UNESCO CHAIR WENDIRESILIENCE BRIEF 2022
BY GRADUATE STUDENTS

KYOTO UNIVERSITY UNESCO CHAIR WENDI
Course for Creating Resilient Societies
MARCH 2022

The UNESCO CHAIR WENDI Resilience Brief 2022 is a collection of brief reports by Kyoto
University UNESCO Chair WENDI graduated students, who have worked on their
independent studies or fieldworks under a compulsory elective subject: 1) “Social Innovation
and Resilience” or/and 2) “Practices for Creating Resilience” provided by Course for Creating
for Resilient Societies (CRS) in UNESCO Chair on Water, Energy and Disaster Management
for Sustainable Development (WENDI), Kyoto University, during 2021-2022. The authors
have engaged in the above activities by linking different disciplines such as education,
disasters, food, the Covid-19, and environment, identifying missing links in existing
approaches, and proposing the problem-solving oriented actions. We hope this report willcontribute to building collaborative knowledge on creating resilient societies. We will keep
working on the theme of Creating Resilient Societies with relevant vigorous activities andresearch.
Mika Shimizu
KYOTO University WENDI Course of Creating Resilient Societies Faculty
Member/Associate Professor
Contents

Assessment of Resilience of a Youth Intercultural and Outdoor Summer Program in
Okinawa, Japan
Ayame Ishida
Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University
pp.3-7

Toward Promoting Resilience in the Field of Education-Learning from the Recovery Process in Maehama, Tohoku, and Connecting to the Future ofChildrenAtsuko Yasunaga
Graduated School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University
pp.8-121

The relationship between food and communication:
Effects of reduced communication during COVID-19 pandemic
Shion Okada
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University pp.13-18

Authors

Ayame Ishida

Atsuko Yasunaga

Shion Okada

2

UNESCO CHAIR WENDI CREATING RESILIENT SOCIETY

Assessment of Resilience of a Youth Intercultural and Outdoor Summer Program in
Okinawa, Japan

Ayame Ishida
Graduate School of Advanced
Integrated Studies in Human
Survivability
PhD 2rdYear
1. Introduction
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development
Goal (hereinafter SDG) 4.7 focuses on education
for sustainable development (hereinafter ESD)
and global citizenship education (UN, 2018).
Global citizens are members of diverse networks
beyond the boundaries of national borders(Brown, 2016). Through global citizenshipeducation (hereinafter GCED), the youth candevelop a sense of belonging to a global society
with the sense of responsibility to contribute to
making the world a more peaceful, safe, healthy,
and secure place. Fostering global citizens isessential to achieving not only SDG4 (education)
but also all other SDGs (Mochizuki, 2019).
GCED and ESD can help youth to understandthe interconnection of the world from multiple
perspectives and to become actors in solving
global challenges.
To provide opportunities for children to
receive ESD and GCED, the summer program
was developed in Okinawa, Japan by Nonprofit
Seishonen Global Organization. It is anintercultural and outdoor summer program
established in 2017. Young adults from abroad
also join the program to lead the activities asinternational program leaders. The program is amulti-day overnight summer program in

Okinawa, Japan for elementary and middle
school children. In the past, the summer program
was held in Higashison which is in the Northernpart of Okinawa. Participants joined the campfrom both locally and internationally. In the past,
about 40 children and eight international
program leaders join each session of the program.
The program includes daily structured English
lessons along with numerous outdoor activities(such as going to the beach, sea kayaking, andhiking) and social activities (such as cooking
together, playing games, and having bonfires).
The participants have the chance to meet andlearn from international program leaders and use
English to communicate throughout their time at
the program. The programs aim to provide youth
an opportunity to promote ESD and GCED as
well as vitalize the local community. Throughinteracting with people from diverse
backgrounds, youth can gain human to human
linkage with different generations and nations.
Through outdoor programs, the youth canexperience the association with nature and learn
the importance of sustaining beautiful nature.
However, due to the global pandemics(covid-19), the program was canceled in the2020 and 2021 summers. Country borders wereclosed, and people had limitations to their3

mobility similar to many of the otherintercultural programs in the world such as study
abroad programs. In general, the pandemics have
impacted more than 1.6 billion learners in theworld (UNESCO, 2021) because of school andprogram closures.
The global pandemics have remindedsociety about the significance of having resilient
educational systems and programs. Resilient
education systems and programs are essential toprovide education sustainably. According to
UNESCO & UNESCO IEEP note (2020),
resilience in education is “the ability of children,
families, communities, and systems to withstand,adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses(e.g. natural disasters, political crises, epidemics,
pervasive violence, armed conflict) in ways that
support economic and social development,
preserve integrity, and do not deepen
vulnerability.” Since the summer program wascanceled due to the pandemics, the author has
decided to reassess the resilience of the Okinawa
summer program to develop a more resilient
education program to different shocks andstresses before restarting in 2022 summer.
The below provides, the author’s
learning from Yakushima School about humans,social, and natural approaches to assess theresilience of the Okinawa program. Afterassessing the resilience of the program, theauthor evaluated the ways to improve theprogram to make it a more resilient program.

