Social Design Engineering Series

SDES-2020-8

Visual Narrative for Taking Future Generations Perspective

Yoshinori Nakagawa
School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology
Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology

Tatsuyoshi Saijo
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology

31st July, 2020

School of Economics and Management
Research Institute for Future Design
Kochi University of Technology
KUT-SDE working papers are preliminary research documents published by the School of Economics and Management jointly with the ResearchCenter for Social Design Engineering at Kochi University of Technology. To facilitate prompt distribution, they have not been formally reviewed
and edited. They are circulated in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment and may be revised. The views and interpretations expressedin these papers are those of the author(s). It is expected that most working papers will be published in some other form.

Visual Narrative for Taking
Future Generation’s Perspective

Yoshinori NAKAGAWA1*
Tatsuyoshi Saijo2

1 School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology, 2-22, Eikokuji Cho,
Kochi City, Japan.
2 Research Institute for Human and Nature, 457-4 Kamigamo Motoyama, Kyoto 603-8047, Japan.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail: nakagawa.yoshinori@kochi-tech.ac.jp
Tel：088-821-7157
Fax：088-821-7198

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Abstract
Intergenerational problems occur when the current generation chooses actions that benefit themwithout fully considering future generations’ needs. The present study posits that the public has ageneral tendency to serve as the proxy of future generations willingly, and aims to develop a visual
narrative intervention measure to accelerate this willingness. The narrative was created on the basisof the interview survey with a participant in a Future Design workshop (Hara et al., 2019) as an“imaginary future generation”. A lab-experiment was designed using this visual narrative as anintervention tool, to assess the impact of this intervention on the research subjects’ politicalpreferences and their concerns for future generations. A total of 186 subjects were collected andrequested to choose their most preferred option among a list of four options prevalent in the life of
the present generation, both before and after the exposure to this intervention. It was found that the
exposure to this visual narrative significantly changed the subjects’ preferences as the proxies of the
future generation. After this intervention, the subjects wished the present generation had chosen
sustainable options more different from the status quo so that the future generations’ do not regret
from inaction (i.e., the regret of not having done certain actions at present), indicating that theintervention was effective in acquiring the perspective of the future generation. The present study
demonstrates that individuals of the present generation can be motivated to take the perspective of
the future generation.

Keywords: Perspective; future design; retrospective treatment; retrospective assessment.

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1. Introduction

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an evidence-based framework for global
sustainability governance (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). These goals were adopted by
all United Nations Member States in 2015 as part of a universal call to action to meet the 17 goals
and 169 targets for ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring that all people are able toenjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. SDGs are occasionally criticized for focusing more on thewell-being of the current generation in the near future without ensuring a just future for generationsof the distant future (Oliveira, 2018). The neglected well-being of such generations can be partly
explained as a trade-off inherent to certain goals and targets, which are implicit in the design of SDG
design and have been referred to in earlier studies (Allen, Metternicht, & Wiedmann, 2018; Collste,
Pedercini, & Cornell, 2017; Saito et al., 2017; Costana et al., 2016; Kamijo et al., 2017). For
example, Costana et al. (2016) argue that increasing agricultural land use to end hunger (SDG 2)
may result in biodiversity loss (SDG 15), land degradation, water pollution (SDG 6), and adverse
effects on marine resources (SDG 14), all of which can in turn lead to food security concerns (SDG
2). This example shows how aiding the present generation can negatively affect future generations.
Due to incompatibilities between the interests of the present generation and the welfare of
future generations, it is possible that the preset generation may take governmental orintergovernmental actions which may unintentionally harm future generations. This leads to whatearlier studies have called presentism (an underlying bias within established laws and policies thathave the potential to negatively affect future generations; Thompson, 2010). Jones, O’Brien, andRyan (2018) also premised that governments primarily focus on short term concerns andsystematically neglect global catastrophic risks (thereby neglecting future generations). Norton(2005) deepens the concept of “presentism” by contrasting it with “futurists,” where the latteranticipates the demands of “an ever-expanding class of future claimants” (Norton 2015: 322). In the3

field of economics, presentism is interpreted as the tendency of the present generation to overtly
discount the value of future generations. Contrastingly, other authors argue that we should not treat
people differently simply because they are differently located in time (e.g., Kymlicka, 2002; Pigou,
1932; Stern et al., 2006). While still others defend positive time discount rates (e.g., Nordhaus &Boyer, 2000; Nordhaus, 2008; Caney, 2008). Contemporary policy making often does not adhere to
the zero-discount principle but instead privileges the welfare of current generations (Graham et al.,2017; Adams & Grovers, 2007; Stern et al., 2006), and thus is criticized for contributing to
generational bias.
Against this backdrop, several national governments have set up institutional structures that
present the interests of future generations, such as Finland, Hungary, Israel, Scotland, Singapore, andWales. Jones, O’Brien, and Ryan (2018) identify a common trend in this cases which face several
tribulations barely a few years since their creation such as an election cycle mainly because ofpoliticians’ rejection of the power attached to these institutions. They conclude that the legitimacy of,and public support behind, an institution is a critical factor as to whether it will last.
In spite of these challenges, the current study hypothesizes that the public has a tendency towillingly serve as the proxy of future generations and to establish SDGs which balance the needs ofthe present while safeguarding the security of the future. Building on this assumption, this paper
aims to develop an intervention measure to accelerate and confirm its effectiveness. The
psychological literature partly supports this proposition on perspective taking. Perspective taking is acognitive process where individuals adopt the viewpoints of others in an attempt to understand theirpreferences, values, and needs (e.g., Parker & Axtel, 2001), leading to empathy (Duan & Hill, 1996).
Earlier studies argue that an individual’s active engagement in perspective taking is aconsequence of not only his abilities but also his motivation (Gehlbach, 2004; Zhang et al. 2013;
Grant & Berry, 2011) or an incentive to do so (Hodges et al., 2011; Klein & Hodges, 2001).
Gehlbach, Brinkworth, and Wang (2012) qualitatively investigated what motivates individuals to4

take the perspective of others, and identified “intrinsic interest” among others as one of the reasons,in line with motivation theorists stating that the mental world is indeed a subject of curiosity (e.g.,
McClelland, 1987) (possession of intrinsic interest means that he or she feels a curiosity and/or needto understand others, rather than being motivated by higher level objectives). Although earlier
studies implicitly limit the target of perspective taking to those who live in the same era, the present
study posits a more general hypothesis, that individuals can have an “intrinsic interest” in taking theperspective of others who belong to future generations, including that of the next generation. The
hypothesis is tested by developing an original intervention measure that motivates people uniquely
to take interests in the future generation’s wellbeing.
Our strategy for developing such an intervention comprises; (i) identifying a case where an
individual succeeds by willingly taking the perspective of future generation’s with an intrinsic
interest, (ii) to choose him/her as a protagonist, and (iii) to create a factual visual narrative (i.e., anarrative attached to visual information such as pictures and movies) in a way that audiences canempathize with the future generation’s perspective by sharing the protagonist’s experience. This
strategy is consistent with studies in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, neuroscience,and poetics. This suggests that readers of a narrative can simulate the events described in the
narrative by taking the perspective of the protagonist, other characters, or observers (Brunye et al.,2009; Barsalou, 2008; Fisher & Zwaan, 2008; Glenberg, 2007; Lozano, Hard, & Tversky, 2007;
Tettamanti et al., 2005; Boyd, 2005; Sanfordm & Emmott, 2002; Oatley, 1999: Hartung et al., 2016).
The structure of the present study is as follows. In section 2, we introduce a theoretical framework
the present study relies on. In reference to this, section 3 posits a hypothesis, which will be tested in
the subsequent sections by verifying that the developed visual narrative works as an efficientintervention measure indeed.
One thing should be noted concerning the meaning of the term “narrative.” Drawing parallels
with the term “story,” Riessman (2008, p. 8) stresses the social nature of narrative by arguing that5

