysis of residential solid waste managementin Japanese municipalities. Government Auditing Review. (43), 111 123
Yoshioka, K. (2002). A study on the di erences in the amount of household waste generated
among municipalities and its factors - A nationwide survey of municipalities. Retrieved
from: http://csspcat8.ses.usp.ac.jp/lab/kanayaken/seika/5th/pdf/yoshioka/abstract(J).pdf[accessed 21.6.20].

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANABDUL RAZAK ZAKARIAINTRODUCTION
The Local SDGs towns virtual ield trip, one of SUSTEP’s ield trips, was designed to accord
student the opportunity to learn from, and practically experience actions undertaken by rural
populace in Japan to achieve the 2030 SDGs looking into the future. We visited three
purposively selected towns; Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town. These
towns were selected as SDGs Future Cities among others by the Cabinet O ice of Japanbecause of the uniqueness of e orts made by both community members and the local
government to achieve sustainable development while sharing their experiences with the restof the world. This ield trip lasted ive days with each day’s activity lasting ive and half hours,
from 1pm to 5:30pm. It was organized and facilitated by Associate Professor Naoka Kaida of
the University of Tsukuba.
An orientation meeting about the ield trip was held on May 20, 2021, by Professor Kaida where
the course content was explained. Students were divided into four (4) groups and group tasks
were assigned and explained to all 22 participants. On May 25, 2021, we had a virtual tour ofOsaki Town, a presentation about Osaki Towns’ waste recycling, SDGs vision and plan, thee orts undertaken to achieve the towns’ SDGs Future City goal, and the challenges they facegoing into the future. Mr. Nakamura, Ms. Nakagaki, and Mr. Matsumoto led the discussion andanswered student questions during this session. On May 26, 2021, the agenda used in Osaki
Town was followed in our virtual tour of Nishiawakura Village. Here, Mr. Ueyama and Mr. Tabata
led the discussion and answered our questions. On June 1 and 2, 2021, we had our irst andsecond virtual tour of Kamikatsu Town, a presentation about the towns’ crisis in waste
management, a tour of the Zero Waste Center, and interview with the Zero Waste Center
stakeholder and IRODORI farmers, a presentation on Kamikatsu Town’s SDGs vision and plan,
ways to achieve SDGs Future City goals, and future challenges for attaining the SDGs goals,
respectively. Mr. Nonoyama, Ms. Nishikage, Ms. Kobayashi, Mr. Hyakuno, Mr. Asano, and Ms.
Kakimoto led the discussions and answered our questions.
LESSONS LEARNT
Osaki Towns’ self-help activities that led them to achieve success as the irst placed town inJapan regarding waste recycling for 12 consecutive years (achieving 80% recycling rate) andsecond runner-up for the SDGs City Award winner was one great lesson. Their ambitious
target of abolishing one-time packaging and the use of plastics through the SDG council
approach, SDGs school and SDGs research centre plan were innovative.
Nishiawakura Village’s 100-year forest concept and the exploitation of alternative livelihood
activities like honey production, the engagement of schools in SDGs practical activities, thelocal venture school project, and the mountain experience tourism provided great lesson thatcan be applied elsewhere.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANKamikatsu Towns’ identi ication and usage of local resources to establish the Happa business,
their education tourism specialty, the SDGs promotion committee, farm for teaching younger
Irodori business owner idea, were great lesson. I particularly learnt from Mr. Yokoishi (CEO,Happa business) who sel lessly worked with initial Irodori business owners and promoted thebusiness using research, practical ield tours, and farmers ield visits to exquisite hotels thatare using the “Happa” leaves in their cuisine to motivate the farmers.
APPLICATION OF LESSONS LEARNTThe tropical rain forest of Ghana forms part of the Guinea Forest Region in western Africa andis blessed with diverse lora and fauna. Recently, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resourcesof Ghana ordered the Forestry Commission to clamp down on all forms of mining activity inthe forest (Xinhua News, 2021). Nishiawakura’s 100-year forest plan concept can bene it
Ghana’s quest to safeguard its forest reserves that is being destroyed by miners and illegal
loggers (Kyere-Boateng and Marek, 2021). Alternative income activities like bee keeping, small
ruminant rearing, and mushroom cultivation can provide jobs and income to local
communities as they nurture the forest under the 100-year forest plan. This will also help
Ghana to reduce its high unemployment rate while protecting the country’s forest that haverecorded huge forest cover loss in recent years. Government of Ghana should provide
sustained funding, security, and technical support in this regard to ensure sustainability.
SUGGESTIONS
An annual award scheme for best Irodori business owner could serve as incentive to attract
young business owners to Kamikatsu Town. Also, land consolidation program targeted atretired farmers who can no longer cultivate but are willing to lease their land to new entrant
immigrant Irodori business owner will further motivate and attract younger people into
Kamikatsu Town.

References
Kyere-Boateng, R. and Marek, M.V. (2021). Analysis of the Social-Ecological Causes ofDeforestation and Forest Degradation in Ghana: Application of the DPSIR Framework.
Forests, 12(409), 1 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/ f12040409.
Xinhua News. (2021). Ghana to end mining in forest reserves. March 23, ACCRA. http://
www.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2021 03/24/c_139831490.htm. Accessed
date:2021/06/17.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANPHAN CAO DUONGLESSONS LEARNED FROM THE THREE MUNICIPALITIESThe virtual trip took me to three municipalities, namely Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu. I
learned interesting lessons about how these three rural, remote, and small towns havedeveloped toward sustainable development goals (SDGs). The most impressive lessons oneach municipality were the following ones. It was a complete surprise about the e ectivenessof the recycling project. Speci ically, the cost of waste treatment by individuals was much
lower while the rate of waste recycling is higher than that of the national level. Waste was also
divided into detailed categories (up to 45 categories in Kamikatsu Town). The collaboration
between locals and local centers sounded interesting. I wonder why this model or system has
not been applied commonly in Japan. Another interesting lesson was the Happa businesscalled Irodori to successfully help the elderly earning a living, although the business faces
considerable challenges.
APPLICABILITY TO OUR COUNTRY
Regarding the applicability of the lessons learned from this virtual trip to our country, I discuss
waste recycling in Hanoi. Despite the capital of Vietnam, waste management has faced big
challenges while the volume of waste is rapidly increasing in Hanoi. Although a major volume
of waste is collected and treated, a certain amount is uncontrollably released elsewhere in
Hanoi (Fig. 1). Recycling is applied for a few waste categories such as glass, metal, paper, andplastic (Fig. 2). The ine ective management of waste in Hanoi comes from various reasons
such as the shortage of budget and technologies. These shortages seem not easy to tackle
within a short time. However, we may change the attitude of locals towards sustainable waste
management by providing them with clearly e ective guidance, acts, and regulations insustainable waste disposal, recycle and reuse. Model projects and practices are also

Figure 1. Illegal disposal of waste in Nguyen Chi Cong street, Hanoi [1]The red board present “Prohibition of waste disposal”, but big amount of waste is still released here.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN

Figure 2. Recycling rate of waste in Vietnam [2].

necessary to involve the locals in the process of waste recycling. Importantly, support fromthe government and collaboration with the successful towns, namely Osaki, Nishiawakura, andKamikatsu, is essential.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MUNICIPALITIES VIRTUALLY VISITED
Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu gave us interesting lessons about how they have done toreach the standard of SDGs. Their expectation is to make their models such as the Osaki
Recycling System and Sustainable Happy Lives to be global standards. These standards arelikely suitable to apply in small villages. However, they may be valuable lessons to everyone interms of education. They should be spread worldwide. To this end, support from the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and international students are integral.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Kenji Nakamura-san, Ruru Nakagaki-san, andShoji Matsumoto-san, Takahiro Ueyama-san, Sunao Tabata-san, Satoshi Nonoyama-san,Kobayashi-san, Hyakuno-san, Nishikage-san, Suga-san, Fuji-san, Asano-san, Kakimoto-san, andNaoko Kaida-sensei for giving us your great time, interesting lectures and stories.

