United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability Operating
Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK)OUIK Newsletter

Autumn 2019

The old site of Mr. Kurando Terashima’s House

Contents
Local Activities Page ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 2• Symposium of the SDGs Social Dialogue Series: Shaping the Region’s Future Through the SDGs

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Garden Cleaning Workshop of a Kanazawa City Designated Cultural Property
IMAGINE KANAZAWA 2030: SDGs Café
Brainstorming Workshop on Noto’s GIAHS Education
UNU Booth in MISIA's Satoyama Museum
Launching of the SDGs Mii’s Feast Project
Symposium on Restoring Kinship with Nature through Japanese Gardens
GIAHS Action Plan Formulation Workshop
LGBT and Education Dialogue

International Activities……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 10• Urban Biocultural Diversity: “Urban Realities and Urban Nature” Reading Workshop• Participation at the 4th SDGs UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)• Participation at the 6th East Asia Research Association for Agricultural Heritage Systems (ERAHS)New Staff Members……………………………………………………………………………………..……………………… Page 11
Internship………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Page 12
New Publications……………………..…………………………………………………………………………………..…..… Page121Symposium of the SDGs Social Dialogue Series:

possible involved along with the three concerned
parties. I hereby declare our commitment to work
hard to make this a reality.”

Shaping the Region’s Future Through the SDGs
Date: March 23, 2019
Venue: Kanazawa Bunka HallWith the theme Potentials of Community-led SDGs,
the symposium serves as the conclusion to the SDGs
Social Dialogue Series launched by the kickoffroundtable conference held on June 4, 2018. Issues
and insights gained from previous dialogues were
presented, after which an in-depth conversation in apanel discussion format were conducted on how toadvance efforts toward the SDGs going forward, fromthe local government’s perspective in Session 1, andin partnership with different organizations in Session
2.
Prior to the general
symposium,
Kanazawa City
Mayor Yukiyoshi
Yamano delivereda presentation on
the achievementsof the dialogues.
Working to (1) set Kanazawa's own distinctive goals,(2) develop an action plan to achieve these goals and(3) inform everyone in Kanazawa City of all these,
Kanazawa City arrived at the following five aims:① Learning from older generations who had
ventured into new things while treasuring
Kanazawa's individuality (its nature, history andculture), we must also try new things and offer
more appeal in order to connect with the younger
generation.
② We must look for the city’s future growth not in
expansion nor in extension, but in valuing theenvironment given to us, creating a circular
economy and passing it on to the next generation.
Our children and grandchildren will be the ones tocreate our future world.
③ We must develop the city with our children andgrandchildren in mind at all times.
④ We must create governmental policies, whichbring out inclusive communities all persons canfulfill their potential, regardless of (dis)ability, age,gender and other backgrounds.
⑤ Treasuring the achievements by our ancestors, wemust create innovations toward a sustainable
society that does not end only on personal levels,
but which comes along with frameworks.
Since envisioning what the world should be in 2030 isimportant, Mayor Yamano announced that the
Kanazawa SDGs will be called IMAGINE KANAZAWA
2030 and that activities will start from April 2019. He
ended by saying, “We hope to create a sustainable
Kanazawa City together, by getting as many people as

In Session 1 called the Role of Local Governments in
Promoting SDGs in the Region, the facilitator, Cosmo
Takagi, provided the topic: What changes will the
SDGs bring to local governments?
Diverse opinions were given, including: Moving
forward with the existing policies is unsustainable;
Sustainability can be achieved by formulating policies
from the perspective of the SDGs, and this requires
transformative ideas; and it is important to address
how the current status quo can be changed.
In the in-depth discussions, Hiroyuki Takakuwa(Planning and Coordination Division Chief, Kanazawa
City) was joined by three other panelists representing
local governments selected as the government's SDGs
Future Cities: Naoyuki Kaneda (Planning and Finance
Division Chief, Suzu City), Yuji Yokogawa (Deputy Chiefof Planning Promotion Department, Hakusan City) andAkinori Kurane (Nagano Prefecture government
official/Co-representative, Shinshu Innovation Project:SHIP). According to Mr. Kurane, the development of
the SDGs as global standards has made it easier tocross boundaries between organizational divisions,leading to a change in the awareness of people ingovernment. Another panelist gave the following
point of view: How do we embrace diversity? How do
we assess our progress toward SDGs? There are many
issues, but the process itself, of resolving such issues
through dialogues, is also important.
In Session 2 called the Design of SDGs Partnerships,
Takuji Hiroishi (President, empublic Ltd.), acted as
facilitator, while meaningful discussions were carriedout on the best way to form partnerships by Kenichiro
Fukushima (Founder, Code for Kanagawa: CfK), Kouta
Ebina (EMPOWER Project member and Kanazawa
University graduate student), Yusuke Ueno (Associate
Professor, Ishikawa Prefectural University), andMikiko Nagai (Office Manager, UNU-IAS OUIK).
First, Mr. Hiroishi provided the topic for discussion:
the importance of partnerships in working on the
SDGs and the best way to form them. He said that the2theme for the SDGs is to transform our world to its
next version. Our problems today involve a variety offactors that are interconnected, making it impossible
to identify and pick out the most critical one. Under
these circumstances, partnerships across various
sectors and disciplines are essential. This also meansthat we cannot solve our problems unless everyone
moves up to the next level and the partnerships
themselves need to be transformed into a newversion in the next generation. He added that theeconomic aspect of the SDGs is equally important, as
evidenced by the intense commitment of businesses,
and that of new technologies are required.
Next, eachpanelist
discussed theirown efforts.
Fukushimashared theinitiatives of
Civic Tech tosolve issues for
SDGs through ICT. As a member of the EMPOWER
Project, Ebina talked about its Supporter Coming Out
initiative. Ueno introduced the Hokuriku GreenInfrastructure Association, which was established byresearchers from four universities last year. Nagai said
that thanks to the Dialogue Series, “I was able tobroaden the ties between people and, throughforming partnerships, I was able to learn constantly
about other people’s perspectives.”
Hiroishi closed Session 2 with the following
observation and expectation from the SDGs
originating from Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecture:“Working on the SDGs has allowed us to get involved
with all kinds of people. People from fields that weused to think have nothing to do with us come tomeet, which gives us the chance to talk about ourideas on a sustainable society. The SDGs had also
made it easier to give voice to opinions on what we
think is right. I can’t wait to see how we actually makethe SDGs a reality by
2030. If each one ofus contributes in ourway, with the skills
we have, ourkindhearted efforts,
or our learning, thenwe can change theregion.”In the closing remarks, Tsunao Watanabe (Director,
UNU-IAS OUIK) noted that, “We have many different
opinions, but we need to understand each other’s
differences and learn from each other in order tomove forward. I believe that developing such flexible
partnerships will be very important from now on."