of the Yakushima local sites. 44 students
participated and completed the program(Shimizu, 2021).
3. Human, Social, Natural Systems and their
Linkages
One of the important themes the author
learned in the program was the human, social,and natural systems and their linkages.
According to Shimizu & Clark (2019), in the“modern risk society,” which is a complex
society with dynamic changes in natural, social,
and risk environment, it is important to approach
the issues from multi-faced perspectives. Whenconsidering the resilience of a policy or aprogram, one must consider how the policies or
the program impact human, social, and natural
systems. The human system includes family andindividuals in the community. The social systemrefers to a more macro level than the humansystemssuch
ascommunities
andorganizations/institutions and society/public
policy. The natural system is an even more
macro level than the human system such asenvironments and ecological system. To develop
a sustainable society for the human, social andnatural systems, it is essential to analyze theresilience within each system and evaluate thelinkages among them.
In the Yakushima School, theparticipants learned about different aspects suchas culture, nature, businesses, etc of Yakushima.
Yakushima was drastically developed as a
tourist destination especially after it was selected
as a World Heritage site as well as a Biosphere
Reserve designated by UNESCO for its
exclusive vegetation and the richness ofYakushima cedar trees (Adewumi et al., 2019).
To address SDGs, the participants of the
program had the opportunity to learn about
overarching views for ee each of the SDGs fromthe perspectives of humans, society, and natureand evaluated the linkage among them. For
example, SDG 15 aims to “protect, restore andpromote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,
sustainably
manageforests,
combatdesertification, and halt and reverse land

2. The Yakushima School
In 2020, the author had the opportunity
to participate in the Yakushima School programorganized by WENDI, Kyoto University which
was financially supported by a MEXT UNESCO
fund. The purpose of the program was to provide
opportunities for undergraduate and graduate
students to contribute to SDGs by tackling real
problems by thinking through a natural-socialhuman systems approach. The Yakushima
School was originally planned to hold in
Yakushima, Japan. However, due to thepandemics, it was held online connecting Kyoto
and Yakushima and utilizing videos and photos

4degradation and halt biodiversity loss” (UN,2018). For the human system, the forest canbring be both well-being and economical
resources through the tourist industry inYakushima. For the nature system, the forest isimportant for the ecological system to sustain.
By utilizing the profit that was gained throughtourism in forest conservation programs, theregion can have a cycle to sustain the natural
tourism resource. This human-nature linkage isessential to consider in developing a resilient andsustainable society for both human and natural
systems.

people from diverse backgrounds (age, gender,
hometown, nationality, interests, etc.) allows
people to be linked with different communities
such as the international community.
Specifically, the following can be pointed out:--

4. Assessment of the Current State of theSummer Program with Respect toOperational Components of Resilience
The author applied the insights drawn
from the Yakushima School to apply to analyze
the Okinawa program by evaluating the human,social natural systems and the linkages among
them. A framework for resilience-based
approaches from operational views (Shimizu&
Clark, 2019) was used to assess the Okinawa
program. The framework can help plan how toincorporate resilience into the program. The
program was assessed through four criticallenses (linkage lens, temporal lens, process lens,and scale lens) for resilience-based approaches.
Assessing the program provides new insights
about the program from different dimensions
which could help to establish a more effective
program in the future. Evaluating the linkage
will allow evaluating the contributions and risks
the educational program brings to the different
systems that are significant to consider indeveloping a resilience-based program that
could lead to a sustainable society. The below
provides the results of the two kinds ofassessment:
First, the characteristics of the program
formation and implication through a resilience
perspective were assessed.
There are multiple actors in the Okinawa
program such as youth, international program
leaders, local community members, nonprofit
organizations, etc. The interaction among-

The participants can learn about the local
nature through outdoor activities such as
kayaking. They can learn about thelinkage between individuals and nature
through those activities.
The program provides short-, mid-and
long-term impacts on individuals, society,and nature. It invests in human capitalthrough global citizen education.
Educating global citizens who can think
and act with a global mindset can impact
on the development of a sustainable
society and natural system. For example,
youth learning about nature and theecosystem could help to educate global
citizens who are aware of theenvironmental challenges.
The program can vitalize the local
community by bringing human flow andeconomic benefits. The linkage of the
program with the local community andeconomy can be seen.