References
Dang Anh Thu (2016). General overview on solid waste management in Vietnam (https://www.env.go.jp/recycle/circul/venous_industry/pdf/env/h27/11_2.pdf).
The World Bank (2017). Solid and industrial hazardous waste management assessment (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/352371563196189492/pdf/Solid-and- industrialhazardous-waste-management-assessment-options-and-actions-areas.pdf).

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANAUNG PYAE PHYO
WASTE SEPARATION SYSTEM OF OSAKI TOWN AS A REFERENCE FOR MANDALAY CITY, MYANMARFirstly, I would like to thank Associate Professor Kaida Naoko because of arranging thisinternship programs and I was chosen as a member of the “Local SDGs Towns in Japan”
internship tour. I also want to thank the presenters and other persons who share knowledge
and experience of each town and village. I got a lot of knowledge and experiences from thefour day tours of Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village, and Kamikatsu Town even online tours.
Each town and village have their ability, special case, and how to use their special features for
improvement of their town and village.
Osaki Town is famous for its municipal waste recycling activities and got the highest recycling
rate in Japan for 12 consecutive years with recycling rate 82.6%. Nishiawakura Village is wellknown for its wooden products (daily usage home appliances, construction materials, andpublic area appliances), and biomass heaters that generate heat and electricity for local
heating process and electricity for local and public buildings. Kamikatsu Town is famous for its
Happa business and young immigrants venture activities. In Kamikatsu Town, the 53% of total
population is 65 year or older and students and young people are going outside due to theeducation because there is no senior high school. Therefore, the population of Kamikatsu
Town is decreasing. But young immigrants from other area moved to Kamikatsu Town for theirjobs, Kamikatsu Town considers about the venture for young immigrants and makes the job
opportunities for them. Among these towns and villages, I can reference the knowledge andexperience of Osaki Town for my country and for my native city, Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon (“Mandalay”, 2021). Located on
the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 716 km (445 mi) north of Yangon, the city has apopulation of 1,225,553 (2014 census) (“Mandalay”, 2021). Mandalay is the economic center ofUpper Myanmar and is considered the center of the Burmese culture (“Mandalay”, 2021).
Being the economic center and location in central Myanmar, the population of the city has
been increasing year by year and improved land use (expansion of urban area). The city area is
expanded due to economic (construction of industrial buildings, and industrial zones) anddomestic use (housing, hotels, o ice buildings, and public buildings). The more increasing the
population, the more municipal solid waste generation will occur.
In my city, Mandalay, there is no e ective waste recycling process and only two incineration
plants. These incineration plants cannot run 24 hours a day and seven days a week. In Osaki
Town, there are no incineration plants. This is the same thing between Mandalay City andOsaki Town. In Mandalay, there have a committee, Mandalay City Development Committee(MCDC), to manage the municipal solid waste and wastewater from industrial, domestic, andhospital. The committee makes the visions for solid waste management. These are to keep thecity clean, make the city beautiful and pleasant, and enable the city dwellers to enjoy pleasant
lives (Than Hutt, 2016). The MCDC tries to implement and doing the missions to ful ill thevisions. These missions are to manage the municipal solid waste, maintain the drainage

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANsystem cleaned, conserve the urban environment, and take care of the public health (Than
Hutt, 2016).
In the above mission, the role of municipal solid waste management is important because theycannot well manage solid waste, it can block city drainage systems (drainage channels) andwastewater does not low freely in the drainage channels, coming up to the street. This
problem is occurring in the raining season every year and a ects the urban environment. Dueto the looding of rainwater on the road and street, the disposal site can produce a bad smell,and spread diseases from rats and lies. Therefore, MCDC needs to consider the reduction ofland ill sites area or introduce incineration plants or separation of solid wastes for therecycling process to reduce the amount of solid waste that goes to inal disposal sites.
In Osaki Town, there is no incineration plant, and they face the land ill site was nearing the endof its useful life. Therefore, they consider how to solve the problem, and chose the best way
that is eco-friendly and easy to follow the process. There are three choices for the land ill site.
These are (1) build an incinerator, (2) build a new land ill site, and (3) extend the life of theexisting land ill site (Shoji, 2021). The above techniques have both advantages anddisadvantages. For the irst, they should consider the problem of construction andmaintenance costs. For the second, they should choose a land ill site that is far from theresident’s area. For the last, they establish garbage separation rules and explain them toresidents (Shoji, 2021). Finally, people from Osaki Town chose the last answers for solving theend of useful life for land ill sites.
When starting the separation of solid waste for recycling, the participation and relation
between residents (household, business), government, and enterprises (recycling center,garbage collectors) play an important role. Government explains and gives guidance toresidents on how to dispose of waste and give permission and outsourcing to enterprises. The
enterprises collect waste from households and businesses. There have many advantages of
the Osaki recycling system; reduces land ill waste, extends the life of the land ill site, reduces
the per-person cost of garbage disposal, generates income from the sale of recyclable
garbage, and can create a job. The amount of land ill waste reduced about 85% from 4,382
tons in 1998 to 670 tons in 2018. Reducing the amount of land ill waste can increase the life of
the land ill site. The recycling center in Osaki Town handles recyclable garbage from 100,000
people (including neighboring municipalities) and employs about 40 people (Shoji, 2021). The
other interesting thing in Osaki Town is the management of kitchen waste and garden waste.
The separate disposal of kitchen waste and the process of kitchen waste management can
produce heat energy, and heat energy can produce electricity. The inal remaining waste
product of kitchen waste can use in the ields and garden as a fertilizer. This process can
reduce the problems that are occurring due to the kitchen such as bad smell producing, andleakage of wastewater from kitchen waste.
In Mandalay City, the disposal method is the combination of all waste from households such ascans, bottles, kitchen waste, garden waste, plastic bottles, and plastic bags. MCDC uses the
curbside collection and dustbin. There is no separation of waste types in Mandalay. There is

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANprivate business for reuse bottles in factories and recycle tin and can, but the amount is very
few and the amount of reuse and recycle cannot a ect on reduction of waste disposal.
According to the weakness of the collection and separation system, there have many
problems remaining; lack of public awareness and cooperation in solid waste management
systems (SWMS), no practice in waste segregation, weakness in collection and transportation
facilities, insu icient budget allotment due to the small amount of garbage tax, weak in law
enforcement on SWMS, and weak in inal disposal management (Than Hutt, 2016). These
problems have consequences, a direct health hazard for the community and workers, andenvironmental contamination due to improper management of the inal disposal site.
According to the virtual tour of Osaki Town, I would like to introduce the waste separation
system and law concern with it. I think this is the best way to solve the above problems andthe inal disposal site’s end-of-life problems because making new land ill sites and incineration
plants are not suitable for not only Mandalay but also Myanmar because my country, Myanmar,
is a developing country.