Garden Cleaning Workshop of a Kanazawa City
Designated Cultural Property
Date: March 31, 2019
Venue: Senda Family’s Garden

Maintaining a garden is laborious work. In particular,
gardens such as Senda Family’s Garden, which has alarge pond that draws water from canals, require
regular pond cleaning in addition to the usual weeding
and caring of trees. This entails difficult and heavy
manual labor. Half a year had passed since the lastcleaning workshop, and mud had accumulated once
more at the bottom of the pond.
Around 15 people,
including local
residents,
students, local
government
officials andtourists from othercountries
participated in the workshop. They went inside thedrained pond and shoveled out the buildup of mud atthe bottom.
After cleaning, they had tea in the house and learned
about the history and construction of the garden fromthe owners, Noriko Senda and Nobuhiro Ishino. The
garden is a type of Japanese garden with a central
pond and strolling paths around it, and was made in1894 by former Kaga Domain retainer, Norifumi
Senda. They said that the level of techniques ofgardeners used throughout the garden would be hard
to find these days. All the participants were absorbed
in listening to the extraordinary talk.
This kind of volunteer cleanup work was originallycarried out mainly by the Landscape Policy Division
staff of Kanazawa City. Juan Pastor-Evars, an OUIK
researcher, joined from 2017 and promoted apractical immersion program that includes Japanesetraditional tea ceremonies and workshops for learning
about the garden history and management after thecleanup, with the aim of developing the work into an
ecotourism activity. This can potentially be used more
extensively as a new garden management system as
well, that benefits owners by redistributing the heavylabor.

IMAGINE KANAZAWA 2030: SDGs Café
We have been organizing study group meetings andseminars on the SDGs since April 2019, called theSDGs Café. As a part of the IMAGINE KANAZAWA 2030
project, this initiative is a forum where all kinds ofpeople can join and have the chance to imagine the
Kanazawa of 2030, and allow local residents to decideon the future of Kanazawa. Since it is a café, drinks
and sweets are available. It is a place for face-to-facecommunication where anyone can freely participate
3

and exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere. As of
September 2019, there had already been five such
events, in which all the speakers and attendees haveimagined on a variety of topics.

access to the information if no one is to be left
behind.
Another response
given is that moving
forward, it may benecessary to create
tools that can
provide simple,
easilyunderstandable
information, even if
we all have to contribute and pool the funds todevelop them. There was a lively question-andanswer session and exchange of ideas related to thetheme. For example, a participant said that though
the technology itself is becoming commonplace, there
are still only a few people who act for themselves andattempt to work on various social problems, andanother asked why local governments are not making
progress in making data freely available (open data).

In the first event,
Mr. Kensei Nishide
of Gakuto Labospoke about his
vision of the futureof education. He
proposed a nextgeneration
workshop academythat takes advantage of Kanazawa's history, culture,and philosophy, based on the idea that in the future,
education will not simply be a matter of acquiringknowledge, but rather forming a qualitative
understanding of the world around us.
As an international example, Mr. Paul Muthers, wholives in the Noto area, introduced the special learning
processes and systems used at his former school. He
graduated from a democratic school in England called
Summer Hill School, where students and teachers
make the school rules and decide on the learning
process together. Participants were surprised andintrigued by this rather unique system—noting inparticular how much it differs from the Japanese
education system—so much so that they continued
asking questions past the event’s official closing time.
The common point of two speakers’ talks, and one of
the most impressive points made at the event, wasthat adults should not only give knowledge tochildren, but also give them the necessary support tohelp them open the way to the future.