“(e)vents perceived by the speaker are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful
for a particular audience” in narratives, and thus, narratives are “strategic, functional, andpurposeful.” While this study does not interrogate whether “narrative” and “story” areinterchangeable, our analysis presupposes that a narrative is a product of a narrator’s purposefulselecting and connecting of events for an audience. The present study regards purposefulness andconnectedness as essential characteristics of narratives. Therefore, visual narratives presented in thisstudy were created from material garnered from interviews which were the result of interviewers andinterviewees jointly forming intimate connections among thee interviewers’ life events, including theparticipation in the workshop. Such an approach allowed the viewers of visual narratives to identify
with the subjects within the narratives and assume the perspective of future generations. Literatureon sustainability conforms to the present study’s understandings on the purposefulness andconnectedness. Van der Leeuw (2019) argues that narratives are created to integrate particular eventsor trends into a society’s worldview and to facilitate transition. Veland et al. (2018) argue thattransformations to sustainability will require recognizing and engaging multiple, diverse experiencesof agency and that attention to narrative can facilitate this process. One important difference between
the present study and previous studies is that the former considers narrative as a measure to facilitate
the creation of what the latter call narratives. See the discussion section for details.

2. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis

Several frameworks have been utilized to explain how narratives affect recipients.
Dual-processing models of persuasion, such as the elaboration likelihood model (ELM; Petty &Cacioppo, 1986), as well as the heuristic systematic model (HSM; Chaiken, 1980), aim tounderstand persuasion in situations where the recipient of the message is aware of its persuasive6

intent. They equally posit two routes of information processing: central and peripheral in ELM, andheuristic and systematic in HSM. However, after an extensive literature review, Hinyard and Kreuter(2007) argue that earlier studies have yielded mixed results with regard to whether these models areapplicable to persuasion in narratives. Several authors (Escalas, 2007; Green and Brock, 2000, Slater2002) also note that although these models provide a valid characterization of analytical persuasion(i.e., science books, news reports, speeches, etc.), they do not adequately account for persuasion in
narrative (i.e., novels, movies, etc.).
In contrast, the transportation-imagery model (Green & Brock, 2000; 2002) posits thatnarrative persuasion occurs when the recipient of a narrative is “transported” into the narrative world.
Moreover, the term “transportation” has been previously conceptualized by Gerring (1993) as a stateof detachment from one’s immediate reality because of his or her engrossment in a story. This model
conceives of the characteristics of the storyteller and the story receiver as antecedents to thephenomenon of transportation. Consistent with this model, Green (2004) found that attributes suchas the perceived realism of the story and personal experiences approximate to the narrative increased
the likelihood of transportation. Van Laer et al. (2013) extended this model by further positing thattransportation leads to a receiver feeling an (i) affective response such as warm feelings (Chang,2009) and upbeat feelings (Escalas, 2004), (ii) decreased critical thought, (iii) adoption ofstory-consistent beliefs, (iv) adoption of story-consistent attitude, and (v) increased intention to
perform a story-consistent action. The same authors also refined the model by developing typologies
of storyteller antecedents (i.e., identifiable characters, imaginable plot, and verisimilitude) and fourstory-receiver antecedents (i.e., familiarity, attention, transportability, and demographics).
In the introduction, we posited that visual narratives can motivate individuals to take an
intrinsic interest in assuming the perspectives of future generations. By applying the extended
transportation-imagery model (especially consequences (i) and (iv) of transportation), this
proposition can be refined as follows:7

Hypothesis: When individuals are exposed and transported to a visual narrative containing aprotagonist with an intrinsic interest in assuming the perspectives of future generations, audiences
tend to adopt the concerns of the protagonist and take on a positive attitude towards sustainable
political options which benefit future generations.

However, this hypothesis requires a further elaboration in order to be verifiable in anexperimental study. Indeed, we must specify the meaning of “sustainable political options which
benefit future generations.” In clarifying this point, it is useful to refer to the literature on thepsychology of regret (i.e., the emotion experienced when people look back on bad decisions)(Zeelenberg, Van den Bos, Van Dijk, & Pieters, 2002). In this field, there is a concern regardingwhether people regret the actions they have taken more than the actions they have foregone (i.e.,
inactions) (Bonnefon & Zhang, 2008; Gleicher et al., 1990; Kahneman & Tversky, 1982; Landman,
1987; Zeelenberg et al., 2002; Zeelenberg, Van Dijk, & Manstead, 2000). Gilovich and Medvec(1994, 1995) demonstrate that while actions generate more regret in the short term, the pain ofregrettable inaction bolsters in the long run. Nakagawa et al. (2019a) and Nakagawa, et al. (2019b)
were the first to introduce the insights of psychology to future studies. They suggested that
individuals who consider the perspectives of the future generations tend to consider long-term
implications and therefore come to prefer political options which minimize the inaction regret which
may be perceived by future generations, rather than sticking to the status quo. In this context, thepreset study adopts the working definition that a political option to be adopted by the present
generation is sustainable (and may benefit future generations) if they expect that the option is likely
to minimize inaction regret expected to be perceived by the future generation. Thus, theaforementioned hypothesis can be refined as follows:
Hypothesis (refined): When individuals are exposed and transported to a visual narrative
containing a protagonist who takes intrinsic interest in assuming the perspectives of future8

generations, they come to identify with the concerns of the protagonist and acquire a positive attitude
towards existing political options that that are more likely to avoid inaction (rather than action)
regret expected to be perceived by the future generation.
The aim of the present study is to verify this refined hypothesis. In case it is verified, thepresent study also aims to verify if generativity and critical thinking disposition (see section 3.5),
which are known to facilitate the perspective taking of the future generation (Nakagawa et al., 2018;2019), serve as mediators of acquiring a positive attitude towards sustainable options indeed.

3. Method
The research was conducted in the Kochi Prefecture, Japan, where locals were invited toparticipate as subjects. They were recruited through an advertisement in a local newspaper. The
following information was included in a 10 cm by 10cm advertisement placed in the newspaper: (i)the date and place of the experiment, (ii) four time slots among which participants were requested tochoose, (iii) the objective of the experiment (in order to avoid selection bias and prejudice of theparticipants, we refrained from providing detailed information and simply mentioned that theexperiment was for a behavioral study), (iv) recommendation to introduce this advertisement tofamily members and friends, (v) an allowance of 5,000 Japanese Yen (nearly equivalent to 45 USD)
for each participant, and (vi) eligibility criteria (participants must be of an age between 20 and 70
and not belong to the same university as the first author). Respondents to the advertisement applied
via email. The experiment was conducted in a classroom at Kochi University of Technology. Taking
into account the schedules of the participants, we assigned each participant to one of the fourtimeslots in advance. Taking into account the capacity of the room, we arranged for the number ofparticipants in each time slot to never exceed 48 people.