References
Mandalay. (2021, June 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandalay
Shoji Matsumoto, Kenji Nakamura, (2021, May 25), Global Standard: Osaki Town (toward asustainable town)
Than Hutt, Mandalay City Development Committee, (2016, June 16), Overview on Solid Waste
Management in Mandalay City

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FUAD MD AKTER FARUKLESSONS LEARNED FROM THE THREE MUNICIPALITIES
Osaki Town: A proper cooperation, collaboration and trust among the town dwellers,
enterprises and government is the blueprint of recycling system. By changing the shape of
products on the market, all the reused or recycled items can be circulated around the town.
These procedures may drive the economy by using existing resources and also may convey
this practice by intergenerational circulation.
Nishiawakura Village: The village dwellers are implementing 100 Year Forest Management
Project by renewable energy business, creating local venture of adding value to timber andpromotion of interchange for regional economic circulation.
Kamikatsu Town: A green leaf may add aesthetic value in food menu—by this little but
innovative idea, the town dwellers earn as the major agricultural income and opened a new
eco-tourism sector. Also the dwellers are separating around 45 categories items to revive local
economy, attract young generations to settlement.
APPLICABILITY TO MY COUNTRY BANGLADESH
Every day about 5,000 tons of waste is being generated by 2 crore people in Dhaka, thecapital of Bangladesh. The area of this megacity is just 360 km2; and Dhaka North City
Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation are the assigned authorities for municipal
waste management and they are trying to mitigate this waste related problems by taking
newer initiatives (Prodhan & Kaeser, 2019). Some researches show that, Bangladesh will
generate around 2.2 billion tons waste per year by 2025, and by 2050, it may reach at 4.2
billion tons per year (Hoornweg, & Bhada-Tata, 2012). However, the existing waste
management system is not up to the mark, when only about half of generated waste is being
collected and dumped in open land ills (Prodhan & Kaeser, 2019). This huge generated waste
seems to be beyond control of authorities alone until the city dwellers come forward together
to solve it (Rahman & Alam, 2020). Most people are not concerned about environmental
pollution, not aware of household waste can be reduced or separated. The concern rules are
not properly monitored and law-enforcement are not implemented (Hai & Ali, 2005).
I think the concerned authorities may campaign countrywide on the ZERO WASTE conceptfrom the learning of Kamikatsu. Some programs may be taken as:•

From school level, kids will learn about the 3R concept, waste separation, environmental
pollution, etc.

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Regular arrangement of exhibitions, fairs, workshops, etc. for rural people to increase theirconsciousness on 3R of wastes.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORT•LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANReward for result on waste management related researches. Tax concession for proper
reduction of waste with separation.

My recommendations: the concerned authorities may campaign countrywide on the ‘100 Year
Forest Management’ concept from the learning of Nishiawakura. Some programs may betaken as:•Reward for rooftop gardening; such as holding tax concession. Create new open spacewith forestry around the city.

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Use the river bank for forestry.

•Countrywide exhibitions, fairs, workshops, etc. on forestry to increase people’s awareness.
Agro-forestry can be a vital issue as Bangladesh is an agrarian country.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MUNICIPALITIESAging people and generation gap may rise as problematic issue in near future. Consequently,
smart agriculture use in intergenerational circulation may be the best alternative regarding
this situation.
Everyday waste will be increased as population. Therefore, the 5R strategy may need to bepromoted by environmentally friendly shopping campaigns to grow consciousness among thepeople.

References
Hai, F.I. & Ali, M. (2005). A Study on Solid Waste Management System of DCC: E ect ofComposting & Land ill Location. UAP J. Civil Environmental Engineering, 1(1), 18 26.
Hoornweg, D. & Bhada-Tata, P. (2012). What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste
Management.
Urban Development & Local Government Unit, World Bank, Washington DC, USA
Prodhan, S.U. & Kaeser A. (2019). Municipal Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City: Present
Status, Problems & Probable Solutions. In Islam, (Eds.), Environmental Thoughts, Part-I, 2019
(pp. 80- 118). Centre for Management Research & Information technology. Toyza
Publications.
Rahman, M.S. & Alam, J. (2020). Solid Waste Management & Incineration Practice: A Study ofBangladesh. Int. J. Nonferrous Metallurgy, 9, 1 25. https://doi.org/10.4236/ijnm.2020.91001

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANHOANG THI MY HANH
We had a great opportunity to visit three towns in Japan through the ield trip: Osaki Town,
Nishiawakura town, and Kamikatsu Town. All three towns are on the way to becoming SDGs
Future Cities by di erent ways, such as zero waste, high recycling rate, and forest business.
However, besides achievements, these towns are facing many challenges to achieve theirtargets.
In Osaki Town, waste sorting is classi ied into 27 categories. Osaki Town promotes a council
that includes local mass media, inancial enterprises, etc. to improve the cooperation among
stakeholders, which is the critical factor for the Osaki Town’s success. Moreover, Osaki Town
also shares their valuable knowledge and experience with other towns, including cities indeveloping countries like Indonesia.
In the second municipality, Nishiawakura Village, the 100-year forest business is the mostachievements of this town, starting from e orts to improve life quality and environmental
improvement. However, many forest labor forces are leaving Nishiawakura Village due to theurbanization progress and do not engage in forest protection and development. So then, thetown has constructed Village Local Venture School, establish venture business roots in timber
production.
In the last town, Kamikatsu Town seems it has many achievements as well as many challenges.
Kamikatsu has established a very detailed separation system with more than 45 categories,
making here become the irst town in Japan to declare zero waste. However, like the above
towns, Kamikatsu Town has a shrinking population, of which more than 60% is over 65 years
old. The aging population is the most signi icant challenge for this town currently.
After four days of virtual trip, I found three towns share some similarities as follows:High recycling rate based on focus sorting waste at source. The classi ication system will
depend on each town. However, waste will be sorted into organic and solid waste, making iteasier in treatment later.
All towns take advantage of social group participation. For example, a council that includes
di erent stakeholders from production to consumption will assume di erent roles inpromoting town SDGs. The town’s success will not come from top-down action but rely on themultilateral cooperation.
Young generation is the critical factor to maintain sustainability in the future. All three towns’
successes are hampered by lacking working labor, rare successors due to a low birth rate,
high life expectancy, fewer job opportunities. Therefore, revision of immigrants’ policies andsupport from the Government to attract the young generation to town is necessary.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANVietnam is an Asian developing country with about 90 million of population. In contrast withJapan, Vietnam possesses a high birth rate and stable population growth. However, with therapid population and urbanization, Vietnam towns are also facing the leaving of the young
generation; not many young people want to live on agriculture in rural areas, which used to be
the main economic activities. The generated waste volume is estimated to reach around 69
million tons in 2020 and 91 million tons in 2025 (Nguyen, 2017).
Although the central government of Vietnam has established a 3Rs mechanism (reduce, reuse,recycle) to decrease waste volume, it seems it is not working e iciently. The top-down
implementation without social participation is the reason why the country’s waste volume isstill increasing. Lessons from Osaki and Kamikatsu may be helpful for my country. In the
future, Vietnam needs to establish speci ic legal frameworks and policies on waste
management focus on the 3Rs mechanism. The Vietnamese Government should take thecentral role in production control, promote and apply technology development into waste
management. And the most important one is to improve citizen engagement and raiseawareness in daily activities such as waste separation, reduced unnecessary packages, andredesigned products into reusable ones. All social stakeholders, i.e., central/local
governments, manufacturers, enterprises, communities, households, etc., have to participate
and understand their responsibilities in building a cleaner society for our future generations.
Although the Vietnam’s situation shares some same things with Kamikatsu Town, Vietnam isalso trying to solve the lack of labor force problems in rural areas. And, currently, the bestthing we can do is to release the immigrant policy, increase inancial support mechanism,
improve infrastructure and education facilities to attract new labor to rural areas.