In the third event,the theme was The
Education We Need
Today with Shinji
Fujioka (Professor,
Faculty of
Economics andManagement,
Hokuriku University) as the invited speaker.
Participants watched the documentary film
reexamining school education, Most Likely to Succeed,
which was then followed by a conversation among
everyone at the venue.
The documentary captured the reality of 21st century
style classes at High Tech High, an American highschool that studies and practices future-oriented
education. Students were evaluated on what theylearned at cultural festivals, and such, not by tests.
Unlike rote learning in an education thatoveremphasizes college entrance exams, the aim isfor students to learn deeply of their own accord andgrow as a person through both failure and success.
In the first place, our current educational system wasconceived in the era after the industrial revolution
when mass production was popular. In the 20th
century, it was believed that the national income rises
if the GDP increases matched reality. However, rapid
technological advances from the late 1990s deprived
many people of their jobs, marking the beginning of a
new era where graduating from college does nottranslate into a stable job. It is said that we areentering an era where only highly creative work willremain. If so, it is normal to feel anxious about the
future and wonder if the current educational system
is adequate.

In the second event, the theme was Civic Tech and No
One Left Behind on Information Access and the
speaker who imagined Kanazawa in 2030 was Mayuko
Suda of NPO Florence. Using her experiences inworking in the field of childcare as an example, sheshowed a vision of 2030 where everyone can receive
the benefits of IT, frameworks for outreach (homedelivery and services received at home) can becreated through IT, and where we share the resourcesamong ourselves to solve social issues.
What do we do to realize this imagined future? The
answers to this question were given by experts
Kenichiro Fukushima (CfK Founder) and Atsuro
Tsutsumi (Associate Professor, Kanazawa University/
Chairperson, EMPOWER Project KANAZAWA) in theirpresentations.
Delivering information to everyone is not easy.
Tsutsumi said, “How easily can a person wanting
certain information access it? If that is not taken into
consideration, then there is little value in giving theinformation.” In other words, everyone must be given
4According to Fujioka,
just watching themovie is not enough.
Those who watch it,such as students, theirparents and teachers,
as well as people indifferent walks of life, need to share their views. In
the workshop after watching the movie, theattendees were divided into groups to talk about theirown communities and discuss the Japanese
educational system. One piece of feedback that
resulted from this is that from here on, what we needis a system where the unique Japanese identity andsense of propriety are preserved while at the sametime nurturing children’s individuality.

local government thatenforced the Student
Town Promotion
Ordinance in the
country. He then said
that throughdiscussions witheveryone present, he would like to create a place
where feedback from young people is fully included indeveloping a diversified educational system.
With the theme of What Kind of Corporate
Management Does Society Want in 2030? My
Company Wish List!, the 5th event was held in
collaboration with the Work Style Reform Advocacy
Project in Kanazawa: Summer Seminar 2019 by the
Kanazawa IKUBOSS Company Alliance.
Two university
students with ties
to Kanazawa,
Tatsuyoshi
Nakanishi (2nd year
student at
Kanazawa
University, native of
Taito, Tokyo) and Reo Togami (4th year student at
Meiji University, native of Kanazawa City) were asked
to imagine how they will be working in 2030.
Nakanishi said, "I want to work on a job that pays wellfor the effort! This doesn’t mean wanting to take iteasy on the job. For me, a job that pays well for theeffort means work that results in higher levels ofhappiness, and a sense of growth and learning.” Healso believes that having a satisfactory private life isimportant, which for him means not just pursuing
hobbies but also valuing self-expression throughspending time with family and contributing to thecommunity.
On the other hand, Togami said, “I want to help boost
the earning power of the community.” He said that amodel case for Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecturethat leads to the development of the urban hub of the
future should be created and developed. To that end,
he believes that starting up attractive new businessventures and growing them, or in other words
creating earning power, is the key, and if this ischanneled into a system, then the outflow of young
people to Tokyo may be stopped. He relates that todo this, he will need to gain the necessary life
experience and practical business skills in the next 10
years.
Next, the audience
listened to a talk by
Katsuya Nomizu (Fellow at
the Office of the CEO at
Cybozu, Inc., native ofKanazawa). Cybozu has

The 4th SDGs Café was actually a continuation of the
3rd event. With the theme Educating the Standard
Bearers of 2030, Yoshitsugu Yamamoto (Principal,
Kanazawa University Senior High School) imagined
Kanazawa in 2030, while Hirohisa Ikehata (former
Principal, the Japanese School Singapore) and Kensei
Nishide (CEO, GAKUTOlab Inc.), a social entrepreneur
working to connect college students with companies
and children with local communities, presented manyideas.
The universityaffiliated high school
had been designatedas a Super Global HighSchool (SGH) by the
Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology in 2014. (As a five-year
limited program, the designation ended in March
2019.) Yamamoto said that as an SGH, they had been
undertaking educational programs on a global scale,with the goal of creating those who can sustainably
live and make the most of their abilities within the
global ecosystem and international community. This
had led to a more open school that interacts withother schools in and outside Japan and they received
advice from institutions and businesses in the
Hokuriku region. Aside from this inflow, outflow also
increased as more students went abroad for studies
and other activities. He added that the New
Curriculum Guidelines that are about to be
implemented emphasizes autonomous, interactive
and deep learning (active learning).
Next, Ikehata talked about the efforts of the Japanese
School Singapore to share problem awarenessbetween adults and children, as well as the good andbad of Japanese education he recognized during his
stay in Singapore. Moreover, Nishide presented theachievements of student support for long-term
practical internship (GARENA) in Kanazawa, the only
5