93.1 Experimental Procedure
Our experimental procedure is shown in Figure 1. In order to identify the effectiveness of thevisual narrative, the following experimental process was adopted 1.
Steps (1) and (2) comprised the retrospective treatment 2. Then, in step (3), individuals read thecase-method material on the financial issues of Japan (see section 2.3) and chose the most favorable
option from the viewpoint of people living 30 years from today. They also answered an open-ended
question on the reasons as to why they made the choices. This is called the first choice in this paper.
Then the participants watched the picture-story show (see section 3.3) in step (4), which was
followed by step (5) where they were requested again to choose the most favorite options from theviewpoint of people living 30 years from today. This is the second choice where participants also
answered an open-ended question. Results in steps (6) and (7) were not considered in the present
study.
Considering our objective to detect the difference between steps (3) and (5), the retrospective
treatment (i.e., steps (1) and (2)) could have been abbreviated. In spite of this, the present study
included them where it was expected that without these steps, the research subjects would face
greater difficulty in interpreting the guidance in step (3) meant to choose the preferable option fromthe perspective of the future generation.

3.2 Development of a Visual Narrative
The story to be presented in the experiment were created as follows. Hara et al. (2019)conducted a series of Future Design workshops in the Yahaba (Iwate Prefecture, Japan) municipal
government in 2015 and 2016. The municipal government organized these workshops to obtain input
1

The experimental procedure of Nakagawa et al. (2019a) was adopted after a minor modification was made toinclude steps (4) “Watching the picture-story show” and (5) “Individually choosing the most favorable option from astandpoint of the people living 30 years from today.”2 This treatment was originally developed by Nakagawa et al. (2019b). In this treatment, a newspaper article
published 30 years ago was utilized.

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as it developed a comprehensive long-term strategy looking toward 2060. Yahaba is in northern
Japan, and its local economy has traditionally been based on agriculture, primarily rice cultivation.
However, due to its proximity to the major city of Morioka, light industries and warehousing havebeen increasing in importance. As of 2015, the town had a population of about 27,000 and a
population density of 404 persons per km2, fairly typical of a rural municipality. In these workshops,
some of the invited local citizens (approximately 20) were allocated to what Hara et al. (2019) callthe “imaginary future generation” groups. They were asked to create visions from the standpoint of afuture generation living in 2060, rather than of the current citizens. The authors of the present study
requested them to participate in our interview surveys, and two of them agreed to do so. Data of oneof these two (named Miho; a pseudonym) was utilized in the present study. In the interviews, they
were asked about their experiences of participating in the series of workshops, with a special focus
on the processes in which they understood in their way what it was like to stand in the position of
future generation people 40 years from now. Based on the transcription of Miho’s voices, anine-paragraph story was edited, and pictures of each of the paragraphs were drawn.
One important thing should be noted on the arbitrariness with which to choose the protagonist of
the story. It is true that there is no guarantee that the way she adopted in acquiring the future
generation’s perspective is the same as those of other workshop participants. However, this does not
at all diminish the significance of the present study. The present study seeks to verify thegeneralizability of the case of Miho, not in the sense that any person aiming to take the perspectiveof the future generation do so as Miho did, but in the sense that sharing Miho’s experience by meansof the picture-story show helps such people to be motivated to acquire the perspective in their ways.

3.3 Policy Options
As of 2018, Kochi prefecture has a population of 701,000, and can be considered a typicalJapanese prefecture, located far from major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, and struggling
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with various socio-economic problems such as population decline (10% reduction in the last 10
years) and low regional economic growth. Its fiscal structure is weak; approximately 60% of theprefecture government’s revenue is subsidized by Japan’s national government, the second highest
percentage in the country. It is thus likely that the prefecture would be adversely affected if a fiscal
crisis or financial weakening of Japan’s national government occurred. In order to provide ourparticipants with the necessary information on the financial situation of the local government ofKochi Prefecture and the national government of Japan, as well as the list of four policy options tobe adopted by the present society, a case-method material was provided to the participants 3.

Option 1: Nationally less sustainable, locally less sustainable
The national government continues to subsidize prefectures to secure financial equality
among them 4, while Kochi Prefecture continues to subsidize the entire area to ensure equallevels of public service.
Option 2: Nationally more sustainable, locally less sustainable
The national government reduces subsidies to prefectures to avoid a national fiscal crisis 5,
allowing inequality, while Kochi Prefecture continues to subsidize the area to ensure equal,
local public service levels.
Option 3: Nationally less sustainable, locally more sustainable
The national government continues to subsidize prefectures to secure financial equality
among them, while Kochi Prefecture subsidizes limited areas for revitalization, allowing
inequality.
Option 4: Nationally more sustainable, locally more sustainable3

This case-method material was created by Nakagawa, Arai et al. (2018).

4 As of 2018, in Japan, the national government subsidizes all prefectures except for the Tokyo metropolitan

government.

5 Cutting subsidies would be replaced by a large-scale transfer of tax revenue sources to the prefectures. This would

transfer the financial risks to the prefectures as well.

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The national government reduces subsidies to prefectures to avoid a fiscal crisis 6, allowing
inequality, while Kochi Prefecture subsidizes limited areas for revitalization, allowing
inequality.

While all of the four options assume a drastic change at the national level (i.e., graduallytransferring national tax revenue sources to prefectures), options 1 and 3 can be regarded as closer tothe status quo, because it assumes that the national government will provide insurance to partiallycompensate for a lack of prefectural funds with subsidies from the national government so that
equality between prefectures can be ensured. Thus, the possibility of failing to avoid a fiscal crisis
for the national government can be greatly increased, and therefore these two options are likely to
evoke the future generation’s feeling of inaction regret. Hereafter they are simply called the lesssustainable options at the national level. In contrast, options 2 and 4 are likely to evoke action regret,because they more radically advance the financial reform without compensation, and thus thenegative side effect (i.e., enlarged disparity between prefectures) may occur, which the generation of
the present and near future would suffer from. Although it is possible that the expected outcome will
not occur, hereafter they are simply called the more sustainable options.
At the prefectural level, options 1 and 2 are closer to the status quo, because they lay
importance on the equality inside the prefecture. Thus, the prefectural budget continues dependent
on the national government, and a possible fiscal crisis for the national government is likely to leadto the crisis for the prefectural government as well. Therefore, these options are likely to evoke thefuture generation’s feeling of inaction regret. Hereafter they are simply called the less sustainableoptions at the prefectural level. In contrast, options 3 and 4 are expected to evoke action regret,because they more radically advance the financial independence of the prefecture by investing in
6 Cutting subsidies from the national government would be replaced by a large-scale transfer of tax revenue to theprefectures, thus transferring financial risks to them.

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projects in specific promising regions, and thus the negative side effects. They include the enlarged
disparity inside the regions and the failure of the projects, the former of which the generation of thepresent and near future would suffer from. Hereafter they are simply called the more sustainableoptions at the prefectural level.

