6 | The Japan Times | Monday, February 1, 2021

sustainable japan

ESG promotional content
produced by The Japan Times CubeJoy Jarman-Walsh showcases people’s efforts on live talk show

University lecturer
to talk show hostTourism expert balances
people, planet and profit
Name: Joy Jarman-Walsh

Title: Inbound tourism consultant andlivestream talk show host
URL: http://www.inboundambassador.
com/
Hometown: Oahu
Years in Japan: 28

Leaders & Readers
JANE KITAGAWA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The effervescent American Joy JarmanWalsh, a long-term resident who has spentover half her life in Japan and is an expert intourism marketing, consulting and training,has a confession to make. “One thing which I
didn’t realize until the last few years working
with tourists is how lonely it can be in Japan,”she revealed in an online interview, bundled
up warmly in her Hiroshima home.
Describing how tourists often opened
up to her about loneliness, and her surpriseupon hearing how they felt “they didn’t havea chance to meet any local people,” Jarman-Recording “Seeking Sustainavility Live”,
Jarman’s daily talk show JOY JARMAN WALSH

Walsh reflected upon her own situation. She
concluded that she herself didn’t have manyclose relationships with Japanese people outside her work relationships. “How can I use
what I’m doing with consulting or training tohelp people make meaningful connections
on a more personal level?” she asked.
This epiphany was the impetus for Jarman-Walsh to quit her tenured university
position and set up her own consulting business, Inbound Ambassador, “as a way to putyears of sustainable tourism theory, ideas
and research to work.”“Before I started my own business, I wasvery idealistic about sustainability,” she said.
“‘We need to do this now!’ and ‘Come on, government, do this!’ Once I started consulting, I
became much more realistic.”
Part of her change in approach was adopting mindfulness and developing a better
appreciation of the smaller efforts thatpeople and companies were making, efforts
that in the long term could have a larger
impact or effect. These efforts are showcasedin Jarman-Walsh’s “Seeking Sustainability
Live” venture, a multichannel social mediatalk show in which she researches and interviews guests about their work in sustainability, whether it be environmental, cultural,community-building or tourism-related.
“Being sustainable is about quality of life,”
Jarman-Walsh said. “How can you maintaina balance between people, the planet andprofit? If the ‘people’ part doesn’t include
culture, traditions, proactive communities ormaintaining a high quality of daily life for thethings that you care about, it’s not going to besustainable.”
Sustainable tourism draws upon JarmanWalsh’s expertise, but she also learned about

the negative impact of tourism — “wherethe number of people (visitors) equals success” — firsthand growing up on Oahu,
Hawaii. She thrived living in an environment
where clean air and water were the norm
but remembers very little tourism-generated
money improving local businesses, people ornatural areas.
That, she says, is tourism’s default, business-as-usual model, with residents experiencing the inconveniences of the tourism
boom and missing out on the benefits. Yet it
has been encouraging to see progress being
made, such as changes occurring in Hawaii
over the last 10 years.
According to Jarman-Walsh, Hawaii hascome to understand “you have to take careof your staff at hotels, you have to take careof the local area, people and environment if
you want the incoming tourists to also enjoy
themselves. There’s a big shift from focusing solely on the customer to balancing theneeds of local people and staff with highquality customer experiences. I think Japanis starting to get that, but it is still not quite
here yet,” she added, citing the status of thecustomer, inherent in omotenashi (hospitality) culture, as a possible contributing factor.
Finding ways for locals to retain a decent
quality of life by enjoying local assets forthemselves while gaining some benefits
from incoming visitors is vital to the tourism
industry’s sustainability and overall success,she added.
The coronavirus pandemic is a time forthe tourism industry to reset, reflect andfocus on marketing efforts, she posits. A
recent stint of destination consulting saw her
advising one client to “use this time to sustain, build your brand.” Further outreach saw

Within as short as 10 minutes of speaking with Joy Jarman-Walsh, it becomes
clear that the Oahu, Hawaii, native has
found her ikigai, or life purpose. A tourism consultant running her own business,
Inbound Ambassador, Jarman-Walsh isalso passionate about promoting sustainability-focused businesses and products
from Japan. She achieves this in part via
her self-described livestream talk show,
which is published on social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Twitch. As the host of “Seeking
Sustainability Live,” she has to date interviewed 170 guests — artisans, activists,chefs, educators, organic farmers, people
working in tourism services, community
development and nonprofits, and people
restoring old homes to enjoy living in ruralareas.
Before her career change, Jarman-Walsh
was a university lecturer of communication, business and tourism studies. She
initially came to Japan to teach English on
the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme in 1991.
JOY JARMAN-WALSH

her advising other clients to collaborate andpool efforts in like-minded fields or areas.
“I find it’s a really hard sell to some clients;
they’re like: ‘I’m in my lane doing my thing.
What are you talking about, reaching out andconnecting with other people?’” Most destinations and businesses have adopted a competitive mindset, she reflects.
Yet Jarman-Walsh is adamant this is harming the creation of successful international
tourism policies. Instead, information-sharing and working collaboratively is key to balancing the needs of locals and visitors. Suchmodels encourage longer stays and moremoney flowing into local economies. It’s anapproach Jarman-Walsh says is taken up by
many non-Japanese working in domestic
tourism here in Japan, such as 2020 “Seeking
Sustainability Live” interviewee Jess Hallams,an Australian living in Tohoku.