Reference
Nguyen T. T., 2017, State of the 3Rs in Asia and the Paci ic: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
United Nations Centre for Regional Development.

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANKHIN ZAW WIN
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE THREE MUNICIPALITIESThree municipalities which we visited virtually in this virtual trip have di erent uniqueconditions and are possessing di erent resources depending on their existence andbackgrounds. They utilized their local resources properly to reach the road to respective SDGs
towns and their basement are di erent in de ining those SDGs towns goals for them. The
lessons learned from each municipality are discussed in the following one by one.
Osaki Town’s success was built mainly depending on the power of residents and public
responsible participation. They have no special and costly mechanism for extending thelifespan of land ill site. While the choice in the national scale of Japan is on the incineration for
reducing waste amount and volume, they chose the simplest way but a di icult issue as theyneed full participation of the residents to get a successful mechanism. They understand thatthe public participation is the basis to the sustainable success of their mechanism. They pay
attention to the improvement of the residents continuously. Also, they separate the roles of
stakeholders including government, residents and enterprises and take their roles andresponsibilities fully. That is the main three pillars for the success of Osaki system andstanding highest recycling rate in Japan for 12 consecutive years. They could close one of thesources to waste disposal which is green waste including kitchen waste and forest residues.
That accounts for about 60% of the total waste and only 40% are left. More than compostingand producing fertilizer, they could build the Rapeseed Eco-project for the resource recycling.
That may become a trademark of their industry. One noticeable thing is that they ship theirrecyclable materials through the enterprises. For this shipment, they must ful ill therequirements of the receiver such as cleanness. That also depends on the residents. Based onthat simple process, they could achieve so many impressive awards and recognitions andextend their model to the international cities.
In case of Nishiawakura Village, they used two main pillars for their SDGs town target, which
are Forest Industry and Local Venture. As they possess abundant forest resources in their area,
they set the relevant components such as 100-year forest business, renewable energy
business and local venture. The 100-year forest concept is a sustainable concept by thepresent generations to the future ones. For renewable energy, they developed various energy
sources available including hydropower, irewood boiler, solar power, biomass power
generator, and wood chip boiler. Being enabled to stand alone without connecting to thecentral grid and using the energy generated from various local power sources is an impressive
initiative for the countryside areas away from the central grid system. The idea of establishinga local venture school for persuading immigrants from other areas and creating opportunities
suited with the local conditions for them is found as an interesting way to reduce
depopulation. Another thing which impresses me is the introduction of education systemdealing with SDGs in the primary school level together with the practical and participation tohave a contact with the nature as well as “My SDGs Action Declaration” at the junior highschool. They are establishing their target of SDGs town from the foundation. Connecting theield works to the research through the establishment of Nishiawakura Muramarugoto

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPAN(meaning ‘whole village’ in Japanese) Research Institute is for the e icient production by thetown.
In Kamikatsu Town, a unique business, which may be the popular demand only in Japan, wasfound, which is Happa (leaf) business (Irodori). Decorating dishes with the leaves (not foreating) and preferring that kind of dishes is strange for a foreigner. The history how thefounder of the company IRODORI passed to reach such as successful and main supportive
business to the Kamikatsu citizens make me energetic. It is also found that updating andsharing ground market conditions and information to the suppliers are key factors for ful illingthe demands of the market and maintaining the quality of the products. About one-third of thetotal sales from this business is obtained in 25 26 December of the year being a preparation
period for the popular New Year festivity cuisine in Japan called osechi. It is also noticeable
that the education policy of the prefecture is one of underlying factors to depopulation in thetown. The tourism industry they initiated have choices for di erent layers, including generalparticipants, companies and groups or individuals and education sector.
What these three areas have as the same issue is depopulation as other rural areas of Japan
do. Among these three areas we visited virtually, only Nishiawakura Village could escape fromdepopulation and the rest ones are still facing challenges. They usually consider reducing
depopulation through immigrants including so-called I-turn and U-turn in their future
strategies, plans and activities.
In short, recognizing what they possess and exploring how they can proceed is the secret ofthe success of each municipality. Exploring hidden values is thus the irst step, andimplementing the activities which are accompanied by those values and resources may be thelights for other small cities and rural areas of the world to get the SDGs targets we want.
APPLICABILITY IN MY COUNTRY (MYINGYAN MUNICIPALITY)
After learning from the three municipalities, how those lessons could be applied in Myingyan
Town which is located in the central dry zone of Myanmar is considered. Myingyan
municipality has various challenges for proper waste management and local industry. The
Osaki system might be too bene icial and applicable in Myingyan Town’s waste management
although implementation to get full and responsible participation of the residents might not
be a smooth way compared to Japanese behaviors and weak existing rules and regulations. It
may be economical as the recyclable materials could be shipped to the nearest second largest
economic city in Myanmar, which is Mandalay, and recycling businesses are developing tosome extent there. In case of possessing resources, it is near one of the hotspot areas intourism industry of Myanmar, which is Bagan, the ancient city of Myanmar. Establishing a
successful and model recycling system and using that bene it together with tourism inMyingyan may increase its values and standing point as an impressive town in Myanmar aswell as increase the incomes to the town residents.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MUNICIPALITY(-IES)

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANAs the three municipalities virtually visited have sharing platforms about their activities, that is
a mutually bene icial mechanism for all of them. They can see what others are approaching
and it should be kept going. More than persuading immigrants to their areas, they should alsoemphasize to increase their own resident population per family. That should be included intheir strategies such as birth encouragement plans. That may contribute to positive impacts tothe national scale. As Osaki Town implemented, other two municipalities should share theirsuccessive models to municipalities in Japan and the world which are possessing similar
conditions and resources for improving SDGs achievements around the world. For Osaki Town,
human capacity is the main source, so they should improve that resource sustainably. In caseof Nishiawakura Village and Kamikatsu Town, they should prepare for the possible impacts astheirs is built on the natural resources which they own and are sensitive to climate change andother global issues.