3.4 Measures
After completing the final step (7), a questionnaire survey was conducted. Following
Nakagawa, Arai et al. (2018), generativity and critical thinking disposition were measured, alongwith socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics, including age, gender, marital status,
employment status, and educational background. It was expected that those who were high in thesescale scores were more likely to adopt a new perspective with the help of the visual narrativeintervention. Generativity refers to the willingness to attach meaning to one’s life in connection with
future generations. To measure this, the present study adopted the Generative Behavior Checklist(McAdams and Aubin 1992) with 40 items and 10 filler items. The theoretical range was between 0
and 40.
On the other hand, critical thinking is as a form of open-minded thinking that aims to gain
insight into how to improve things, with a focus on criticism and testing of the acquired insight. To
measure this, the present study adopted a scale developed by Hirayama and Kusumi (2004)
consisting of two subscales (logical thinking and inquisitiveness) and a total of 23 items. The items
are listed in Table 1. The five-point scale was adopted, from 1 = “Strongly disagree” to 5 = “Strongly
agree”, and the scores were summed. The theoretical ranges of these subscales were 13—65 and
10—50, respectively.

3.5 Analysis
To compare the frequency distributions regarding how many participants chose each of the
14four options at steps (3) and (5), the chi-square test of independence was applied. After confirmingthat there was a statistically significant difference, two additional analyses were conducted to better
understand the reasons behind the change. First, it was investigated whether (i) the ratio ofparticipants choosing “options 3 or 4” (i.e., sustainable at the prefectural level) and (ii) the ratio ofparticipants choosing “options 2 or 4” (i.e., sustainable at the national level) in step (5) rosesignificantly compared to what they were in step (3). Second, logistic regression analysis was
conducted to explain the research participants’ 2nd choices (i.e., in step (5)) in terms of theirindividual characteristics, controlling for their 1st choices (i.e., in step (3)). This was to identify the
direct effect of such characteristics to their 2nd choices by removing the effect via their 1st choices(i.e., to identify who were more likely to be influenced by the visual narrative intervention).

4. Result
4.1 Development of a visual narrative
The pictures and the corresponding paragraphs of the story are shown in Figures 1–3. The
story aimed at letting the audience understand what it is like to stand in the position of the future
generation. Thus, after providing the background information of the town and the protagonist(scenes 1 and 2), the story described the situation where she is at a loss what to do as a future person(scene 3). In scenes 4 and 5, it is stated that a statement of a member of the same group served as a
trigger for her acquisition of the perspective of the future generation. Scenes 6 and 7 describes thevision created by Miho and her group members. In scene 8, she contrasts herself with people in thecurrent generation’s standpoint and reflects on how far she has come. Finally, in scene 9, she looks
back on her biographical backgrounds, speculates on the reason she could react to the triggeringcomment of her group member, and concludes her own experience of playing the part of the future
generation. To summarize, this narrative shows that Miho’s motivation to take the perspective of the15

future generation was stimulated by an elderly man’s statement. It brings out her view that theacquisition of the perspective is consistent with her own beliefs over time. Thus it is confirmed thatthe developed narrative meets the objective of the present study. The pictures and the narration of thestory were combined on Microsoft PowerPoint so that each picture was shown in one slide and thecorresponding paragraph of the story was narrated when the “Slide Show” was played 7.
(Figures 2–4 inserted about here.)In the introduction section, we noted that connectedness was an essential characteristic ofnarratives. In the visual narrative created by the present study, the above mentioned scenes were
designed to stress connections among the protagonist’s life events and the experience of assuming
the perspective of the future generation, even if the connections did not necessarily represent causal
relationships. For example, scene two demonstrated that before participating in the workshop,
thinking about a public issue was an important opportunity allowing the participant to disengage
from everyday life and the struggles of caring for children. This was interpreted as equivalent to her
success at disengaging from her present self during the workshop in scene five. Note that innarratology, placing a pair of equivalent scenes is considered a critical device for enhancing theconnectedness of narratives (scenes two and five in this case) and organizing a narrative (e.g.,
Schmid, 2000).

4.2 Experimental results
Summary statistics are presented in Table 2. Concerning age, the most frequent category was 50–
59, to which approximately 34% of subjects belonged. The second frequent category was 40–49, towhich approximately 26% of the subjects belonged. The percentage of males and females were about
25% and 75%, respectively, suggesting that the latter was overrepresented. Almost two-thirds of the7

The slide-show is available in the format of a video from the link below.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RHX2U51qXFgDY21ci4MORDXlMP8TUlqV

16

subjects were married. Approximately 44% had a permanent job and half were university graduates.
(Table 2 inserted about here.)
Table 3 displays the distributions of the most favored policies as chosen by the subjects for their
1st choice in step (3), 2nd choice in step (5), and the 3rd choice in step (7), although our primary
focus was on the first two steps where individuals chose options from the future generation’s
perspective. At the 1st choice (i.e., in step (3)), option 1 (i.e., maintenance of status quo, and is lesssustainable both at the national and local levels) was the most popular; 110 among the 186
respondents (59.1%) chose it. However, at the 2nd choice (i.e., in step (5)), the number is reduced to
67 (36.0%). Instead, those who chose option 3 (i.e., sustainable at the prefectural level) and option 4(sustainable both at the national and prefectural levels) increased by 25 and 20, respectively. The
number of people choosing option 2 was almost unchanged (i.e., from 43 to 41). The chi-square testof independence revealed that the two frequency distributions are statistically significantly different(chi-square = 30.38, p < 0.001), suggesting that the visual narrative encouraged research participants
to prefer sustainable options (i.e., evoking action regret) from the future generation’s perspective. In
contrast, there was no significant difference between the frequency distributions of the 2nd and 3rd
choices (p = 0.51).
(Table 3 inserted about here.)
Table 4 displays the transition matrix showing how the research participants changed theirpreferences between step (3) and step (5). Among the 110 participants who chose option 1 in the 1st
choice (i.e., step 3), 61, 17, 23, and 9 chose options 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Overall, 111 (= 61 +24 + 19 + 7) participants chose the same options, while the rest 75 participants changed their most
preferable options. The major flows of respondents who changed their choices were (i) from option 1
to option 3 (n = 23; 12.4%), (ii) option 1 to option 2 (n = 17; 9.2%), (iii) option 1 to option 4 (n = 9;4.4%), and (iv) option 2 to option 3 (n = 9; 4.4%).
(Table 4 inserted about here.)17

Table 5 displays the number of respondents who chose each option, where the four options areclassified into two groups according to whether they are more sustainable or not, both at the national
and prefectural level. This shows that at the national level, the number of respondents choosing moresustainable options increased from 50 (26.9%) in the 1st choice to 68 (36.6%) at the 2nd choice. The
chi-square test of independence revealed that the chi-square statistic was 4.02 and the difference wasat a significance of 5% level. At the prefectural level, the number of respondents choosing moresustainable options increased from 33 (17.7%) in the 1st choice to 78 (41.9%) at the 2nd choice. The
chi-square test of independence revealed that the chi-square statistic was 26.00 and the difference
significance was at the 1% level. These results show that the visual narrative created by the present
study was effective as an intervention tool both at the national and prefectural levels.
(Table 5 inserted about here.)
Finally, Table 6 displays the result of the logistic regression analysis, where whether individuals
chose sustainable options or not was explained in terms of their individual characteristics, as well as
their 1st choices. At the national level, two predictors were significant after controlling for the 1st
choice 8: age (Odds Ratio = 0.69; p < 0.10) and generativity (Odds Ratio = 1.64; p < 0.05),
suggesting that participants who were younger or being high in generativity scale scores were more
likely to choose sustainable options, given their 1st choices that were made before the visual
narrative intervention. In other words, the observed shift of the frequency distribution in Table 5(left) is partly explained by the changes in preferences of participants with these two characteristics.
In contrast, at the prefectural level, no predictor was found to be significant, suggesting that