Second, operational components of the summer
program were assessed from the aforementioned
four critical lenses in incorporating resilience inthe program. The below table list operational
components or uniqueness of the Okinawa
Program along with the four lenses.

5Lenses in a resilience-based framework:
Linkage lens
Temporal lens
1. Trust, face-to-face 1. Timely actions
relations,and 2.
Multi-temporalinteractive(short-, mid-, longcommunication
term)
perspectives
2. Linkage among 3. Intergenerational
different dimensions, perspectives
actors, organizations,or sectors
Process lensScale lens1.
Reviewand 1.
Restructuring
learning
process existing schemes into2.
Self/civic betterones
engagement process 2.
Rebalancing
holistic views byreviewing the wholeand parts

With the assessment above, the program can be
reducing the risk of educational opportunity gaps
by providing more financial aid and distancelearning options. This can provide more
opportunities for youth in the world to join the
program. Additionally, distance learning options
can provide also reduce CO2 commission which
can reduce the risk to the natural system. Whiledistance learning options can provide, more
opportunities for youth to join the program, there
are many benefits to holding it onsite. Further
evaluation on the benefits of holding it onsite
need to do in further research.
Through the assessment, new insights
about the current situation of the resilience of the
program in terms of human, social, and natural
systems were found. Additionally, suggestions
for further research and program improvement
were also considered.

As shown in the table, the Okinawa program isbroadly associated with the four operational
lenses - linkage lens, temporal lens, process lens,and scale lens – and the components under theumbrellas of each lens. The Okinawa program
brings human-to-human linkages to individuallevels as well as the organization and sector
levels. Investing in the education of the youth
can have an impact on society in short to longterm effect as education is an investment in
human capital.
Through assessing in
multidimensional perspective, rebalancing, andreconstructing the different factors of the
program such as finance, location, etc. areconsidered.
The program contributes to the humansystem by bringing economic cycle and humandevelopment. Human development helps to raise
global citizens' global awareness to conserve
nature and can contribute to the natural system.
However, there are risks of unequal opportunity
to participate in the program due to financial andgeographical limitations, which can risk thesocial system through the educational
opportunity gap. Additionally, bus and planetransportation cause CO2 commission, which
can risk the nature system, which in long term
can also risk the social system with global
warming, etc.

Participants fishing on the boat during the
program.

Past camp leader of the Okinawa program.
5. Way Forward
With consideration of the assessment of
the resilience of the program, further action andreassessment need to be done to evaluate theprogram. To further evaluate the program,integrated knowledge from experts from6

different fields such as economists, culturalists,
environmentalists are essential.
Furtherevaluation of the programs with theconsideration of risks such as pandemics could
be evaluated in the future. Additionally, further

research in the assessment of resilience withdifferent educational programs needs to be done
to understand deeper about applying the systemapproach in educational programs.

Reference[1] Adewumi, I. B., Usui, R., & Funck, C. (2019). Perceptions of multiple stakeholders about
environmental issues at a nature-based tourism destination: The case of Yakushima Island,
Japan. Environments, 6(8), 93.
[2] Brown, G. (2016). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the 21st Century. Open Book
Publishers.
[3] Mochizuki, Y. (2019). SDG 4.7: Fostering global citizenship. Values Education and Global
Citizenship towards Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
[4] Shimizu, M. and Clark, A. L. (2019). Nexus of Resilience and Public Policy in a Modern Risk
Society[5] Shimizu, M. (2021). “Looking at Nature, Humans and Societies in a Continuum” in Yakushima– Toward Transformation for SDGs
[6] UNESCO & UNESCO IIEP. (2020). Building back resilient: how can education systems
prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies and pandemics?
[7] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2021). Acting for recovery,
resilience and reimagining education: the Global Education Coalition in action.
[8] United Nations. (2018). Sustainable development goals.

7

UNESCO CHAIR WENDI CREATING RESILIENT SOCIETY

Toward Promoting Resilience in the Field of Education-Learning from the Recovery Process in Maehama, Tohoku, andConnecting to the Future of ChildrenAtsuko Yasunaga
Graduated School of
Advanced Integrated Studies
in Human Survivability
1st Year
1．Introduction and Background
This article is a record of a small resilience
activity project to seek for how to nurture
resilience for school children in educational
fields. The author conducted the fieldwork in
Maehama, Tohoku in 2021 to listen to the voicesof local people who have affected Tohoku
Disaster in 2011 and to convey what happenedat that time and the role that local music played
to the children of the generation who did notknow much about the disaster.
About ten years have passed since the
Tohoku Disaster (complex disaster: earthquake,tsunami, nuclear power plant explosion. At least
15,000 dead and 7,500 missing (Cabinet Office,2011).), and as time passes, it tends to berecognized the Disaster as something in the past.
Such perceptions may be led to delay of actions
which could affect the outcome of disasters
when other events happen (Takachiho, 2019)
since the risk of natural disaster is always
present especially in Japan. The school children
who have not seen the event during the Disasterand live in the different location from theaffected area and not experienced today's
elementary school. Therefore, we need to relay
the experience of the Tohoku Disaster referredto the Disaster here in after to the school children.