been included in the annual list of Great Place toWork for six consecutive years. Attendees working incompanies in the city were all ears to his response to
the question: How can a company be great even withlow pay? Nomizu said, “In Cybozu, each person has
their own personal work style.” He confided that job
applicants started pouring in when they let employees
craft their own career plan and decide for themselves
how they want to work over the course of their
lifetime. Furthermore, he said “Most students
personally want to acquire skills. To what extent cancompanies provide them the means to gain thoseskills? The best standard for work motivation iswhether they will take the business in new directions.
Too many companies can’t seem to be able to do
this.”In the ensuing talk session, he answered the question"What kind of corporate management does society
want?” by saying, “The same as the triple-win
management philosophy of the Omi merchants of old,
where everyone benefits — buyer, seller and the
public. In other words, it’s good for you, yourcustomers and society. It also means that it’s for thesake of Kanazawa and Ishikawa, customers andyourself.” He concluded by saying, “If you keep on
doing this all the time, then your company will be onethat society respects.”

experience program for preschool to high school
students developed at the University of California,
Berkeley, to help students master the ability to think
for themselves and to express their thoughts throughwords and actions. According to Kamogawa, mathteachers used to have only one right answer for eachmath problem, but from now on, students will have toconceive of many factors and employ a variety ofways to arrive at the right answer.
Finally, applying what we learned throughout the day,we brainstormed and shared in groups what we thinkshould be included, and should not be included, in
education for children and Noto in the future. We
received many feedback, such as "No to one-way
teaching!" and "I want to create something that helps
the children, as well as the community, to learn." We
hope that this helped each participant create theirvision of education and, through the workshop, create
new connections to expand Noto's GIAHS education.
OUIK set up a booth again this year at the event called
MISIA's Satoyama Museum held in MISIA’s Forest
inside the Ishikawa Forest Park at the town of
Tsubata, Ishikawa Prefecture.
UNU Booth in MISIA's Satoyama Museum
Date: June 9, 2019
Venue：Ishikawa Forest ParkMay 22 was designated as the UN International Day
for Biological Diversity. As the theme for this year was
on food, we decided to highlight the connection
between food and the satoyama, as well as the SDGs,
at this event.
A satoyama refers
to a mountainbordering a village
which has an
ecosystem
cultivated byhumans. The act of
cutting trees allows
light to enter the forest and creates a forest rich witha diversity of flora and fauna. It also enriches our lives
when we make good use of the trunks, leaves andother tree parts obtained from logging. However,biodiversity loss has become a problem because of
the aging population and lack of manpower in recent
years, resulting in poor forest management. Througha lecture and a shiitake mushroom inoculation
activity, the children were taught that forests that areproperly cared for by humans are actually healthierthan untouched forests.

Brainstorming Workshop on Noto’s GIAHS Education
Date: June 1, 2019
Venue：Ishikawa Prefecture Kenko no Mori

In 2018, OUIK collaborated with the local community
in publishing a picture book called Let’s Make a
Harvest Feast!, to help children learn about nature's
blessings and community wisdom throughpreparations for a feast for the Noto festival. For thisoccasion, we brainstormed ideas in the form of aworkshop on how to make full use of this picture bookin actual classroom settings together withparticipants.
To start with, Yuki
Hagino (TeamMaruyama) gave atalk about some of
their past
educational
activities, bydiscussing theirwork so far on environmental education under theconcept of "raising children as a community, raising
the hearts and bodies of children in Mii Town," as wellas their scientific and cultural monitoring activities.
Next, we were able to experience the Doing Mathwith Food program, facilitated by Hikaru Kamogawa(researcher, Japan GEMS Center). Great Exploration in
Math and Science (GEMS) is an interactive learning

Launching of the SDGs Mii’s Feast Project6

In May 2019, the Maruyama Group, which conducts
local educational activities in Wajima City, Ishikawa
Prefecture, in cooperation with the Mii Elementary
School, started an environmental education projectcalled the Feast Project of the Mii SDGs. OUIK
supports such educational activities that use the
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(GIAHS) site, Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi, to aim fora sustainable future.
Although lumped together as a single designation
called Noto's Satoyama and Satoumi, there are manykinds of traditional area-specific cultures within it.
Hoping that activities such as this one by Mii
Elementary School will be also conducted in otherregions of Noto, we are working together with local
communities to create a platform for enabling
interactions between the satoyama and satoumi.
For a year, the project has aimed to provide a way tolearn about local nature and traditions, and theirconnectedness, through the process of making a feast
based on the picture book Let’s Make a Harvest Feast!
Getting out of the classroom to listen to the stories of
local people and work with friends to make a feast
fosters the children’s creative thinking, sense of pridefor the local community and sense of appreciation for
nature in the satoyama, by making them go throughthe process of thinking and doing things forthemselves.

