6 | The Japan Times | Monday, January 11, 2021

sustainable japan

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How Mie preserves firms, farms, fishing and tourism
ESG / SDGs
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mie Prefecture, located in the center of
the Japanese archipelago, has a balanced
economy supported by industry, agriculture, fishing and tourism. Gov. Eikei Suzuki
attended a recent online chat to talk about
the role and efforts of the prefectural
government in enhancing the sustainability of each sector. Held by The Japan
Times Satoyama Consortium, the Nov. 25event marked Mie’s winning of the Special Award in the satoyama category ofThe Japan Times Satoyama & ESG Awards
2020.
“Satoyama” refers to rural mountains
and forests used and maintained byresidents based on the concept of using
resources sustainably.
Suzuki became the governor of Mie in2011 at the age of 36, becoming Japan’s second-youngest governor in history. He said
during the chat that having spent 19 years
in Hyogo Prefecture, where he was born,and more than 10 years in Tokyo, where heworked as a bureaucrat in the Ministry ofInternational Trade and Industry, he foundmany charms in Mie that locals take forgranted. Now in his third term in office,he continues to work with various stakeholders to strengthen and promote Mie’s

attractive features.

Leader in growth, diversity

Mie is known as the top area for manufacturing electronic components, circuits anddevices. Its real economic growth between
2009 and 2015 was 15%, the second-highest
among all prefectures. “The gross prefectural product was its highest ever in 2018
too, recovering from the grave impact of theLehman shock,” Suzuki said.
At the same time, it is also facing variousissues faced by many other prefectures as
young people move away to big cities.
In Japan now, at a time when the population is aging and the question of maintaining a sufficient workforce is increasingly
important, Mie’s prefectural government
and industries alike are undertaking various
efforts to make workplaces more inclusive,
diverse and productive.
Last year, Mie topped all other prefectures in the proportion of male prefecturaland municipal workers who take childcare leave, 38.4%. According to Suzuki, Mie
has also been one of the top prefectures inrecent years in terms of the proportions ofwomen and people with disabilities working in prefectural and municipal jobs.
Suzuki, who himself has taken child-careleaves, said it is important for the government to undertake reforms starting withitself, setting an example to raise awarenessin other workplaces.

Ago Bay in the city of Shima faces the Pacific. Its
key attractions include rugged cliffs, sandy
beaches and fishing villages
2020 MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENTIn Mie’s agricultural sector, new technologies have been adopted to make thework more attractive to younger people.
“For example, to increase the efficiency of
tomato harvesting, sensor and robotic technologies have been introduced to assess thematurity level and harvest automatically,”
said Suzuki. A variety of new technologies— such as remote monitoring and control,
data analysis, drones and laser surveying
using aircraft — have been adopted in agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors in Mie.
“Technologies can be used in these fields toboost income by lowering cost and increasing profitability as well as to gather evidence
and feedback to ensure quality,” said Suzuki.

Lobster and Ise tea

One of the largest agricultural greenhouses inJapan 2020 AGRI D INC.

Automatic harvesting robot used to collecttomatoes 2020 AGRI D INC.

The sustainability of resources is also an
important element. Suzuki explained that
lobster fishermen in the district of Wagu
have made various local rules to protect andmanage resources, such as using looser nets
than stipulated by prefectural fishing regulations and sharing boats and revenue to prevent competition that leads to overfishing.
“Lobsters are one of the 11 sustainable

View of Ago Bay from the Yokoyama Tenkuterrace 2020 MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Toba Bay, famous for its kayaking 2020 MIE

seafoods listed in the Mie Prefecture edition of the Blue Seafood Guide launchedin November,” Suzuki said, explaining that
Mie was the first prefecture to enter intoa framework agreement with the Japan
branch of Sailors for the Sea, an NGO dedicated to improving the marine environment that certifies and helps promoteseafood produced in sustainable ways.
The prefecture itself runs a strategic project named Mie Brand to promote agricultural, forestry and marine products made inMie. Currently 20 items and 42 producers
are certified. “We have partnered with thetravel agency H.I.S. to promote Ise tea, akind of green tea, abroad using its networkof 264 branches in 69 countries,” Suzuki
said.
In addition to well-known Mie products
such as Matsuzaka beef, lobsters and oysters, pearls are another specialty. However,nature has posed an unexpected challenge
for pearl producers across Japan. “About 70
percent of the young pearl oysters died lastyear, and 44 percent this year in our prefecture,” Suzuki said. Interviews, research andmeetings with experts conducted by theprefecture have shown that a combinationof factors are responsible for the die-offs.
“Shellfish weakened by the stress caused
by various environmental factors such as
rising seawater temperature and a shortage of plankton became vulnerable to thebig waves and strong turbulence caused bylarge ships,” Suzuki explained, stressing theimportance of addressing climate change
and preserving nature.