8

The meaning of controlling for the 1st choice is as follows. For example, at the national level, Table 4shows that among the 136 ( = 110 + 26) participants choosing less sustainable options (i.e., 1 and 3) in the
1st choice, 30 shifted toward sustainable options (i.e., 2 and 4). Also, among the 50 ( = 43 + 7)
participants choosing more sustainable options in the 1st choice, 38 remained choosing the same group of
options. Explaining individuals’ 2nd choices in terms of an individual characteristic, controlling for their
1st choice, is to investigate whether the characteristic lets individuals to change their options in thesustainable manner (as the 30 participants did) or to maintain their sustainable options (as the 38
participants did).

18

individual characteristics not measured in the preset study explains the shift in Table 5 (right).

5. Discussion

The present study aimed to develop a visual narrative to motivate present generationindividuals to take the perspective of future generations in their ways and to verify the effectivenessof the narrative as an intervention tool, with the expectation that this serves as a tool to represent thenext generation’s voices in the present society. The effectiveness was verified indeed, and wereascribed in part to two characteristics of the research participants: generativity and critical thinking
disposition. Five things are noted regarding our statistical results.
First, the visual narrative significantly decreased the ratio of individuals choosing the lesssustainable options closer to the status quo, which are likely to evoke inaction regret both at thenational and the prefectural levels (i.e., options 1). With the psychological argument in mind
regarding the dominance of inaction regrets over action regrets in the long time span (Gilovich andMedvec, 1994; 1995), our finding supports that the visual narrative is effective in encouraging
research participants to “look back on the preset” from the perspective of the generation that is so far
away in the future that the participants wish the present had avoided choices evoking inaction regret.
Second, looking into the details of the data at the national and prefectural levels, the visual
narrative was shown again to decrease the ratio of individuals choosing options that are the lesssustainable and thus closer to the status quo (i.e., options 1 & 3 and options 1 & 2, respectively).
Nakagawa, Arai et al. (2018) utilized the same list of four options in their experiment but found thatthe retrospective treatment (steps 1 and 2 of this study) alone was effective only at the prefecturallevel. Drawing on the economic literature of the free-rider problem (Olsen 1965; Esteban & Ray,
2001), they argue that at the smaller scale (i.e., at the prefectural level), individuals are more19

motivated to contribute to the sustainability of their government at their own expense than at thelarger scale (e.g., at the national level). While Nakagawa, Arai et al. (2018) shows the effectivenessof the retrospective treatment in individuals to take the perspective of future generations, the present
study suggests that the visual narrative treatment not only amplifies this effect but also creates a new
result. It motivates the present generation to stand in the position of the future generation whose
standpoint covers the wider geographical domain than the one the individual belongs. In other words,by the use of this treatment, succeeding in disengagement from “the self living at present” cantrigger succeeding in the disengagement from “the self living at a specific place.”
Third, at the national level, the above mentioned shift of participants’ preferences due to thevisual narrative intervention was found to be partly accounted for by the changes in participants’choices who were higher in generativity scale scores. It is reasonable that these people were more
likely to amend their choices in a more sustainable manner or maintain their sustainable choices withthe help of the visual narrative, perhaps by way of feeing sympathy toward its protagonist. Anotherfinding was that younger participants were more sensitive to the visual narrative treatment. This
seems to be consistent with the literature demonstrating that the ability of perspective taking declines
with age (e.g., Labouvie-Vief, 2003; Maylor et al., 2002; Ruffman et al., 2008, Zhang et al., 2013).
Fourth, the above mentioned findings on the treatment effect of the visual narrative are
significant because the significant change in individuals’ preferences occurred after the retrospective
assessment (steps 1 and 2 of this study) was implemented, which is known to change individuals’
preferences in a way sympathetic to the future generation (Noblet et al., 2015; Nakagawa, Kotani etal., 2018; Nakagawa, Arai et al., 2018). This may suggest the conceptual distinction between (i)forming sympathetic attitudes to the future generation and (ii) taking the perspective of the future
generation. If this distinction is the case, it must be that the treatment for enabling the formation of a
sympathetic attitude (i) is not so sufficient in enabling the perspective taking of the future generation(ii) as the treatment designed specifically for enabling the latter. On the contrary, these treatments
20

can even contradict with each other, because feeling sympathy toward the future generation from thepresent generation’s perspective can make it difficult to accomplish the “disengagement from thepresent,” which is inevitable for (ii). In the field of scenario development, workshop participants’difficulty in doing so is widely recognized (e.g., Vergragt and Quist, 20111; this point will be
discussed later in this section). The present study suggests that stimulating motivation to do so by
sharing narratives of others who have the experiences of succeeding in doing is a promising strategy.
Fifth, while the retrospective assessment (aiming to change the present generation’
preference) and the present study’s visual narrative treatment (aiming to let the present generation
serve as the proxy of the future generation) have different purposes, as discussed above, it should be
noted that the latter can be utilized as an effective tool for the former’s purpose. In fact, in our
experiment, the research subjects were requested to express their preferences as the present
generation at step (7), after experiencing the proxy of the future generation (at steps 3 to 6). It was
found that their choices did not significantly change from those in step (5). (See the result of the 3rd
choice in Table 3.) This suggests that the experience of taking the future generation’s perspective canbe internalized to affect their preferences as the individual of the present generation.

The present study’s findings contain several important implications. First, there is an
emerging body of literature indicating the essential role of narrative in attaining sustainability. In areview of such recent studies, Veland et al. (2018) drew on works such as O’Brien (2016) and Wendt(2015) to argue that narratives constitute reality as we know it by making sense of observations,drawing new inferences, and providing models for a path forward. Veland et al. (2018) further argue
that narratives serving such functions can be produced by combining scientific knowledge (such as
climate change) with other types of narrative (such as local faith-based narrative). Such narratives
localize and contextualize scientific knowledge (e.g., Leong & Lejano, 2016; Butcher, 2013; Francis,
2015; Hayhoe, 2013; Lynam & Fletcherm 2015) and offer an alternative to scientific knowledge as21