f78LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANLE THU HIEN
First of all, I would like to thank Professor Naoko Kaida for her enthusiastic guidance, and theguests from Osaki, Nishiawakura, and Kamikatsu during the online ield trip. I am really gratefulfor the course’s e orts to organize an online ield trip in the Covid-19 situation. Coming from adeveloping country like Vietnam, I very admire and am surprised by the achievements ofJapan. This report summarizes the lessons I learned from the course and applies them in
Vietnam.
OSAKI TOWN
From having di iculty due to lack of capacity at the land ill waste in the past. Nowadays, thistown took advantage of its own hardship to rise to the top leading municipality in recycling
rates in Japan for 12 consecutive years. This success is due to the creativity, e ort, andperseverance of the local government, and the resident. Start with opening many classes toraise resident’s awareness about sorting garbage for recycling. The excellent coordination ofresidents and authorities in applying theory to practice the “Osaki system” is the most valuablelesson. It is not easy to separating garbage into 27 categories, but Osaki Town did it with arecycling rate of up to 82.6% (preliminary results for FY 2019, No. 1 in Japan). This can increase
the useful life of land ills, make a lot of pro it from recycling waste and create more job
opportunities. No resting on victory, Osaki Town continues to develop the idea establishingthe “Osaki SDGs Promotion Council” launched in January 2021 to promote collaborations
between Osaki and businesses, built plan laboratory to accept researchers and people frombusinesses, promotion the circular economy promote SDGs, make renewable energy, thistown is the pride of Japan that has a positive in luence on other areas of the country, and evenover the world.
In my opinion, the above lessons can be applied to central cities with high intellectual
standards in Vietnam such as Da Nang City, Hanoi Capital, Hai Phong City, Ho Chi Minh City,
and Can Tho City. Especially, Da Nang City has the most potential to succeed because it isfamous for environmental protection, and its residents are always willing to absorb advancesin science according to the government’s policy, which is a pioneer city eliminating homelesspeople, selling street food on the sidewalk, built clean tourist city. If successfully applying
more waste recycling, it will be a driving force to promote other cities in Vietnam to follow.
Although this plan brings many hopes of renewing the country’s thinking, it can take a longtime because the foundation of Vietnam is still very weak.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE
The small village opposed merging and still decided to remain autonomous, while the village’s
inancial constitution was the weakest in the prefecture with a small population and danger ofdecreasing. Not having been knocked down by the immediate di iculties, this village has
succeeded beyond expectations with its attempt to revive the village based on a longstanding forestry foundation. The unique idea of the village named the “Initiative with a 100year Vision of Forests” is the most meaningful lesson, that is both contribute to preventing

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANglobal warming and stabilizing income for the residents by providing wood and wood-based
livelihoods. In addition, the village’s forest is well managed to keep the river water stable,
contributing to increasing electricity generation by using water energy. It saves kerosene fuel,and provides products and other services by using renewable energy, such as solar heat andwood biomass. With the clever use of wood biomass, the village has been selected by thegovernment as one of the “Eco-Model Cities” leading to the realization of a regional modelthat maximizes the use of local resources while achieving both a low-carbon footprint andsustainable development. Besides that, the education policy combines with tourism
development, in which, it stands out ideas “Local Venture School” attracted interest andimmigrated to the village. The biggest lesson from this village is the innovation in thinking thathas created huge values for the sustainable development of the socio-economic system.
It is exciting to think about applying lessons from Nishiawakura Village to the highlands
regions of Vietnam such as Daklak Province, Daknong Province, Gialai Province, and Kontum
Province, which have large reserves of primary forest. Especially, Daklak Province andDaknong Province, which used to be the same province but have just been separated, havevery large forest biomass in the past, but deforestation for industrial trees such as co ee,
pepper, rubber, cacao, has signi icantly decreased the forest reserve.
It is a pity that recently the value of those industry trees has been decreasing leading theresidents to cut down all of them. The application of “Initiative with a 100-year Vision ofForests” would create jobs for residents who live by forestry, regional economic development,
contribute to climate change reduction.
KAMIKATSU TOWN
The small town with an aging population was the irst town in Japan to set itself a target ofzero waste, thus attracting attention within the country and from the world. The town
residents’ sense of self-discipline and solidarity is admirable, and they have gained a keenawareness of the need to reduce waste completely have together to ful ill the principles of the“3Rs” of reduce, reuse, and recycle: they compost kitchen waste and food scraps at home;and not having a garbage truck collection service, they take their garbage themselves to thetown’s single waste collection center to separate it into more than 45 di erent categories. The
smart management mechanism of the local government does not provide garbage collection
service but o ers inancial assistance to residents for purchasing household raw garbage
processors to voluntarily protect their own living environment, suitable for tourism, and this isa useful lesson for other areas. Besides that, this town is famous for happa business (irodori),
sustainable agroforestry management, meeting the community’s overarching ecologicalprogressive harmonic revitalization attracting tourist, young immigrants to an aging town, andcontinues to focus on Japan’s future circular economy.
Sapa Town and Da Lat City in Vietnam are the irst two places that come to mind when I want
to apply lessons from Kamikatsu Town. It is famous for ecotourism, growing lowers to productsouvenirs, and the residents can have stable income from tourism, so they can buy waste
recycling machines for home use. The population is mostly elderly, who have a lot of time for

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANsorting and recycling waste, and they are willing to go to the waste collection center if theplace is culturally connected and beautifully designed like a co ee shop. Indeed, themanagement structure is the Kamikatsu Town’s building architecture is so delicate that it
makes anyone want to learn.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANNGUYEN THI MAI ANH
LESSONS LEARNED FROM LOCAL SDGS TOWNS IN JAPANThe “Local SDGs towns: Small, remote towns in Japan with good practices” ield trip was held
virtually in May. This course introduced students to three towns in Japan that promote to meetsustainable development goals, namely Osaki Town (Kagoshima Prefecture), Nishiawakura
Village (Okayama Prefecture), and Kamikatsu Town (Tokushima Prefecture).
Osaki Town is known for its Global Standard Circular Local Management Model. This town
aspires to achieve its 2030 goal of sustainable development, starting with the Osaki Recycling
System. The operation of this system reduced the amount of waste generated in the town by
85% between 1998 and 2018, contributing to extending the life of the land ill site and keeping
the environment clean and odor-free. To achieve that, the government and local people havemade e orts to classify garbage into 27 categories. By 2019, the recycling rate here reached82.6%, ranking irst in the country. The core issue of this success lies in calling the community
to action and pursue the goal. In it, women play a pioneering and important role in the system.
Children are educated from elementary and junior high school using recycling business asteaching material. In addition, the income from the sale of garbage is used to establish ascholarship fund for 20 students who immigrate to town (United Nations, n.d.). It can be said
that Osaki Town has taken really strong actions to spread and maintain its model successfully.
Nishiawakura Village is the second case introduced in the course with lessons on building a
Low-carbon Model Community Based on Renewable Energy and exchange with Cities andSupport for start-ups with the theme of “High-quality Countryside”. One of the core issues
here is age, the aging rate is 37% higher than the average aging rate of Japan. In that context,
the local venture is Nishiawakura Village’s solution to attract immigrants to live and work in thissmall village. Nishiawakura Local Venture School makes it easier for them to integrate into
local life with participants' passionate businesses located in the right location. After the inal
selection, the selected can start their own businesses and win training opportunities, subsidy
and other support (Japan for Sustainability, 2017)
Finally, Kamikatsu Town's Happa business, zero waste and support for young immigrants
model, the irst town declares zero waste in the country was introduced. This town aims to bea zero waste society with no garbage with the classi ication of garbage into 45 categories, themost divided amount in Japan. Zero waste has been made a brand of Kamikatsu. This brand isused in environmental education programs, collaborative projects to plan a circularcommunity. In addition, to emphasize its role and image, Kamikatsu Town focuses on
education and eco-tourism, from consumptive tourism to environmental symbiosis tourism tohelp reduce pressure on not only nature but also culture and local community life,
contributing to the sustainability of the model.
SDGS LESSONS AND VIETNAMESE CONTEXT