PREFECTURAL GOVERNMENT

Transformation of tourism

Nature is a key element in the sustainability of Mie’s tourism too. Ise-Shima National
Park, one of the major ecotourism destinations in Mie, has dozens of small islands
scattered along a coast with deep inlets andextends across three cities and one town.
Suzuki explained that the prefectural
government acts as a coordinator connecting the municipalities, companies andresidents on promoting tourism, while concrete ideas about what to offer tourists arediscussed and developed by the Ise-Shima
National Park Ecotourism Promotion Council, which consists of 71 organizations.
“There is not much that the prefectural

government alone can do,” Suzuki said. He
explained that efforts by municipalities andthe private sector are indispensable in satisfying visitors, while the prefectural government focuses on the promotion of tourist
destinations.
Suzuki pointed out that even though theresumption of tourism is still on hold, thedemand for destinations for “workations,”
micro-tourism and other outdoor activities is on the rise due to the coronavirus
pandemic and they would like to take thisopportunity to promote ecotourism.
Given that things are sure to improve, Miewill host the triennial Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting next year. “It will be a valuable
opportunity for us to share Mie’s efforts
on climate change, resource management,
disaster prevention and so on with the leaders of the 19 countries that will attend themeeting,” Suzuki said.

For more information please visit: https://www.pref.mie.lg.jp/common/content/000880984.pdf
https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000661326.pdf
https://www.miebrand.jp/en/
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

Japan’s COVID-19 response: Whatit did right, what it has to learn
YOSHIYUKI SAGARAFELLOW, ASIA PACIFIC INITIATIVE

Within a year, theJapanese government has issued twostates of emergency
over the COVID-19
pandemic under
two prime ministers: Shinzo Abe
and then Yoshihide
Suga. When the Abeadministration lifted the state of emergency
last May, Abe attributed Japan’s success inkeeping infections and deaths lower than inother major industrialized countries to what
he called the “Japan model” of dealing withthe crisis. The “Japan model” can properly bedeclared a model only if its efforts to bring
infections under control and stabilize theeconomy work simultaneously. In consideration of this, during the first half of 2020,
what effects did Japan’s countermeasuresbring about? Which policies did not work?
What remains uncertain?
To review Japan’s preparedness andresponse to the COVID-19 pandemic, theAsia Pacific Initiative (API), an independent
global think tank, launched the Independent Investigation Commission on the Japanese Government’s Response to COVID-19.
Last week, API published the English-language version of the commission’s “Reporton Best Practices and Lessons Learned” onits site at https://apinitiative.org/en/project/covid19/.

In October, API published the Japaneselanguage version and submitted it to Sugaon Oct. 8. The commission conducted 102
interviews with 84 government officials andexperts, including Abe; Suga, who was chiefcabinet secretary before becoming prime
minister; Katsunobu Kato, who was healthminister before becoming chief cabinet secretary; as well as numerous other senior government officials who provided insight on
the background of the events.
The report revealed some best practices
and lessons learned.
First, the Japanese government did not
anticipate severe pandemics like COVID-19
and failed to consider possible public healthcrises, including the worst-case scenario.
The PCR testing capacity was initially limited to about 300 people per day. Japan, in
its initial response, thus limited PCR tests
to people with a high risk of developing
severe symptoms to make the best use of
its scarce testing resources. Japan prioritized
to prevent a collapsing health care systemfrom raising the mortality rate.
Second, Japan adopted a cluster-based
approach through retrospective contact
tracing. Local public health centers focusedon dealing with clusters, as the government’s expert team found that COVID-19
transmission could be suppressed by preventing the formation of clusters. Japan’s
universal health care system and publichealth infrastructure allowed for highly
effective contact tracing. However, contact tracers were not connected digitally;
most doctors used fax machines to report

The Independent Investigation Commission on the Japanese Government’s Response to COVID19 published the Japanese-language version of its report on Oct. 8 and submitted it to Prime
Minister Yoshihide Suga. Last week, API published the English-language version of the report. .
KO SASAKI / ASIA PACIFIC INITIATIVE

PAGE: 6to public health centers. Looking back on
how the government struggled to execute
its COVID-19 policy, Health Minister Kato
said the delay in the nation’s digital transformation was the biggest challenge that
hampered the government’s smooth policy
implementation.
Third, the campaign to avoid the “ThreeCs” — closed spaces, crowded places andclose-contact settings — was one of themost successful examples of communicating risk. The Three Cs summed up theinfection risk in an easily understandable
way to urge people to change their daily
behaviors.
Fourth, elderly care facilities took countermeasures swiftly against COVID-19, as
they prepared for and responded to infectious diseases every year. Since the end ofJanuary 2020, the Ministry of Health, Laborand Welfare has provided guidance andearly warnings. The ministry urged thosefacilities to be proactive in preparing for
COVID-19, for instance by limiting visits
and managing patients in separate rooms.
Such guidance worked in reducing themortality rate in Japan, although it has theoldest population in the world.
Overall, Japan’s response to the first waveof COVID-19 infections had decent resultscompared to other countries — both interms of preventing the spread of infections and in containing the damage to theeconomy. Though it is not fair to dismiss its
measures as a failure, it also is not appropriate to applaud them as a success.
We have to learn from this painful experience. We also have to be reminded thatthe lessons learned from Japan’s response
to COVID-19 had already been pointed out
a decade ago when the H1N1 pandemic
hit the country. The whole nation indeed
forgot those lessons once the danger had
passed. We should tackle the current third
wave based on the best practices and lessons we learned from 2020.
For more information, please
visit the following URL or use
the QR code
https://apinitiative.org/en/project/covid19/
And if you would like to read more aboutsustainability, please visit the Sustainable
Japan website at
http://sustainable.japantimes.com/