Therefore, the project highlighted how
music and traditional performing arts whichhave contributed to the recovery efforts during
the Tohoku Disaster moreover, to provide
elementary school students with theopportunities to learn from these activities. As amethod, the author, myself, visited theMaehama area in the Tohoku region for thefieldwork and interviewed local people about
the situation at the time of the Disaster and theirrelationship with music. Through the fieldwork,it was revealed the realities of the Disaster andthe possible roles of the music and traditional
performing arts rooted in the region. In order tolearn about the contribution that music andtraditional performing arts have made to therecovery process, the author focused on the“Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi1”.
Based on what I saw in the area andheard from people who were affected by theDisaster, this project allowed the author toconvey the fieldwork experience to 6th grade
elementary school students in Osaka using a
music unit called “Sharing Hearts, Connecting
Minds” (Educational publisher: 6th grade music
textbook) (see Figure 1). Through these
activities, the author tried to play a role ofmediator to bridge between the affected people
and young school children away from the place,

1 In Japanese 大谷大漁唄い込み which means Ohya: name ofemotion in the lyrics

location, Tairyou: a big catch of fish, Utaikomi: to sing with8

in other words, “connect the dots” (Shimizu &Clark, 2019).

singing with musical accompaniment while
beating the paddles on the deck.
2.2 The Current Form of Music and Local
People's Perceptions
Today, the song “Ohya Tairyou
Utaikomi” is still sung by the local people.
However, singing on the deck of a boat is nolonger common because fishing methodology
has changed gradually over time and has
become more mechanized, and also the working
style of fishermen has changed. Instead, thesong is sung at events though Preservation
Association for “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi” andthe members of the Association sing the song at
local festivals (see Figure 3). Before the Disaster,
the former Maehama Marine Center, whichboasts a high utilization rate among citizens, hadbeen the site of frequent local cultural events. In
addition to the “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi”, which
has the aspect of community development andre-recognition of local folklore, the New Year's
Party and the Respect for the Aged Party havethe concept of connecting local people throughfolk arts and other activities (Chiba, 2016).

Figure 1. 6th grade music textbook

Especially referring to dimensions ofresilience (see Figure 2) to nurture incommunities or society, the following questions
raised:How can “linkage” be created between the local
people affected in Tohoku people and the school
in Osaka who have not shared “time” andrecovery “process” with Tohoku people? How
is this activity relevant to “scale”?
Furthermore, how can this kind of activities canconnect to the future?

Figure 3. “Tairyou Bata”: Flag to rejoice a big catch

3．Role of Music During the Recovery
3.1 Activities of the Music Preservation
Association
3.1.1 Immediately after the DisasterIn the immediate after of the earthquake
and tsunami, houses and buildings, including
evacuation centers, were swept away. Almost all
infrastructure functions stopped working, andthe foundation of residents' lives was shaken. In
this situation, the government was ineffective
when it comes to the immediate post-disasterperiod (Minakata, 2012). The government tends

Figure 2. Dimensions of Resilience

2．Maehama, Miyagi and Music
2.1 History“Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi” is a song thathas been sung by the fishermen of Maehama fora long time. Originally, it was sung by fishermenon their boats to celebrate a great catch andexpress gratitude to the Gods of the sea andmountains. The song has the unique feature of9traditional song called “Mochi-Tsuki Uta2”, they
connected with “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi” in
Maehama, and in 2014, they made a friendshipexchange agreement and started to sing together
at each other's events. When the Maehama
Marine Center was rebuilt, large trees were
donated by Mogami Town, and they were used
to be a part of the Center (see Figure 4). Thus, it
can be pointed out that music also has the aspectof creating and enhancing connections withpeople from other areas.