“universal rationality” (Adger, 2013, p. 113). Likewise, Van der Leeuw (2018) stresses that for
narratives to play an essential role in improving global sustainability, it is necessary that each culture
and society develop its own narratives and that people who identify with different narratives interact
with one another. These two studies raise the question as to how each culture and each society can be
encouraged to create their own contextualized narratives. This study attempts to provide an answer
to this question: what we call meta-narratives can serve as triggers of such attempts. The visual
narratives created by the present study were most likely interpreted by the research participants as ameta-narrative (i.e., the narrative of a protagonist creating a narrative of a desirable future for a
specific society which the protagonist is a member of). In fact, the subjects of the present study andthe protagonists of the narratives belonged to municipalities more than 1,000 km apart from one
another. Moreover, if the visual narrative was interpreted as describing a future for the communitiesof the narrative only, it could have never been perceived as relevant by participants of the study.
Serving as a meta-narrative, the visual narrative of the present study has the potential to be applied tovarious contexts, which is a strength of the present study.
Second, this study’s findings hold particular implications for backcasting, which is defined as“generating a desirable future, and then looking backwards from that future to the present in order tostrategize and to plan how it could be achieved” (e.g., Quist and Vergragt, 2006; Quist, 2007). In
generating such a desirable future, previous literature has recognized the importance and difficulty ofparticipants’ disengagement from the present (Vergragt and Quist 2011). In the introduction section,
we noted the conflicts existing in the pursuit of welfare for both present and future generations. If
this is the case, failure to disengage from the present will inevitably be detrimental to the welfare of
future generations. The present study could be seen as an attempt to avoid this failure. Therefore, thisstudy is significant in that it investigates how visual narratives as methods of intervention can
encourage individuals to disengage from the present and influence the depicted desirable futures inbackcasting practices.
22

Third, we consider the implication this study holds for the practice of scenario planning.
Scenario planning exercises aim to articulate multiple alternative futures in a way that spans a key
set of critical uncertainties (Peterson et al. 2003, Kok and Van Delden 2009). In a review of 23 casestudies of increasingly popular participatory scenario planning (PSP) practices where stakeholders
were involved with fostering social learning and collective action to achieve desired goals,
Otros-Rozas et al. (2015) argue that the practice of PSP could be improved by building a communityof practice that can share results, methods, and challenges in a comparative way while improving theability of PSP to bridge scales and cases. With the present study in mind, a narrative of such aparticipatory process could be developed and presented not only to stakeholders of the case who
could not participate in the process in order to allow them to be involved in collective action, butalso to people who designed PSP processes in other cases. By doing so, the interrelations between
local contexts, adopted methods, scenarios as outputs of PSP, and intangible outcomes (such as
fostered social learning and collective action) could be transported to other cases. This could serve as
what the present study calls a meta-narrative and be utilized across cases, which could also
strengthen the ties of the PSP community.

6. Limitations

The present study has several important limitations. The first limitation is in regard to theexperimental procedure. In psychology and experimental social sciences, demand characteristics
refer to an experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment's
purpose and unconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation (Rosenthal and Rosnow,
2009; Gomm, 2004). In the present study, the participants may interpret the purpose to identify theeffect of presenting a story on their preferred choice of options at (step 5). However, the authors23

concluded that this problem could be avoided in the present study for the following three reasons.
First, Nakagawa, Arai et al. (2018) adopted an experimental procedure similar to the one of thepresent study and did not observe the demand characteristics. The participants in the treatment groupof their study went through steps (1), (2), (3), (6), and (7). In steps (3) and (7), they were requested
to choose their most preferable options individually. The only difference between these steps wasthat while participants were asked to be in the future generation’s perspective in the former, they
were asked to be in the current generation’s standpoint in the latter. As shown in their Table 3, thefrequency distributions obtained in these steps did not differ significantly (p = 0.197). Second, inboth steps (3) and (5), participants were requested not only to choose an option, but also to answer
an open-ended question on the reasons to do so. However, in step (5), it was clearly stated in theanswer sheet that they were requested to do so if their choices and the reasons were changed. This
strategy was expected to reduce the participants’ motivation to express their preferences in consistent
with the researchers’ purpose. Third, if the demand characteristics are inherent in step (5), then it isnatural to assume that the same tendency is innate in step (7). However, after the data collection andstatistical analysis, this assumption was rejected. Specifically, it was found by the chi-square test of
independence that the frequency distributions obtained in steps (5) and (7) were not statisticallydistinct from one another (p = 0.508). The number of people choosing options 1, 2, 3, and in step (7)were 66, 45, 57, and 18, respectively.
The second limitation concerns measurement. The present study considered individuals’
preference for action regret evoking options (rather than inaction-regret-evoking ones) as anindicator that they acquired the perspective of the future generation. However, this is an indicator
among many, and future research needs to verify that the effect of the visual narrative intervention
can be detected concerning indicators as well. As described in the visual narrative developed in thepresent study, participants to the workshops of Hara et al. (2019) as imaginary future generations
found how they had changed their perspectives when they discussed with participants taking to the24role of the present generation. Given this, it would be beneficial to develop a psychometrically soundscale based on self-reports that directly measures the extent to which they subjectively feel they haveacquired a perspective different from the ones they had possessed before experiencing theintervention.
The third limitation concerns sampling bias. The present study selected a woman in her
forties as the protagonist of the visual narrative. Thus, although females’ sensitivity to the visual
narrative was not detected in Table 6, it might be that the female audience is more likely to be
immersedin

thisnarrative,

particularly

whentakingintoaccount

theextendedtransportation-imagery model’s prediction that participants who identified with the protagonist of
our visual narrative were more likely to be transported to the world of the narrative and thus weremore sensitive to this intervention. Due to the overrepresented female participants in our sample, thepresent study might have overestimated the effectiveness of the visual narrative. This said, thelimitation does not diminish the significance of the present study. It at least clarified that sharing
experiences of others with the same gender is effective in taking the perspective of the future
generation. It is important in the future to accumulate knowledge on the conditions under which
visual narrative intervention serve as a more useful tools. For example, Brunye et al. (2009)
demonstrate that readers of sentences on a simple event sequence embody an actor’s perspective
when the pronoun is “you” or “I,” rather than “he.” Such a finding might be utilized in enhancing
effectiveness. Also, the percentage of participants with a higher education background (e.g.,
university graduate or above) was 44.1 percent. This might be because the participants wererecruited via an advertisement in a newspaper and thus were people who regularly read newspapers
and had stronger reading habits compared to the general sample. Due to this, the effect of theintervention may have been overestimated, considering that the task of understanding the policy
options and assuming the perspective of future generations obviously requires higher cognitive
abilities.
25

The fourth limitation concerns the ambiguity of what is meant by the expression “assuming
the perspective of future generations.” In psychology, some studies make ontological andepistemological assumptions that (i) there is a correct answer to the question of what the preferences,values, and needs of the people of the same era are and that (ii) the subject, who is independent, canperceive the preferences, values, and obligations of the object. Studies to develop a psychometricallysound measure of an individual’ ability to partake others’ perspectives accurately (e.g., Gehlbach,2004; Schiffman et al., 2004) are inevitably classified into this group. If the future generation isconsidered as the object of perspective taking by the present generation, the validity of the above
two assumptions become even less visible, not only because future generations are unobservable but
also because the attributes of the object as the next generation might be dependent on the subject’s(i.e., the present generation’s) behaviors and thus undetermined yet. Thus, earlier studies on thebenefits of future generations have replaced these assumptions in different ways. In neo-classicaleconomics, the preferences of future generations are unknowable, and thus the present generationmust secure the non-declining capital stock (e.g., Solow, 1991). The application of the concept of“veil of ignorance” 9 to intergenerational issues (Rawls, 1971) might be considered as an attempt totake the perspective of future generations without assuming their specific characteristics. The
assumption behind this attempt seems to be that individuals from different generations (including
future generations) are so homogeneous as to be able to make a consensus on the social arrangement
in an “original position;” where their psychological propensities and other characteristics are veiled.
Thompson (2010) adopted another strategy by proposing that the present age represents future
generations by acting as trustees of the demographic process over time, thereby avoiding thenecessity to set strong assumptions on future generations’ preferences or individual life plans. In
contrast to these earlier studies on future generations, the present study’s strategy was to assume that
9

Veil of ignorance is a rule that suppresses self-interested behavior on the part of decision makers by means ofsubjecting them to uncertainty about the distribution of benefits and burdens that will result from a decision (Rawls,
1971).