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LOCAL SDGS IN JAPANBesides the impressions and lessons from each of the above regions, the most impressive
thing for students from di erent countries is that there are three localities mentioned in the
program as case studies and these are not the only three SGDs towns in Japan. In fact,according to my inding, the network of Japan's municipalities' actions on the SDGs includes
30 cities and regions selected as “Future City” and/or “Eco-model City” with the establishmentof SDGs Promotion Headquarters that comprises all Cabinet ministers in order to secure close
cooperation between relevant administrative agencies in implementing measures for the
SDGs and e ectively and e ectively promoting the SDGs measures (Fujino & Asakawa, 2017).
In my personal view, it means that Japan is investing a large network throughout the country
and has a tight organization to work towards the goal. Therefore, it makes the most important
contribution to the success of many localities, including the case studies in this ield trip.
During the course, a question arose to me, if Vietnam organizes this course, what case studies
should be considered in the lectures. However, it is not easy to ind the answer in the current
context of Vietnam. In Vietnam, sustainable development is a consistent policy of the Partyand State and is an issue that attracts the attention of society. The Government has
promulgated Vietnam’s Agenda 21 (2004), Vietnam's Sustainable Development Strategy for theperiod 2011 2020 and most recently the National Action Plan to implement Agenda 2030.
However, Vietnam has not created a strong “campaign” in the community about SDGs andshortcomings in organizational structure. Therefore, the above orientation of Japan can be alesson for Vietnam.
Factors that are expected to be favorable for Vietnam may be the government’s available
policy on SDGs, the aging problem is not a concern for a country with a golden population
structure like Vietnam today. Another thing is that Vietnam has a close international
cooperation relationship with Japan as well as many countries around the world. However,Vietnam also faces many challenges if it is to implement this lesson successfully. The irst is
inance. The second is the organization of the apparatus. The third is that the community’sawareness of the SDGs is still incomplete and inconsistent. Fourth, social and culturalcharacteristics have signi icant di erences between the two countries. For example, in wastesorting, collection and transportation programs in these towns, women play a leading andpivotal role. Personally, this is because Japanese women often choose not to work and stay athome after marriage, so they have more time for household chores. This contrasts with thecurrent social trend in Vietnam, where women increasingly want to be more independent ininance and career, so they are quite busy to do meticulous housework. Finally, the last thingthat could be the ifth disadvantage is the population aging trend, which is an inevitable trendthat Vietnam can achieve by 2040 (General Statistics O ice of Vietnam, 2020). It can be seenthat Vietnam needs to prepare very carefully and have long-term plans if it wants to pursue
Japan's SDGs model orientation.
SUGGESTION FOR KAMIKATSU TOWN
One of the common and core problems in Japan is the aging problem, and Kamikatsu Town is
no exception. Therefore, this locality needs to face and tighten the implementation of policies
to attract and retain young people and their families to immigrate. It can simultaneously carry

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTSUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANout educational activities to help immigrants know and integrate with the town’s lifestyle andSDGs model. Besides, this town can also use and further spread the zero waste brand bybringing unique handmade products and recycled products made from local waste toparticipate in campaigns such as Environmentally Friendly Shopping Campaign or own asimilar campaign. This can be bene icial in strengthening Kamikatsu’s brand and conveying astronger message of sustainability in society.

References
General Statistics O ice of Vietnam. (2020). Vietnam population size key indings. Retrieved
from http://consosukien.vn/quy-mo-dan-so-viet-nam-nhung-phat-hien- chinh.htm
Japan for Sustainability. (2017). Nishiawakura’s Initiative Based on People Discovering Their
Own Desires. Retrieved from https://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/
news_id035920.html
Junichi Fujino, & Kenji Asakawa. (2017). Taking action on the SDGs in Japanese cities. Retrieved
from https://www.iges.or.jp/en/publication_documents/pub/discussionpaper/en/6108/IGE
S+DP+SDGs+City+en+%281%29.pdf
United Nations. (n.d.). Osaki Recycling System of Japan (separation - collection - processing)achieved 83.4% recycling rate with 27 items separation by community and makes not only
Environmental but also Economical and Social Outcomes. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=30108

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANDELMARIA RICHARDSLESSONS LEARNED FROM THE COURSE AND THEIR APPLICATIONS TO JAMAICA
Numerous documents have been created to align with the sustainable development goals(SDGs) in Jamaica. Moreover, strategic reviews have been done to integrate SDGs in hopes ofstrengthening plan implementation frameworks. Nonetheless, they lack practicality, that is, theutilization of current and or future example projects displaying the achievements thus far.
There are few records of community-based projects for SDG advancement. For example, the
Vision 2030 Jamaica- National Development Plan has elements of the SDGs within but noexamples of how the strategies are applied. Great emphasis is applied to improve policy
coherence and capacity building in policy integration while neglecting participatory projects
with speci ic embedded benchmarks and assessment tools.
Consequently, the review strategies proposed are namely for policy reviews rather thanassessing the achievement through community participation. The approach directly aligns
with passive state-centered politics, where policies are drafted but not enacted well. Drastic
improvements are necessary to achieve the country's vision of becoming a developed country
by 2030. Several strategies employed in the three areas (Osaki Town, Nishiawakura Village,
and Kamikatsu Town) can be applied. These include; the use of good catchphrases to appeal
to the psyche of citizens when widely publicized, inding a niche in which the community has
a comparative advantage to create sustainable businesses for socio-economic growth,
adopting better waste management practices, instituting uncomplicated rules along withsystematic regulation for greater compliance, plus, ensuring stakeholder input to enhance
policy cohesion as well as applicability. The latter is discussed further.
Stakeholder input is paramount when creating sweeping policy changes. The stories of thetowns are very motivating. Through community participation, along with the capacity buildingof all stakeholders, all three towns and villages are achieving their goals. Seemingly thebottom-up approach employed has led to inclusive growth for all involved. The models
demonstrate an active way to change the mindset of a nation for sustainable growth is toencourage direct involvement. Furthermore, it is evident a bottom-up approach works betterfor compliance because when citizens create the rules they are prone to conformity.
Moreover, the ability to be involved in policymaking gives them a sense of pride, especiallyknowing their voices are heard.
Generally, political command and control techniques are employed in Jamaica. The
policymakers create the projects and or legislations, make rules, then impose unto the citizens
the expectation of acceptance, adoption, and submission. Although capacity and institution
building are often discussed in sustainable development, the associated actions lack
community visibility. Additionally, there is limited information sharing; even if active projects
are underway, related information is hard to access, unlike the three case studies. Information
gathering of practical SDG projects and their assessments need to be done then made public.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANThe major takeaway is, having community members achieve planned goals by strategic
execution enhances longevity. Subsequently, a bottom-up community development techniquewith inclusivity is e ective for policy enactment to tackle social issues. This includes aspiring
to achieve sustainable development goals. For a social system to be fully functional, allstakeholders must understand the mission by cross-sectional information sharing withgovernment o icials, businesses, and residents through meetings, discussions, and agreeing
to changes.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE THREE COMMUNITIESAll the presentations within the program were awe-inspiring, rendering essential information
for small communities' inclusive development by SGDs. All projects currently being
undertaken have signi icant distinctive values for each community. The comprehensive
precocious models leave little room for suggestions regarding improvements. Nonetheless,the suggestions below might have value for further enhancement of the communities.
Suggestions for Osaki Town: Investing in energy recovery from biowaste and forminginternational friendships•