fish in about half an hour. Since the immersion
program this time included making and eating an
actual feast, they immediately started skewering thefish. Eating a meal
means partaking of life.
The children’s faces
showed mixed feelings
as they looked at thegori that had been
alive until a few
moments ago. The fish
were grilled over charcoal and dipped in sauce before
eating. Delicious! I want some more! The taste of foodthat they caught themselves was exceptionally good.
Lastly, they returned the fingerlings that they hadn’t
eaten back to the river.
The third activity
held in July was an
excursion to Suzu
City to try making
flying fish brothcalled agodashi.
Agodashi is aJapanese soup
stock (dashi) made out of dried flying fish, which are
made from fresh flying fish that had been simmeredor grilled and then dried. In Suzu, agodashi is made bycatching small flying fish at the outer cove, grillingthem over locally produced charcoal and drying. The
activity-filled day included (1) agodashi making, (2)learning about the shichirin, a small charcoal stove
made of diatomite for grilling the flying fish, and (3)and learning how to make tools for catching the fish.
The children learned about the cycle of food: how thefish caught in Suzu throughout the day are turned into
an essential ingredient in Noto’s local cuisine called
agodashi using locally made tools and materials, andfinally eaten by the local people. They also visited theSDGs Lab at the Noto School, Kanazawa University
and learned about the 17 goals and 169 targets for asustainable society. It was an opportunity for thechildren to understand the SDGs better after theylearned that their usual activities in the forests areconnected to the SDGs.

The first activity of the
project held in May
involved harvesting thewild vegetable, bracken,
in Maruyama at Mii,
Wajima City and picklingit in salt. Since it was thefirst time for many of the students to pick wild plants,
they were given plenty of hints by the local people
and Yuki Hagino of the Team Maruyama as theylooked down and searched hard. Where and when dobrackens grow? What kind of plants and animals live
alongside it? In their remaining time, the children also
made bamboo-leaf boats and enjoyed their day oflearning.
The second activity was held in June. The groupheaded to the source of the Kawarada River, whichflows across Wajima City, in search of gori, the local
name for Japanese sculpin, a highly prized small
freshwater fish. The gori lives only in clean water andthe population has apparently decreased due to theconstruction of embankments and pesticide use inrice fields in recent years. The children tried theirhand at gori catching, as the locals showed them how
to do it. While muttering about the coldness of thewater, they waded into the river and were soon intent
on plunging their hands into the water, catching ten
7International Communication, Hokuriku University)
and Yoshio Tsuchida (Professor, Department ofArchitecture, College of Architecture, Kanazawa
Institute of Technology) as panelists.
First, each panelist gave their perspective on thecharms and ways to enjoy gardens. Tsuba talked
about the cleaning activity he conducts with students
every year at Rinshotei Garden’s goninbuchi no matsu(literally the “pine of five person’s stipends”) and at
Senda Family’s Garden.
Hasegawa thendetailed the kindof trees thatwere planted in
the Kaga Domain
retainer’s estate
garden and thereasons why. He
added thatgardens that can be made self-sufficient as in the pastwould be very appealing for the sake of preserving
gardens in the future.
Terashima spoke about her memories when she wasliving at the former Mr. Kurando Terashima’s House.
She said that they lived a modest life, where theyheated bathtub water with firewood picked up fromthe garden and ate and appreciated the natural things
that grew and bore fruit in the garden. She also
recalled how they were unable to hire a gardener, sothey did the yukitsuri (propping up branches withropes to protect trees from heavy snow) themselves
by copying what others were doing, and said “It was
really hard work, but we had to do it.”
Gardener Nonoichi described the characteristics ofJapanese gardens in Kanazawa based on the conceptof "a mountain hut in the city" (creating a satoyama
scene around the house) and the pruning techniques
unique to a snowy region like Kanazawa.
Tsuchida showed the audience how to enjoy
soundscapes. He then revealed that most Japanesegardening skills have been handed down to thepresent as tacit knowledge, and in order to pass theseon to the future, he said that such tacit knowledge
must be preserved as explicit knowledge, not only forthe creator but also for the viewer.
“Kanazawa still has a lot of gardens, and the chance topreserve them, as well as many people who have
known the pleasure of creating them...” said Prof.
Tsuba. He then ended Talk Session 1 by saying, “I
hope that these gardens will be valued more than justa landscape but also as a natural space for the city anda habitat for living creatures.”
The theme for Talk Session 2 was Sustainability as
Seen from Local Nature with Yusuke Ueno (Associate
Professor, Department of Environmental Science,
Faculty of Bioresources and Environmental Sciences,
Ishikawa Prefectural University) acting as facilitator

Symposium on Restoring Kinship with Nature
through Japanese Gardens
Date: July 6, 2019
Venue： 21st Century Museum of Contemporary
Art, Kanazawa