“Her concept is about branding the whole
Tohoku area, not just region by region for aservice, or product by product, but getting
the whole region to (better) work together
and share each other’s information in termsof inbound and even domestic tourists,” shesaid.
Domestic tourism is important, she says.
She is reminded of her years as a participant
in the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme starting in 1991, where she also met
her husband.
Avid athletes and sharing similar interests
in triathlons, sports and hiking, the couple
spent weekends traveling around rural
Kyushu and spent longer breaks traveling farand wide across Japan.
“We ended up spending six weeks cyclingaround Hokkaido, traveling around to therural areas to do triathlon races, meeting

local people. It made me feel really connected to Japan, and I could see that there
was so much diversity,” she said. “It gives
me hope for the kinds of things I’m trying to promote for sustainable tourism,
because I want people here to also see visitors and international residents as not justhomogenous.”
Continues Jarman-Walsh: “When I
became a consultant I was told … Japan isbasically a ‘no’ culture, so brace yourself forrejection when you ask people to change
something, be innovative or to try something that’s outside the norm. That was
really good advice, and it’s definitely something I’ve seen. However, I would add, ‘Don’t
give up!’ Offering reasons as to how it will
benefit locals over the long term in qualityof life and economic benefits can help you
make inroads into positively affecting moresustainable innovation and progress.”

Mymizu’s water app just firststep to ending plastic waste
ESG / SDGs
JOE MUNTALCONTRIBUTING WRITER

From conservation to climate change, theenvironmental challenges of our times aredaunting and can seem distant from oureveryday lives.
But among the obstacles impeding ourpath to sustainability, one is within reach:plastic. That is why in 2019, Robin Lewis
co-founded mymizu to tackle the issueof single-use plastic waste. In addition tospreading awareness about the benefitsof reducing plastic consumption throughworkshops, seminars and joint productdevelopment, mymizu connects people to a
network of free water-refill stations aroundthe world, encouraging a transition awayfrom plastic bottles and toward more sustainable lifestyles.
The project began in 2018 when Lewis andmymizu co-founder Mariko McTier weretraveling in Okinawa. One morning, while
walking along the beach, they came across apile of fishing gear, cosmetic items and otherwaste that had washed up. Among this massof garbage was an inordinate amount of plastic bottles.
As an island nation, Japan’s prosperity
depends on the health of its surrounding
waters. Yet, as illustrated by the plastic waste
ending up on its shores, the country is facing
a plastic crisis that threatens the well-beingof its most precious natural resource.
“It’s kind of wild that we live in a country
like Japan, where we’re extremely fortunate
to be surrounded by drinkable water,” Lewis
said. “Japan is famous for its water, and yet
every year we’re seeing more plastic waste
end up on the shores of Japan.” It was thisexperience that impelled Lewis to find a

App users can easily register new refill points
to the platform, becoming involved in theprocess MYMIZU

PAGE: 6way to reinvent theway we use plastic,
especially whenit comes to plastic
bottles. This culminated in the launchof mymizu’s flagshipapp, which connects users with a
network of partner
Robin Lewis
restaurants, cafes,
hotels and other establishments wherepeople can fill their water bottles for free atrefill stations.
Since its establishment, the crowdsourced
platform has amassed 200,000 refill points
across the world, 8,000 of which are in Japan.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception,” Lewis said. “We’ve even had cafes in
Kenya, Singapore and Germany reach out to
us to sign up for mymizu.”
Runaway plastic consumption is a global
issue, but it is especially prevalent in Japan.
The nation is the second-largest consumerof plastic per capita, after only the UnitedStates, according to the United Nations
Environment Programme. Furthermore,
although Japan officially recycles 84 percentof the plastic it collects, the majority of thatis thermal recycling — burning the plastic
to produce energy. Other countries, such as
those in the European Union, do not recognize thermal recycling as a recycling process.
This reliance on thermal recycling is justone example of misconceptions aboutplastic use that pervade Japan, Lewis said.
“People think that if they throw away plastic
packaging from their salad into a recycling
bin, it will come out as some beautiful plastic product. But in reality, we’re incinerating
most of this plastic waste, and we’re exporting it to countries in Southeast Asia andharming marginalized communities there.”
Lewis attributes Japan’s heavy use of plastic to the country’s emphasis on service andhospitality. He explained that one of the reasons why there is so much plastic packaging
at grocery stores and convenience stores isbecause of the association of robust packaging with customer service. “Our biggest
challenge is using these good intentions thatpeople have and combining them with education and awareness to create something
more positive.”
In order to spread awareness of the harmful effects of runaway plastic consumption,

Robin Lewis and co-founder Mariko McTier
together with the mymizu team MYMIZU

mymizu conducts seminars, workshops
and social media campaigns in collaboration with businesses and local governments.
They are currently working closely with thecity of Kobe to reduce plastic waste as partof initiatives to enhance the city’s livability,
as well as working with companies in product development to help them find ways
to leverage sustainability in their businessmodels.
Mymizu’s activities currently focus on
reducing the use of plastic bottles, but thisis just one aspect of its overall vision. For
Lewis, moving away from plastic bottles isjust the “surface-level” objective. He understands it is impossible to stop using plastic
and cut all emissions overnight, but hehopes that by making inroads where it can,mymizu can start new conversations thatlead to the development of sustainable solutions and the formationof circular economies.
Government and business both have a roleto play, he said, and helooks forward to seeing
deeper investments inrenewable energy.
For more information please visit:https://www.mymizu.co/
This section, “Sustainable Japan,” features
issues related to the environment and a sustainable society. It highlights the ESG (environmental, social and governance) activities
of companies and other organizations andalso introduces municipalities and local
companies promoting the beauty and excellence of the real Japan. For more information, see https://sustainable.japantimes.com/
satoyama and https://sustainable.japantimes.com/esg