According to Mr. Matsumoto and Mr. Nakamura in a presentation on May 25th, 2021, Osaki
Town continuously reduces land ill waste to increase the land ill's lifespan, which is a goodstart. However, we learned that a Japanese community could survive without land illing, as
in the case of Kamikatsu Town. Therefore, to further reduce inal disposal, organic waste
should be recycled for energy recovery. Biogasi ication might be an expensive venture, but
the sewage plant's lifespan is ending thus, livestock, food, and green wastes can be
combined with human excrement for bioenergy generation in the form of electrical andsteam energies. This option is appropriate because food plus green wastes account for
more than 60% of all generated wastes.

•

In addition, sister city relationships can be formed with cities abroad to boost investment.

Suggestions for Nishiawakura Village: Nishiawakura’s story is very inspiring. We see how
stringent changes can be e ectively implemented for sustainable development, regardless ofscope. Nevertheless, a few considerations for improvement are listed below.
•

Aquafarming is already underway using eels by A0 (A Zero) Co., Ltd. This can be expanded
to include the raring of Kio (Nishikigoi/Cyprinus rubrofuscus), since these fetch a highprice in domestic and international markets.

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The number of deer outnumber the residents. Hence, for deer control, a bid can betendered inviting businesses to engage in deer farming, where the venison is sold, and skinused for creating sustainable fashion (for example, cosmetics, jewelry, plus deerskin
leather). In addition, the waste from deer can be used in compost.

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Soil content monitoring: Currently, LiDAR is used with GIS for monitoring and modeling inprecision agriculture (PA), measuring height, plant structure, land clearing, density,
etcetera. However, this remote sensing technique seems to be for topographic analysis.
Therefore, using data from JAXA's GCOMW 1, which gives information regarding soil
moisture concentration and soil carbon at 50 km resolutions, is recommended.
Information from 2013 to 2017 is available. Furthermore, it will be replaced by a superior
satellite called GOSAT GW, which encompasses many climate-change-related standard
products by 2023. Although the program ended in 2017, data is found on JAXA’s Portal,
https://gportal.jaxa.jp/gpr/. For more information on how this satellite works. See: Oki, T.,
Imaoka, K., & Kachi, M. (2010). Concepts and applications of GCOM- W1 and W2. Int. Arch.
Photogramm., Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., 38(8), 86 90.

Suggestions for Kamikastu Town: Attracting foreign investment, promoting energy recovery,
and expanding forestry utilization are good inputs for the future.
•

Sister city relationships can be formed with cities abroad to boost investment.

•International interns can be taken as part of homestay programs. This might lead to an
expansion of the international market share while encouraging immigration. Additionally, it
might create an in lux of business interests.

•

Household compost can be done collectively then; the surplus packaged and sold tomarket.

•The kitchen and garden waste can be coupled for greater compost output or forbiogasi ication to produce steam and or electrical energy•

There should be greater use of forest resources. For example, a limited number of small
craft items can be made and sold to order or trees used to produce bioenergy frombiomass-re lective of Nishiawakura Village’s project.

•

The number of deer outnumber the residents. Therefore, for deer control, a bid can betendered for a business to engage in deer farming, where the venison is sold, and skinused for creating sustainable fashion (for example, cosmetics, jewelry, plus deerskin
leather. In addition, the waste from deer can be used in compost.

•

Bamboo or log rafting can be done on rivers. It might be attractive to adventure tourists.
Bobsledding in the mountains is also a fun tourist activity. The latter is an excellent way toobserve nature without depleting it. This is done in Jamaica.

Final Impression: All three case studies illustrate the importance of inclusive development
through stakeholder participation. There is full engagement through consultation, informing,and participation; giving bene its to ventures, regulations, plus individuals they directly

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impact. Although there are no set procedural guides for stakeholder participation and no onesize- its-all method to ensure success, it is essential to irst understand the issue being
addressed, then engage stakeholders from the outset to build a sense of pride, continuance,and strengthen community bonds.

References
D&B TRAVELS. (2017, June 3rd). MYSTIC MOUNTAIN - BOBSLED Ride - Ocho Rios, Jamaica
4K[Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0N6vL6PF6U
Nonoyama, S. (2021). Sustainable Community Planning: Sustainable development in Kamikatsu
way. pangaea, LLC.
pangaea, LLC. (n.d.). IRODORI. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/
pangaea, LLC. (n.d.). ZW_en. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/
SDSN Malaysia. (n.d.). SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS NETWORK A GLOBALINITIATIVE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS [Online image]. https://sdsn.org.my/2020/01/30/sixtransformations-to-achieving-the-sustainable- development-goals/
The United Nations Educational, Scienti ic and Cultural Organization SDG Education 2030
Steering Committee Secretariat. n.d. Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) [Online
image]. https://sdg4education2030.org/the-goal

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANJOSEPHINE BRENT YEANGAOSAKI TOWN, KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE
Osaki is a town which is located in Soo District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu Region in
Japan, the southern part of Kagoshima Prefecture and it faces the Paci ic Ocean. Osaki Town
has total population of 12,831 and been doing recycling since 1998.
At the late of the waste generation Osaki Town faced some challenges for the con idence in
the Town’s success. There was no incineration plant which was a serious problem for the town,
the waste generated was dump in the land ill site which make its limited, the land ill wasapproaching the end of its functionality, the only way forward was to prolong the life of theland ill by building new sites but, it was expensive, building an incinerator is a matter of
establishment and conservation which takes many e orts. The construction of the new land ill
in contrast to the residents of the surrounding area, in order to prolong the life of the existingland ill, it is necessary to establish rules of garbage classi ication and speci ic explanations to
the residents that will make them comfortable to embrace the good ideal of sorting. There
were burden on the local residence to separate waste in the early stage. They were successful
in reducing their waste by 84% and won award by Japan SDGs in 2018.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE, OKAYAMA PREFECTURE
Nishiawakura is located in the northeast of Okayama Prefecture with the population of 1,416
people. It confronted persistently diminishing population and a feeble economy. To change
the present circumstance, village people began to foster themselves. At long last, withmanageable ranger service, the town turned into a model for the accomplishment of territorial
renewal. The 100-year woodland business stood out from everywhere Japan. This 100-year
backwoods idea was begun with the endeavors of making high quality life in open country andlow carbon society. Most counterfeit timberlands of the Nishiawakura have been planted after
war period, which comprised of sugi and hinoki. Imported wood was reasonable around thenand neighborhood ranger service was tested. Hence, less consideration was given to
woodland.
KAMIKATSU TOWN, TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE
Kamikatsu Town is a modest community situated in Shikoku Island with 100 170 m over the sea
level. It has the number of inhabitants in under 1,500 individuals, 53% of which have a placewith maturing populace. The town is around 110 km2 in region where 88% of the land is
involved by the timberland. Notwithstanding, 80% of the backwoods are planted trees.
Kamikatsu Town has three unmistakable highlights: Happa business called Irodori, zero waste
administration and manageable the travel industry. The Irodori organization made a business
opportunity for beautiful leaves to embellish customary Japanese cooking, and set up the
Irodori brand. Ranchers, a farming helpful, the Irodori organization is occupied with thisendeavor together. The Irodori organization arranges ranchers, and o ers advancement,
showcasing, correspondence with clients.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANAutonomous ranchers supply leaves to the organization. The normal time of ranchers is 70
years of age, and greater part are ladies. The complete deals volume of the market for
beautifying leaves as a component of the customary Japanese food adds up to 1,000 million
yen (9.6 million dollar).