The UNU-IAS OUIK produced the fifth booklet of its
Biocultural Diversity Series focusing on nature andJapanese gardens in Kanazawa, entitled Restoring
Kinship with Nature through Japanese Gardens: The
Challenge to Achieve a Sustainable Commons in
Kanazawa.
To celebrate the occasion, we invited all the authors
to present in a symposium to uncover the hidden
charms of Kanazawa's gardens from the perspectiveof history, environment and design, and to think of
new ways to enjoy gardens and reflect on what we
can do to pass them on to future generations.
In the opening remarks, Juan Pastor-Ivars (Research
Associate, OUIK),
described the contentsof the booklet. He
presented thepreviously unknown
attractions of gardens
and how to engage inthem, as well as shared Kanazawa's uniquebiodiversity strategy, the struggles and challenges ofgarden owners to maintain their gardens, the lessons
learned by looking at Japanese gardens from various
perspectives, and what is gained by the new ways ofgetting involved with Japanese gardens.
Next, Tadao Kobayashi (Trustee, The Folklore Societyof Japan / former Professor, Hokuriku University) gavea keynote speech entitled Kanazawa as Seen from
Gardens. He explained that the spatial features ofKanazawa is laid out in what is called an inverted fengshui, i.e. the Chinese feng shui flipped 180 degrees,and so clusters of temples were placed in locations
considered unlucky to block evil spirits. He also
showed, through old photos of Kanazawa, that it wasliterally a forested city with lots of trees in the centralarea, and speculated that in the old days, Kanazawa
had conducted landscaping and actively planted thesurrounding trees. He concluded his talk by sayingthat Kanazawa has preserved many of its folk customs
related to plants, and that many people have beendrawn to its urban lifestyle that is inextricably linked
to plants, which still remains to this day.
In Talk Session 1, the discussion started on the themeof Hidden Charms of Kanazawa’s Gardens withTakahiro Tsuba (Professor, Environment Design
Course, Kanazawa College of Art) acting as facilitator
and with Yoshiro Nonoichi (President, Nonoyo
Landscape Gardening Ltd.), Kyoko Terashima (former
owner, the Old Site of Mr. Kurando Terashima's
House), Takanori Hasegawa (Professor, Faculty of
8and with Motofumi Marui (Associate Professor,
Department of Architecture, College of Architecture,
Kanazawa Institute of Technology), Aida Mammadova(Associate Professor, Organization of Global Affairs,
Kanazawa University), an international student
representative (Kazan Federal University, Russia) and
Mikiko Nagai (Office Manager, OUIK) as panelists. The
panel discussed what we can do to make the newly
discovered values and attractions of gardens in
Session 1 sustainable.
First, Ueno presented an outline of the SDGs as key
action goals for considering sustainability. He also
introduced the concept of green infrastructure, which
utilizes the systems and functions of nature for
infrastructure development, disaster prevention andland management.

In the closing remarks, Tetsuo Ueda (the Ishikawa
Liaison Committee, Japanese Institute of LandscapeArchitecture) mentioned the difficulty of maintaining
Japanese gardens. He said, “It is extremely difficult forowners and managers alone. We must consider
engaging in civic collaboration from research tomaintenance and management of gardens andwildlife.”
GIAHS Action Plan Formulation Workshop
Date: August 1,2019
Venue：Shika Town Community Center

The four cities and five towns comprising the Noto
Regional Association for GIAHS Promotion andCooperation participated in the workshop.
The workshop had three objectives:
1. Verify the accomplishments and issues of GIAHS
efforts to date
2. Share models for Noto's Satoyama and Satoumi
3. Assess the courses of action moving forward foreach city and town and the entire region.
In the morning, all the municipalities gave
presentations on their GIAHS initiatives. Several
common issues emerged, such as developing humanresources and securing supporters for the satoyama
and satoumi, and finding the best way to give supportand subsidies to the groups implementing theinitiatives. Afterwards, Nagai from OUIK gave a lecture
called Let’s Move Ahead with Noto's Satoyama andSatoumi Partnerships Led by Collective Impact! In theafternoon, a group work session was held toreconsider the relationships between groups working
on Noto's Satoyama and Satoumi and the GIAHS.
Three common issues emerged:
1. The best way to give support
2. How to widely share the lessons learned from bestpractices
3. How to get young people involved in the field of
traditional skills.
The workshop
provided an
opportunity toreview theaccomplishments
and issues of eachmunicipality's
efforts, anddetermine whatneeds to be done to circulate GIAHS efforts
dynamically and comprehensively throughout the
Noto region. As a final activity in the group work, thegroups constructed a map of stakeholders andorganizations carrying out various activities in theirmunicipalities, in order to visualize and study what

Marui then gave a talk focusing on urban heat andurban green. Global warming is further aggravated inurban areas by the heat island effect. However, cities
also have green spaces, where cold air flow generated
by the greenery cools down surrounding areas. In
Kanazawa, it was found that there is a difference of 2
to 3 degrees at night between the Katamachi area andthe Kodatsuno plateau.
Mammadova is in charge of an immersion programfor international students to experience Kanazawa's
culture. She said that the program allows students tosee everything in one place upon entering the garden(soundscapes, landscapes, architecture andeconomics) and provides the best experience to learn
about Japanese culture, such as tea ceremony after
cleanup a Japanese garden.
Nagai described the activities for the SDGs being led
by Kanazawa City, Junior Chamber International
Kanazawa and UNU-IAS OUIK. In it, she discussed thefive aims of Kanazawa SDGs.
Finally, Ueno ended Talk Session 2 with the following
points, “We need to discover new value from various
outlooks, including those of people from othercountries and build a framework where many people
would want to engage in and in which they can enjoy.
Partnerships are also important when tackling issues.
If we can preserve or bring back the distinctive
lifestyles of Kanazawa and old Japan, then Kanazawa
will certainly be a more appealing place 50 or 100
years from now.”9

kind of collaborative framework and support can beprovided through GIAHS activities.