to delay immediate actions because thegovernment is overwhelmed with emergency
response and cannot cover different kinds ofneeds of the citizens. At such times, it isimportant to consider how much local residents
can work together to protect their own
livelihoods. In Maehama area, citizens
voluntarily set up a task force and took various
actions. The reason for this was that people who
had been connected to each other throughPreservation Associations were able to unite
together quickly. It should be noted here that theconnection between local residents naturally
existed as a result of the local songs that wererooted in the area. This foundation made it
possible for them to respond to the Disaster
quickly.
3.1.2 Recovery Process
For several months after the Disaster, thePreservation Association members were a little
hesitant to sing “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi” at
festivals as usual. The reason for this was thatthe song was a celebration of a great catch, andit was not appropriate to sing it in the presenceof people affected by the Disaster. However,from the author’s interviews with people in
Maehama area, following stories was heard:

Figure 4. Large tree donated by Mogami Town to
Maehama- One of the members took the leader’s role andsaid, “Let's sing loudly and cheerfully so that thetsunami will be blown away”. From there, westarted to feel like, "Okay, let's do it!"

4．Music Workshop in Elementary School
4.1 Background and Overview
Based on the fieldwork and interviews
described above, the author conducted aworkshop for sixth grade elementary school
students in Osaka (Homepage of Takadono
elementary school) after the fieldwork in Tohoku
on December 2021. Located in Asahi district ofOsaka city, the elementary school is in an urban
area surrounded by buildings, which is a huge
difference from Maehama closer to the sea andnature. The school is a member of ASPnet(UNESCO Associated Schools Network) and isactively involved in Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD). In this school, the author
was allowed to give a special lecture to theelementary school students. Based on the music
unit “Sharing Hearts, Connecting Minds” in the

The characteristic of “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi”,

as introduced in 2.1, is the beating of the deckwith paddles while loudly chanting the music.
Such characteristics also helped to energize boththe singers and the listeners through music.
3.2 Relationship with the "Mochi-Tsuki
Uta" of Mogami Town, Yamagata Prefecture
There is another major role played bymusic: Maehama has kept deep relationshipwith the town of Mogami in Yamagata
Prefecture which is located closely to Maehama
since the Tohoku Disaster. It started as avolunteer activity to help recovery activity ofMaehama because Mogami Town has a
2 In Japanese 餅つき唄 which means song sung when making

rice cakes

10

Figure 5. Workshop in elementary school

6th grade music textbook (see Figure 1), I
prepared for the workshop with the focus of therelationship between the Tohoku Disaster andmusic. Since there are three classes of sixth
graders with about 25 students per class, I wasallowed to conduct the same workshop threetimes.

4.3 Results
4.3.1 Reactions to the Class from theStudents
Different opinions from various
perspectives were expressed both in theimpressions after listening to the song and in thepart of thinking for themselves. As the author
was careful not to guide the students' thinking as
much as possible, a variety of opinions wereexpressed. Some of the comments about thesong were “powerful” and “energetic”. The
following comments were received in response
to “Let's think about how to live when things do
not go as planned”:

4.2 Workshop Structure
The workshop was divided into thefollowing six parts:(1) Students fill out worksheets with theobjective and today’s materials:- Objective: “Let's think about how to live whenthings do not go as planned.”- Today’s material: “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi”(2) The author shared information about theGreat East Japan Earthquake, the uniqueness ofMaehama and “Ohya Tairyou Utaikomi”.
(3) Appreciation of the song: “Ohya Tairyou
Utaikomi”.
(4) Students filling in the worksheet with what
their felt.
(5) Sharing stories that the author heard directlyfrom local people and their connection to
Mogami Town.
(6) Students listen to the stories and write theirown thoughts on the worksheet.

- “Think positively.”- “Work with others to solve problems.”- “Find out why things are not going the plannedway.”- “I think it happens sometimes.”- “I have never felt like things were not working
the way I wanted them to.”It was apparent that many of the students had theopportunity to reflect on their own way of
thinking and life through music.
4.3.2 Reactions to the Class from the
School teacher
The following comments were received
from the school teacher in charge of the musicclass and from the teachers who had observed
this class.

In preparing for the workshop, I recognized it
was important to allow as much time as possible
for the students to think and to share theirthoughts. Thus, the author concentrated on
sharing important information from thefieldwork it conducted. The rest of the time wasarranged for the children to think for themselves(see Figure 5).