26

present and future generations are homogeneous, and therefore, the former can serve as a proxy of
the latter in expressing preferences for avoiding action and inaction regrets. Due to this fundamental
assumption, we had to narrowly define what we mean by the phrase “a sustainable option” of thepresent generation.
Sixth, we measured only a limited number of individual characteristics, such as generativity
and critical thinking disposition. However, other variables might also be relevant, such as thenumber of children. It is important in the future to explore such characteristics.

Due to these limitations, it is impossible for this single study to demonstrate that the public
has a general tendency to willingly serve as the proxy of future generations. This said, we conclude
that the present study demonstrates the possibility that individuals of the present generation can be
motivated to take the perspective of the future generation through intervention. It is widely acceptedthat future generations are under-represented in current political structures and that it is partly due tothe short-termism or presentism of the present generation (Thompson, 2010; Jones, O’Brien, &Ryanm 2018). To overcome this trade-off between the present and future generations benefits, thepresent study proposes an original approach different from the one of the retrospective assessment
literature: to activate present generation’s intrinsic motivation to take the perspective of the future
generation. Governmental institutions to represent future generation that are facing rejections bypoliticians (Jones, O’Brien, & Ryan, 2018) and other stakeholders can benefit from introducing anequipment to provide their opponents with the opportunity to experience interventions similar to theone of the present study to notice that they can be willing to take the perspective of the future
generation, as the protagonist of our visual narrative was.

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Table 1: Critical thinking disposition scale of Hirayama and Kusumi (2004).

A. Logical thinking subscale
A1 I am good at thinking about complex problems in an orderly fashion
A2 I am good at collecting my thoughts
A3 I am confident in thinking about things precisely
A4 I am good at making persuasive arguments
A5 I am confused when thinking about complex problems
A6 I am the one to make decisions because my peers believe I can make fair judgments
A7 I can concentrate on grappling with problems
A8 I can continue working on a difficult problem which is not straight forward
A9 I can think about things coherently
A10 My shortcoming is that I am easily distracted*
A11 When I think about a solution, I cannot afford to think about other alternatives*
A12 I can inquire into things carefully
A13 I am constructive in proposing alternatives
B. Inquisitiveness subscale
B1 I want to interact with people with various ways of thinking and learn a lot from themB2 I want to keep learning new things throughout my life
B3 I like to challenge new things
B4 I want to learn about various cultures
B5 I believe it is meaningful to learn foreginers' ways of thinking
B6 I am interested in people who have different ways of thinking
B7 I want to gain deeper knowledge regarding any issues
B8 I want to learn things as much as possible even if the usefulness is unclear
B9 I enjor discussing with people with different opinions
B10 I tend to ask questions when I have something unclear to me
Note. *: Reversed item.

35

Table 2. Sample characteristics. The percentages were defined in comparison with the entire sample
size (i.e., 186).

Age
≦29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
≧60
GenderMale
FemaleMarital Status
Yes
No
Employment Status
Permanent Job
Other
Education
Univ. Graduate or above
Other

36

n

%

17
19
49
64
31
6

9.1
10.2
26.3
34.4
16.7
3.2

46
140

24.7
75.3

128
58

68.8
31.2

105
81

56.5
43.5

82
104

44.1
55.9

Table 3. Individuals’ most favorite options.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Total

n

110

43

26

7

186

%

59.1

23.1

14.0

3.8

100.0

n

67

41

51

27

186

%

36.0

22.0

27.4

14.5

100.0

n

66

45

57

18

186

%

35.5

24.2

30.6

9.7

100.0

1st Choice

2nd Choice

3rd ChoiceNotes.
Option 1 = Less sustainable at the national level and less sustainable at the prefectural level(≒Maintenance of Status Quo)
Option 2 = More sustainable at the national level and less sustainable at the prefectural level
Option 3 = Less sustainable at the national level and more sustainable at the prefectural level
Option 4 = More sustainable at the national level and more sustainable at the prefectural level
With regard to the diffedence between 1st and 2nd choices, the chi-square test of independence
revealed that chi-square statistic was 30.3755, and the p value was < 0.00001.With regard to thediffedence between 2nd and 3rd choices, the chi-square test of independence revealed that chisquare statistic was 2.3269, and the p =.507387.

37

Table 4. The transition matrix.

1st Choice
Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Total

Option 1

61

3

3

0

67

Option 2

17

24

0

0

41

Option 3

23

9

19

0

51

Option 4

9

7

4

7

27

Total

110

43

26

7

186

2nd ChoiceNotes.
Option 1 = Less sustainable at the national level and less sustainable at the prefectural level(≒Maintenance of Status Quo)
Option 2 = More sustainable at the national level and less sustainable at the prefectural level
Option 3 = Less sustainable at the national level and more sustainable at the prefectural level
Option 4 = More sustainable at the national level and more sustainable at the prefectural level38

Table 5: The effectiveness of the treatment at the national and prefectural levels.

National Level

Prefectural Level

Less Sustainable More Sustainable

Less Sustainable More Sustainable(Option 1 or 3)(Option 2 or 4)(Option 1 or 2)(Option 3 or 4)

n

136

50

153

33

%

73.1

26.9

82.3

17.7

n

118

68

108

78

%

63.4

36.6

58.1

41.9

1st Choice

2nd Choice

Chi-square1

4.02

26.00

p value0.04< 0.001

Note. 1: Chi-squalre test of independence between the frequency distributions of the 1st
and 2nd choices.

39

Table 6: Logistic regression analysis results.
y = 1 ( Option 2 or 4)1
vs.
y = 0 ( Option 1 or 3)
Independent Variable

beta

s.e.

Age
GenderMale (Ref.)
FemaleMarital Status
Yes
No (Ref.)
Employment Status
Permanent Job
Other (Ref.)
Education
Univ. Graduate or above
Other (Ref.)
Critical Thinking Disposition
Logical Thinking Subscale
Inquisitiveness Subscale
Generativigy
1st Choice
Option 2 or 4 (Ref. 1 Otion 1 or 3)
Option 3 or 4 (Ref. 1 Otion 1 or 2)-0.36 † 0.21

-0.15

OR

95% CIy = 1 ( Option 3 or 4)2vs.
y = 0 ( Option 1 or 2)
95% CI

beta

s.e.