References
Edahiro, J., 2018. Nishiawakura's Initiative for Self-Dependence Attracting Motivated Young
People to Migrate to the Village and Start Businesses. Retrieved 15th June 2021, fromhttps://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036016.html.
Global Standard: Osaki Town - Toward a sustainable town – “世界標準、大崎に向けて鹿児島県大崎町役場“ used in SUSTEP Online Trip, May 25, 2021
Nishiawakura website, from http://www.vill.nishiawakura.okayama.jp.
Roger Ong, R., (2020 July 9). Kamikatsu’s Zero Waste Center “WHY”: It’s inally complete.
Retrieved from https://zenbird.media/kamikatsus-zero-waste-centerYance Arizona 2020. Multi-Dimensional Challenges, Multi-Sectoral Innovations: The Resilienceof Common Forest Management in Japan, from https://www.syl .org/news_voices/28043/.
Cited on 2021 17, June.

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANADOM SETHOSAKI TOWN (KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE)
Osaki Town is located in Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. It lies between 31° 26′ 32″ N 130° 58′
39″ E. The total population is about 12,831 people with 6,720 households. It covers about
100.67 km2 land area. Agriculture is noted as the main occupation in the town. Some farms
products from Osaki Town include freshwater eel, fruit, chicken meat and pure kudzu powder
among others. There was a critical issue of land ill solid waste disposal in the town. In the latedecades, the town council build waste recycling plant and began waste recycling. About 27
waste segregation strategy was adopted. Among all kitchen waste is highly recycling to
produce manure for farming. The town achieved 80% of solid waste recycling target higher
above national recycling of 20%. In 2018, they received 2nd Japan SDGs Award by the state
government. About 40 people are employed by the town for waste recycling services.
Revenue generated through waste recycling is about 140,000,000 Japanese yen, which
provide sort of educational funds to residence. Major challenge noted is low level of
population growth in the town. Policies have been implemented to attract immigrant andencourage marriage in the town to boost their future population.
NISHIAWAKURA VILLAGE (OKAYAMA PREFECTURE)
Nishiawakura Village is located in the northeast of Okayama Prefecture with a population of
1,416 people as of March 2021. It covers 57.93 square kilometers of land area, of which about
95% is mountainous forests. About 84% of the forest zone is dominated by Japanese cedar andcypress trees (sugi and hinoki). After World War II, people began plantation to serve as
economic value for individual dwellers. This plantations grew to abandoned stage due toimproper management. The village conceived 100-year forest concept, entrusted forest
management into cooperation with intended aim to rede ine and recreate a healthy
countryside living, preventing landslides in the mountainous areas of the village as well and be
low carbon society. One e ective strategy adopted was an initiation of comprehensive
approach of forestry cooperatives. Currently about 1,600 ha of private forests are managed by
the village. It achieved mass production of wood products like furniture’s, plywood among
others. The forest serve as source of traditional fuel for biomass energy generation. After 17
years e orts, it has become a model of local economic revitalization, selected as SDGs Future
City in 2019. In September 2015, the area adopted Sustainable Development Goal agenda
2030, aiming for zero carbon emissions through forest initiatives. The population of the area
experience continuous decline which may treat future sustainability of forest business in the
town.
KAMIKATSU TOWN (TOKUSHIMA PREFECTURE)
Kamikatsu Town is a small town located in Shikoku Island with 100 170 m above the sea level,with a population of less than 1,500 people, 53% of which belong to aging population. Totalland area is approximately 110 km2, forest occupied about 88% of the land area. The town has
three unique business features known as Irodori, zero waste management and sustainable
tourism. Irodori involves in decorative leaves as business. These leaves are mostly used in

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SUSTEP FIELD TRIP REPORTLOCAL SDGS IN JAPANJapanese societies to design foods and living environment. In 2003, Kamikatsu became a irst
Japanese town to initiate zero-waste policy. This strategy centered on ‘3Rs’, i.e., reduce, reuse,
and recycle, with about 45 type waste segregation approach. The town achieved more than
80% of overall waste generated through recycling and composting. It is good destination to
explore sustainable tourism and leisure activities during holidays. Kamikatsu Town was
nominated as SDGs Future City in 2018. It has a long-term commitments toward a sustainable
town. Even though they have made signi icant move towards SDGs, there is a need for capital
investment to expand it e orts.
In conclusion, many e orts have been made in various Japanese towns with diversity toincrease sustainability, ensure countryside economic revitalization and repopulate the existing
numbers of people. Despite e orts made by these towns there are still pitfalls by future treatof continuous reductions of human resource essential for development. Percentage of aged
population still peaking up. Therefore, the government of japan should embark on long-term
rural enterprise development program, encourage tax free allowance of opening new lucrative
business in Japan countryside’s to ensure redistribution of urban population across overvillages. Also, special incentives should be giving to people who live in countryside to ensure
better livelihood enhancement comparatively to those in cities. These would complement
immigrant into countryside to de-centric urban overpopulation.

References
Edahiro, J. (2018). Nishiawakura's Initiative for Self-Dependence Attracting Motivated Young
People to Migrate to the Village and Start Businesses. Retrieved 15th June 2021, fromhttps://www.japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id036016.html.
Planning Environment Division (PED). (2020 January 01). Challenges and goals of Kamikatsu
Town. Retrieved from https://zwtk.jp/2020/03/01/
Shizume, C. (2020). Kagoshima’s Osaki Town’s ambitious plans to achieve SDGs by 2030,
November 23, 2020, Retrieved June 13, 2021, from https://zenbird.media/kagoshimas-Osakitowns- ambitious-plans-to-achieve-sdgs-by-2030/

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SUSTEP Field Trip Report
Local SDGs in Japan: Learning from Good Practices from Selected Three Small Municipalities
Written by the participants of the SUSTEP Field Trip Local SDGs Towns in Japan, May-June 2021
Edited by Naoko Kaida

Sustainability Science, Technology and Policy (SUSTEP) Program, Master’s Program in
Environmental Sciences and Doctoral Program in Sustainable Environmental Studies,
Graduate School of Science and Technology, University of Tsukuba
June 2021