- Just having a different person talk to them is a
new stimulus for students.
- Since it is practically difficult for teachers andstaff who have a lot of time constraints to
conduct special classes like this one, graduate
students were able to share the role in a sense.
- It was a discovery that music classes can be
conducted from this perspective.
5 ． Discussion and Implications: Using
Elements of Resilience in Education
The author has learned mainly threelessons through these activities. First, by looking
at natural, human and social systems fromdifferent angles, even though at first glance they
may not seem to be very related, connections can

11be found. In order to make resilience practical,
it is necessary to take this into account andincorporate the process of connecting the dots toform the lines. This will be the response to
creating a “link” between the people in Tohoku
and the children in Osaka.
Second, a series of activities I involved
through this small project gave me theopportunity to learn how the activities are
related to “scale” which is a critical componentof enabling resilience as discussed in the above:
The Japanese archipelago is always exposed to
the risk of natural disasters due to its geographic
features. Osaka is not an exception to this reality.
Even though people tend to think the Tohoku
Disaster is away from them, it is a close topic
when considered from different scales.
Third, I recognized the significance ofarranging the classes to cultivate the capacitiesof students to think by themselves. This time,through the medium of music in the tradition,
students could address the question of how tolive with large-scale disasters and adversities
although they have not experienced them yet.
The process of capturing relationships among
the past, now and future is quite important for
enabling resilience.
Based on the above, it is essential tocontinue to collaborate with people from otherfields which stimulate student's imagination andsupport their human capacity building.
Specifically, by making connections amongpeople from several fields and backgrounds, andcreating the cycle of learnings among the people
beyond time and scales, we can contribute tonurturing resilience in our communities andsociety.

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References
Cabinet Office (2011). 『特集 東日本大震災』(Japanese)
Retrievedfrom12[文書のタイトル]The relationship between food and communication:
Effects of reduced communication during COVID-19 pandemic
Shion Okada
Department of Food Science and Biotechnology M2
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University
1. Introduction and Backgroundof food [1], and will examine the issues ofRecently lifestyle-related diseases and mental
illnesses have become a critical social challenge
and the underlying issue for the diseases orlifestyle-related diseases and mental illnesses
from communication perspectives by adopting a
multifaceted and bird's eye view which is based

illnesses is the lack of interpersonalcommunication: People who eat alone havepoorer eating habits that lead to lifestyle-relateddiseases, which suggests the importance ofsharing meals with family and friends throughcommunications. Especially in the digital age
which have been accelerated during the COVID-

on resilience thinking[2][3].Thus, this article aims
at examining how to reduce the impact of thedecreases or illnesses beyond traditional
approaches in interpersonal communication on
the health of individuals.
Specifically, this article, built on a small
project I engaged in the university during

19, the lack of face-to-face communication iscontributing to the increase in lifestyle-relateddiseases and mental illnesses.
While people are highly interested in
topics such as "food" and "sociality," much of theinformation on these two topics is notacademically rigorous or accurate in public. In
addition, there is a lack of academic exchange
between those who examine people's health(biological and medical aspects) and those who
provide information on the nutritional aspects of

COVID-19, examines (1) how COVID-19/thedigital age impacted on personal communication,and (2) how the impact influenced personal
dietary habits or environments. Based on theexamination, the article proposes what can bealternative ways to promote communication for
the individuals’ physical and mental health withfoods even during COVID-19 and the digitalage. In turn, responding to these questions willcontribute to increase the resilience ofindividuals exposed to the social environmental

food (food and agricultural aspects). Thus,“communication” issue tends to be isolated or
disregarded.
Based on the above, this article
highlights the communication function of food,
which has been proposed as the fourth functionchanges of the digital age and coronary disasters.
2. Methods of Surveys
Regarding the above research questions(1) and (2), the author conducted the following
two kinds of surveys at Kyoto University for13

students in 2022/01/21 – 2022/02/11.

3. Survey Results

2.1 Survey on Nutritional balance and dining
styles
The first survey aimed at comparing thedifferences in nutritional balance depending on
dining styles, specifically, between meals taken
by one person (solitary meals) and meals taken
by several people (communal meals).
The survey utilized the receipts received
at the student cafeteria when people pay for their

3.1 Relationship between nutritional balanceand dining styles
The results were extracted from thenutritional information printed on the receipts
includes the number of points in the red, green,and yellow groups of the intake standard, as wellas the amount of protein, vegetables, salt &
calcium equivalent, and calories. The intake
standards are based on the concept of dividing
foods into three food groups (red, green, andmeals, and investigated nutrient values indicatedon the receipts to see what kinds of trends can beobserved. For the survey method, a survey form
was created to ask the respondents to read the QR
code on the posters and flyers and SNS was alsoutilized.

yellow) according to their nutritional functions,and setting target values for these groups toensure a well-balanced diet. There were 287
responses to the survey, of which 148 were
women and 137 were men. Mainly the following
two results were found:First, regarding the rate of achievementof the intake standards, for males, there was no
significant difference between solitary meals andcommunal meals. On the other hand, for females,in addition to getting close to the target value in

2.2 Questionnaire Survey on dining styles
and communication with the focus on Covid19
The purpose of the second survey was
to understand the differences in awareness of
their food between solitary meals and communal
meals, as well as the impact on and attitudes
toward food in the Covid-19. The location,
period, target audience, survey method, andnotification method were the same as in the firstsurvey.

the red group, there was a tendency for theyellow group to suppress the overachievement
rate. This suggests that eating together may havethe effect of suppressing the excess intake of theyellow group in females.
Second, regarding the intake of othernutrients, there was no change in intake for mostnutrients between solitary and communal meals.
However, there was a decrease in salt intake forboth males and females in communal meals (butstill over compared with target values set by the
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare). There
was no change in the calorie attainment rate formales, but females were closer to the target wheneating together. All these results suggest thateating together may lead to healthier eating.