Suzuki (Representative, the Magnifying Glass Society)and Mika Yakushi (Representative, NPO ReBit).
Maeda
commented, “I
think it’s
important tofollow up onteachers as well.
If we can create
an openenvironment inside the faculty room, then we cancreate a culture of acceptance and diversity
throughout the school.” Matsuoka said, “I think it’s
important to be mindful that our words are respectfulof sexual diversity. When asking something like ‘Got a
new boyfriend?’ we can ask ‘Have you met someone?’
instead.” Suzuki narrated, “When I came out at workthat I was gay, I was told to stop revealing suchprivate matters in the workplace. We are all humans,with failures and other things that are to confide tosomeone else. But I learned from my students in classthat revealing such things and accepting them is achance for us to get to know each other moredeeply.“ Yakushi added, “When LGBTs come out, it isvery encouraging for them to see people responding
with a willingness to know more, even if they didn’tknow anything about LGBTs, and giving support
through dialogues.” The panelists spoke out withmany personal experiences.
According to a survey, the Hokuriku region has thehighest percentage of people with negative views on
homosexuals. There may be various social
circumstances underlying this result, but
understanding and accepting minorities and otherpeople is extremely important if we are to realize asociety in which no one is left behind. LGBT may still
be an unfamiliar term to many of us, but it seemed
like all the people who participated in the Rainbow
Week and the dialogue event have learned a great
deal from them.

LGBT and Education Dialogue
Date: September 8, 2019
Venue：21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

The dialogue was as part of the Kanazawa Rainbow
Week 2019: Creating an Inclusive Kanazawa Together,with No One Left Behind in the SDGs. A photo exhibitof around 2000 people by the LGBT Coming Out Photo
Project: OUT IN JAPAN was simultaneously held at thevenue. Holding the dialogue event within that spaceturned out to be a great opportunity to deepen our
understanding of LGBT issues and think of ways thatthe schools and the community can help.
Mikiko Nagai(Office
Manager,
OUIK) acted
as moderator.
In Session 1
called HowtheCommunity
Can Help, the four panelists were Hiroshi Hase
(Member of the House of Representatives), FumikoHagihara (President, G&S Corporation, Representativeof the Association of Women Entrepreneurs in
HOKURIKU), Katsutoshi Shibata (Chair of Ishikawa
Prefectural Elementary and Junior High School
Principal’s Association) and Gon Matsunaka(President, NPO Good Aging Yells).
Matsunaka, who manages the operations for the
Kanazawa Rainbow Week 2019, began the session by
talking about the situation of LGBTs among otherthings and saying, “I hope more people realize thatLGBTs are all around us.” Hase said, “LGBTs are little
understood in Japan. Rather than developing laws toeliminate discrimination, I would like to enact
legislation that will mainly promote understanding.”
Hagihara added, “Discrimination against womenpresidents used to be awful. I believe that someday
LGBTs will be naturally accepted as well. To make thishappen, we must get various stakeholders involved
and promote understanding of LGBTs." Shibata
responded by saying, “We need diversity in teachers
in order to (notice and offer support to each child) for
adapting to the diversity of children.” Matsunaka
closed the session with a hint of hope, “Ultimately, I
wish for a world where I can have a conversation inwhich I can say ‘I have a boyfriend’ and the common
response will be ‘That’s good.’”
In Session 2 called How the Schools Can Help, the four
panelists were Takeshi Maeda (Representative,
Second: Fun School and Faculty Consultant), Seiko
Matsuoka (Representative, NPO ASTA), Shigeyoshi

Urban Biocultural Diversity: “Urban Realities and
Urban Nature” Reading Workshop
Date: April 1-7, 2019
Location: South Africa

13 researchers from around the world, including Juan
Pastor Ivars, Research Associate at OUIK, met in South
Africa to participate in a workshop with the purposeof publishing a book on urban biocultural diversity.
The workshop was organized and sponsored byMichelle Cocks and Charlie Shackleton, professors at
the University of Rhodes in South Africa.

10In his chapter of thebook, Dr. Pastor
evaluates the figureof the Japanesegarden—its
ontology, aesthetics,
and ecology—with afocus on thegardens of Kanazawa. In particular, he presents
examples of how to rebuild the relationship between
people and nature through Japanese gardens.
The program of the workshop included individual
readings and discussions of each chapter, followed byexcursions into the surrounding area.
This workshop demonstrated the importance ofinterpersonal links at a global level in order topromote the concept of biocultural diversity, as wellas to create an academic body for its implementationand governance. The book is scheduled to be
published early next year.

(Decent Work and Economic Growth), 10 (Reduced
Inequalities), 13 (Climate Action), 16 (Peace, Justiceand Strong Institutions) and 17 (Partnerships for theGoals).

While there were various related events held in
addition to the voluntary national reviews by eachnation’s representatives, the spotlight was on theevent for advancing SDGs at the local level called
Local2030. Local governments are considered to play
an important role for 65% of the 169 SDG targets.
Local government heads and representatives fromaround the world shared their problems andaccomplishments on education, inequality, financeand partnerships. We can't wait for the time when
Ishikawa Prefecture's local governments will be able
to send their message to the rest of world.
Another important feature of the SDGs is theimportance given to the voices of the youth. This isprobably because by 2030, the young people currently
in their teens and 20s will be taking the lead toward asustainable society. The OUIK was able to interview
the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the
Ocean, Peter Thomson, together with a youth
organization called SDGs-SWY, to ask about his
expectations from the next generation on Goal 14(Life Below Water) of the SDGs.