OR

0.69 0.46 — 1.04

-0.12

0.26

0.89 0.54 — 1.47

0.19

0.86 0.59 — 1.26

-0.25

0.22

0.78 0.51 — 1.19

0.03

0.20

1.03 0.69 — 1.53

0.00

0.24

1.00 0.63 — 1.60

0.03

0.20

1.03 0.70 — 1.52

0.10

0.24

1.11 0.70 — 1.77

-0.31

0.20

0.73 0.50 — 1.08

0.16

0.23

1.17 0.75 — 1.82

-0.21
0.21
0.13
0.21
0.49 * 0.23

0.81 0.53 — 1.23
1.14 0.75 — 1.73
1.64 1.04 — 2.57

-0.13
0.43
0.03

0.25
0.27
0.26

0.88 0.54 — 1.43
1.53 0.90 — 2.62
1.03 0.62 — 1.69

1.12 ** 0.19

3.05 2.11 — 4.42
0.47 * 0.18

1.59 1.11 — 2.29

Notes. 1: Sustainable options at the national level. 2: Sustainable options at the prefectural level. †: p < 0.10. *: p < 0.05.
**: p < 0.01.

40

Figure 1: The procedure. (Steps (6) and (7) are out of the focus of the present paper.)(1) Reading an article from anewspaper published 30 years ago(2) Group discussion about possible
request to the society 30 years ago

1st choice(3) Individually choosing the mostfavorable option from a standpoint of
the people living 30 years from today(4) Watching the picture-story show

2nd choice(5) Individually choosing the mostfavorable option from a standpoint of
the people living 30 years from today(6) Group discussion about the mostfavorable option from a standpoint of
the people living 30 years from today

3rd choice(7) Individually choosing the mostfavorable option from a standpoint of
the people living today

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Figure 2: The story (scenes 1 to 3)

1

Yahaba is a town in Iwate Prefecture with a population of
about 28,000. The town is located conveniently about 20
to 30 minutes' drive away from Morioka City with nearly
ten times more population than the town, so the town has
been developed as a dormitory town for the city. Mt.
Nansho, which looks like a symmetrical bell shape, is asymbol of the town. Such a Town Hall decided to hold aseries of workshops in an unusual way to create a longterm vision for the town. The contents of the workshops
were to have local citizens to act as future persons of thetown, envision the town's future and consider what the
town should do for realizing the visions from now on. Thisis a story of Miho who experienced to act as a future
person.

2

Miho lives in Yahaba town with her husband and twochildren. One child is in the first year of junior high school,
and the other is in the fourth year of elementary school.
Six years ago from now, invited by her friend, she started
her activity as a member of the civil panel to study and give
opinions on the town waterworks. At that time, she had
been overwhelmed with childcare and household chores
even more than now and had been frantic to live througheach and every day. That is why this activity made her
forget temporarily childcare and gave her a fresh
experience to make her eyes turn to the other things.
Without this activity, she could never have had a chance toknow the system of waterworks such as production of tap
water and home water supply, which enables us to getclean water just by turning on a faucet routinely. Such awoman, Miho happened to participate in the unusual
workshops.

3

On the first day of the workshop, each local citizen
participant in a group of six was invited into a room. There
were men and women of all ages in the room where Miho
was invited. The persons who planned those workshops
was Mr. Yoshioka, Yahaba Town Hall personnel. At the
beginning of the workshop, Miho and the otherparticipants received the following instructions by thoseplanners. "Imagine if you could time travel 40 years into
the future to Yahaba Town with the present your ages andlive there. And then, envision the town's future as a groupwith representing the interests of the future generations
40 years later, and provide ideas for policy measures which
we should implement now." However, since Miho who lives
in the present could not image at all that she would be a
future person, she could not help but participate in thediscussion with hesitation. Contrary to the planner'
instructions, she tried to imagine herself to be an 80-yearold elderly woman after 40 years from now, but the result
was the same.

42

Figure 3: The story (scenes 4—6).

4

When the discussion had been going on for a while, thegroup were discussing how high was the priority for thegovernment to tackle childcare supports such as free
medical care and ensuring day-care centers. This subject
was exactly what Miho had been worrying about as anurgent issue because she had been overwhelmed withchildcare. Contrary to her thoughts, Mr. Omura, one of amember of the group and about a 70-year-old man,
expressed his opinion. "Since we are future persons, we
may think that such issues could be solved in a few years
and it would already have been solved 40 years from now."

5

Miho was taken aback by his casual comments. "I had been
thinking of issues that I wanted to be solved in the near
future since I had been bound myself by childcare too much.
That is why I could not be a future person well. The issues
like childcare, which I have been worrying about could be
solved in a few years, and it would surely have been solvedin the world 40 years from now. I'll forget temporarily daily
childcare. I'll forget temporarily issues which could be
solved in a few years. And then I'll imagine Yahaba town 40
years from now!"

6

After that, Miho thought what kind of town would beinteresting when she would be at 80 years old and came tolead the workshop discussion. In that way, one of the ideas
the group reached was to create a public transportation
network to connect schools, the Town Hall and tourist spots
in the motif of "Night on the Galactic Railroad", a children's
story by Kenji Miyazawa. Future vehicles might connect
those places. Giovanni, the main character of this story, geton the Galactic Train from a small hill with his one friend
and finding what a true happiness is, while travelingthrough various constellations. Giovanni wakes up when heloses sight of the friend and finds out that all the events
happened were in his dream world. And in the real world,
he was noticed that the friend fell into the river and went
missing to save his acquaintance. Mt. Nansho in Yahaba issaid to be the model of the hill where the train starts in thisbeautiful story.

43

Figure 4: The story (scenes 7—9).

7

8

9

In this way, while Miho was envisioning Yahaba's future 40
years from now and imagining herself at 80 years old, shecame to be under the sensation as if she had actually lived
in the future world with her present age. She noticed that
other members of the group also shared the same
sensation. In fact, soon after the start of the discussion, oneof the elderly members began to express his opinion withan introductory remark with "I would die by then...",
however, while he was immersing himself in envisioning thefuture world specifically, he came to not use such a remark.
In this way, the members of the group gradually andnaturally came to follow the instructions by Mr. Yoshioka,"Imagine if you could time travel into the future with thepresent your ages."

On the other day of the workshop, a debate between theparticipants of future generations (Miho's group) and theparticipants of the present generations (the group who
ordinarily lived in the present town as the present
generations) was held. They discussed the town's policy
measures which the town should implement from now. As
expected, the present generations insisted that the town
should implement the immediate measures such as
childcare supports. At that time, Miho thought as follows:“They are still talking about such issues (laughing). Suchissues already have been solved in our future world(laughing)." However, that thought is slightly different fromlooking down on the present generations. Miho herself also
had been persisting in solving the immediate issues before
she would be the future generations. If she and otherfuture generation members still had been the present
generations, they should have thought that thetransportation network vision in the motif of "Galactic
Railroad" would be only an empty dream. In this way, sherealized her own growth.

Now that the series of workshop is over, Miho thinks backto the moment when she could be a future person,
triggered by the remark of Mr. Omura, a 70-year-old man.
And she felt that she could response to his remark since she
had attachment and reliability to the present society. There
are difficult situations for working mothers such as chronic
shortages of day-care centers and men's still-low
involvement in childcare now. However, we must not be sofoolish as to leave such issues unsolved in 40 years. We
surely can solve such issues in the near future. That is why
Miho charged the present generations with finding
solutions for such issues, and forgot temporarily such issues
and could boldly time travel 40 years into the future world.
For her, acting as a future person was an experienceenabled by attachment to the present people.

44