Fig.1 Kyoto University Cafeteria where the survey
conducted
https://www.s-coop.net/shop_guide/yoshida_shop/

14

3.2 Questionnaire survey on dining styles andtimes they cooked for themselves increased,

communication with the focus on Covid 19
3.2.1 Relationship between Dietary Styles andCommunication
There were 143 responses to the survey.
In comparing the difference in awareness of theirfood between solitary meals and communal
meals, in terms of the time takes to eat, it was
found that there is a difference of about 10
minutes between solitary and communal meals.
One of the major factors that led to this

25.9% said that the time and effort required
increased, and 58.7% responded that the numberof times they cooked increased. These results
suggest the COVID-19 has increased the numberof meals eaten at home, leading to more
opportunities to cook for oneself and more timeand effort spent on cooking.
In addition, about 30% of respondents
felt the opportunities to feel richness (i.e.,
deliciousness and enjoyment) through food had

difference was the availability of communication.
In comparing what people want to achieve in ameal, many people chose eating easily because
mealtime is shorter for solitary meals. In addition,
when communal meals, there was a strong
tendency to choose meals as a means ofcommunication.
Regarding whether media is used during
meals, the percentage of respondents who chose
not to use media was only 13.3% in the case ofsolitary meals, while it was 60.1% in the case of

decreased, suggesting that the loss ofcommunication was a factor.
Regarding awareness of food, 68.5% of
respondents were conscious of eating more
vegetables, while only 26.6% were conscious of
cutting back on salt and 29.4% were conscious of
cutting back on fat. This indicates that many
people consider it is more important to eat more
vegetables than to prevent excessive salt and fat,which suggests that many people may place
more importance on maintaining a goodcommunal meals, suggesting that media is used
to compensate for the lack of communication.
Among those who chose to use media, solitaryeaters were more likely to use SNS to obtain
interpersonal communication.

nutritional balance than on avoiding risks such as
lifestyle-related diseases. The fact that most of
the respondents were in twenties, rather than
middle-aged and older, and the government's
policy of eating 350 grams of vegetables a day
may be a factor.
In addition, 67.2% of the respondents
want to have meals with friends through face-toface if countermeasures against COVID-19 weretaken, while only 30.2% want to do the same if

3.2.2 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
About 60-70% of the respondents
answered that the number of people, the numberof times, and the length of time in which theyshared meals had decreased. This suggests thatthe number of solitary meals has increased due to
COVID-19, and the number of opportunities to
eat together has decreased.
As for eating and cooking at home,
37.8% of the respondents said that the number ofno countermeasures were taken. This indicatesthat there are many people who seek forcommunication during meals, and that many
people consider meals as a place forcommunication.

15

3.3 What the Results Indicate

4. Implications

The first survey (2.1) compared thedifferences between solitary and communal
meals by utilizing receipts to obtain data on
individual nutritional balance and intake. The
results suggested that eating with more than one
person may have a positive impact on eating,especially among females. In particular, thestudy found a suppressive trend in theachievement of intake standards, especially inyellow group, although this was not seen in men.

Based on the survey results, some
implications are provided from resilience
perspective especially with the focus on
relationships among foods, individuals/society,communication, and Covid-19:
The first implication is for the elderly
people: the survey I conducted mainly focusedon university students, but they are not the only
ones affected by COVID-19. Isolation of theelderly has become a problem during the Covid-

This result left the author wondering what is thecause of the difference between males andfemales. One of the descriptive responses to thesurvey indicated that females enjoy chatting
while eating, while males often enjoy
conversation after the meal is over. This suggeststhat the difference between solitary andcommunal meals is greater for females.
The second questionnaire survey (2.2) was
conducted to investigate the difference inawareness between solitary and communal meals,

19. In particular, the elderly has fewer
opportunities for communication with others anddon’t use SNS as much as young people.
From this point of view, it can besuggested that delivery meals can be as a sourceof communication. For example, when persons
deliver foods to elderly people (as a gift, orvolunteers), the persons can focus not only ondeliver foods, but also communication: Talking
to the elderly people even for a short time, can be
useful as seeds of communication.