Participation at the 6th East Asia Research
Association for Agricultural Heritage Systems
Venue: Ha Dong, South Korea

The 6th East Asia
Research
Association for
Agricultural
Heritage System(ERAHS) this year,
has beenorganized in Ha
Dong county,
Korea. Around 300 GIAHS stakeholders participated inthis event and deepen their understanding andrelationships. In Ha Dong, their traditional tea
cultivation system is one of the factors for the GIAHS
designation.
OUIK's research associate Evonne Yiu moderated asession on Young Generation and GIAHS, where many
creative ideas were proposed by representatives from
Korea, China and Japan.
The role of youth is very important for GIAHS, andmany creative ideas were proposed byrepresentatives of youth in Korea, China and Japan.

New staff members
Akiko Urakawa
Administrative AssistantBorn in Aichi Prefecture. After
working at a travel agency desk,as an English teacher forchildren and as an office staff ina graduate school laboratory, I
have been involved in OUIK
activities as an office assistant since 2018.
I have lived in many different regions mainly due tomy husband's relocation and have gained myprofessional experience mostly in back office work.
I work daily supporting the operations of the OUIK
amid the splendor of nature in Ishikawa and therefined culture of Kanazawa.

Participation at the 4th SDGs UN High-level Political
Forum on Sustainable Development
Date: July 2019
Venue: UN Headquarters, New York, US

At the 4th SDGs UN High-level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development (HLPF), concerned parties
from all over the world meet every year at the UN
Headquarters in New York to report on their progresson the SDGs. The 4th HLPF took place from July 8 to
18 and focused on Goals 4 (Quality Education), 8
11

Cosmo Takagi
Research Associate

adults and the children are thinking, and it made me
think about what role I can play in Ishikawa in the
future. In the three months of the internship, I
learned more than I had imagined I could, and it hadallowed me to give shape to a core part of my future
career.

After graduating from university,
I worked at a non-profit
organization and in the businesssector, and then I assumed apost at the municipal
government of Yamato City in
Kanagawa Prefecture. I worked as a municipal
government staff member for 5.5 years before leaving
the position to become a doctoral student in the USA
to study “SDGs Localization at Local Governments”. I
finished a training course called “Executive Leadership
Programme in Evaluation and Sustainable
Development Goals (ELPE)” in 2018. I am also working
at Keio University as a Project Research Associate(Cross Post). At OUIK, I work on research projects
regarding SDG Localization in the local government.

Satoka Narushima(June to September 2019)
For the internship, I set four
goals for myself, which I wasable to fulfill, namely 1) to learn
about the biocultural diversity
linking the richness of natureand culture, 2) to learn about initiatives for the SDGs
in Ishikawa Prefecture, 3) to learn about OUIK
activities, and 4) to get involved in managing eventsand programs. I was also able to take part in various
events and activities, and became aware of many new
things during these three months. And for someone
like me, who come from Chiba Prefecture, it was also
an opportunity to appreciate the wonders of Japaneseculture by living in Ishikawa Prefecture andexperiencing the traditional crafts and culture
representing Japan.
In the future, I would like to make the most of myinternship experience and continue to explore theways that I can help realize a sustainable society. I
would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone
who have made this possible and to all the local
people for their support throughout my internship.

Internship
Yuka Mukai
4th year student, Departmentof Environmental Science,
Faculty of Bioresources andEnvironmental Sciences,
Ishikawa Prefectural
University(May to August 2019)
From October 2018 to March 2019, I went to study in
Laos about the essence of environmental education aspart of the Education for Sustainable Development(ESD). My aim was to give back what I have learned
there to the environmental education in Ishikawa
Prefecture someday. However, I didn’t fully
understand Ishikawa Prefecture's environmental
education and the SDGs, so I decided to study them asmuch as I can through an internship at OUIK. Throughthe Feast Project of the Mii SDGs, lectures at theSatoyama Museum in MISIA’s Forest, sea trashsurveys at Hegura Island, and participation in SDGs
café events and meetings during the internship, I
learned about the current state of environmental
education and the SDGs, and I also realized the
difficulty of developing something throughpartnerships between the implementers and thegovernments. Furthermore, through a presentation at
the Kanazawa University Satoyama Seminar and bycarrying out SDGs education at Iida High School, I wasable to impart what I have learned in my studies
overseas and made them deliberate on local issues. I
was surprised that even high school students have aproper grasp of the local issues and are thinking about
them. I also felt that there is a gap between what the

New Publications
UNU-IAS OUIK Biocultural Diversity Series #5“Restoring Kinship with Nature through Japanese
Garden” 2019-07-06
Corresponding author and editor Juan Pastor-Ivars
Published by UNU-IAS OUIK
Published on 6 July 2019
Online version is available.
http://ouik.unu.edu/en/publication
Published: October 2019

Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (OUIK)UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability
Shiinoki Cultural Complex, Ishikawa Prefecture 3F
2-1-1 Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, 920-0962 Japan
Tel: +81-76-224-2266 Fax: +81-76-224-2271
EMAIL: unu-iasouik@unu.edu

URL: www.ouik.unu.edu

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