and the impact of COVID-19. Of particularinterest was a question regarding the impact of
COVID-19, which indicated that approximately
30% of the respondents felt that theiropportunities to experience the richness of food
had decreased. This suggests that loss ofcommunication is a factor, which represents theimportance of communication in food.
These results indicate that the link
between food and communication is strong, both

The second implication is for school
children. Most of school children don’t haveexperience of eating while communicating.
Given the fact children are at a critical stage in
their
human
development,
lackofcommunication could result in serious problems
an important issue for them. Therefore, it isnecessary to find alternative ways incommunications such as those without words,
i.e., non-verbal communication during mealtime.

from a social and a nutritional perspective. In
addition, it was demonstrated that people valuecommunication at mealtime and feel the impactof the Covid-19.

Third implication is related to nature. In
the world where direct communication between
people is difficult, one way of communication is
to communicate with nature. For example, eatinga meal with a sense of connection with nature isan example of this. Another means is to enable16

an environment for people to imagine where our(OXT), which is responsible for uterine

food comes from or to create opportunities tocommunicate with the producers of foodingredients and agricultural products.

contractions, sending the message that enoughsugar has been consumed. My research is basedon the idea that a similar function to this neuralcircuit works between food and communication(sociality), and the hypothesis is that "theactivation of the OXT nerve via the FGF21-OCT
system by sugar can also serve as a socialitypromoting stimulus, making it easier for people
to feel familiar with each other. From this study,
it is found that the data supports that

5. Conclusions
Before concluding this paper, somesuggestions are provided especially to the co-ops
that have cooperated in conducting this survey.
From the results of survey, it was found that there
was a deficiency of the green group and an
excess of the yellow group in terms of rate ofachievement of intake standards. Looking at theactual cafeteria menu, it is difficult to know what
to choose in order to achieve the intake standards.
One suggestion can be posting ideal menus(combinations) to facilitate the provision ofmenus (set menus) that can easily achieve theintake standard. Given that communication isdecreased in COVID-19, and females, inparticular, significantly exceed the yellow groupintake standard when eating alone, it iscommunication stimulates the activation of OXT
nerves and suppresses sugar cravings, because
the excessive intake of sugar in the yellow groupis may have been suppressed. These results
support that my own research isn’t wrong andwill help me in my future research.

encouraged to post a poster for a well-balanced
diet and other means to inform people about theirdietary tendency.
As a conclusion, this research project
can be a stepstone to my future research in theverification of the communication function offood.
From this survey, it was found thatfemales tended to reduce their excessive intakeof the yellow group. Dr. Sasaki, a professor in

Hatano, the Manager of Northern Cafeteria,
people who cooperated with the questionnaire,
and teachers and students of this course,
including my supervisor, Professor Shimizu.

our laboratory and my supervisor, has shown theexistence of a neural circuit called the FGF21OXT system in the brain. It has been shown thatthe hormone FGF21, which is known to be
secreted by the liver when sugar is consumed,
stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin[2] Holling, C. S. "Resilience and stability as
shownbymodelsofecologicalsystems." Mathematical problems in biology.
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1974. 93-95.
[3] Shimizu Mika, and Allen L. Clark. Nexus ofresilience and public policy in a modern risk

Acknowledgement
I’d like to express my gratitude to Mr. Matsuura,
Executive Director of the Kyoto University
Consumer's Cooperative Association, Mr.

References[1] Nakagawa Rieko, et al. "Functions andpossibilities of communal eating: a consideration
for making nutrition education more effective."(2010): 55-65.

17society. Springer Singapore, 2019.
[4] Aida Tomomi, et al. Relationship between
coprophagic behavior and health and nutritional
status as well as food and nutrient intake: A
literature review using domestic literature
database and hand search. Journal of theJapanese Society for Health Education, 2015,
23.4: 279-289.
[5] Eto Kumiet al. Relationship between Family
Eating Behaviors and Health and Nutritional
Status and Food and Nutrient Intake: A Literature
ReviewUsing
Overseas
Literature
Database. Journal of the Japanese Society for
Health Education, 2015, 23.2: 71-86.
[6] Yamamoto Ryohei, et al. Living alone andprediction of weight gain and overweight/obesityin university students: a retrospective cohort
study. Journal of American College Health, 2021,
1-10.
[7] Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare,
Summary of Patient Survey[8] Okubo Ryo, et al. "Urbanization level andneighborhood deprivation, not COVID-19 casenumbers by residence area, are associated withsevere psychological distress and new-onset
suicidal ideation during the COVID-19
pandemic." Journal of affective disorders 287(2021): 89-95. yl

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