2016/04/09 ‐GUS Basic Session‐1st Year High School

Orientation
GUS Basic class welcomed the 1st year students for the opening of the new academic year. The first class was anorientation session, outlining the Doshisha approach, and introducing the key theme of “Global human resources
development program for a sustainable tomorrow”. There were also teacher’s introduction, an outline of the plan fora whole year, and an explanation of the evaluation method to be used.
What do we learn by studying a "global issue"?
Each student learns to place value on what he or she discovers and realizes through their own personal experience,and then to give this form by communicating it to those around them and more broadly to society as a whole.
【From Teachers】

Junichi Sakashita（Science）
I’m

interested

inplaying

Kaori Chosa (Social Sciences）
tennisandSince I studied in Paris, I love France very

automobiles as well. When I visited Germany

much. I feel that by not rushing, and by taking

earlier this year, I was deeply impressed by

the time to appreciate what is around us, andboth the technology and Environmental

value what we create, then we can achieve

Policies currently being implemented by thetrue sustainability.

German government.

Yasuko Sato（Social Sciences）

Mitsuhiro Toda（Japanese）

I’m from Kagawa which is a place full of

I’m the same age as Michael Jackson andnature. I don’t know if this affects my way ofMadonna. My policy is standing in thethinking, but I feel something wrong with theposition of the minority first, and then tosituation of big cities in Japan. Also, I visited

form an opinion by taking in different

Europe first time last month and realized thatperspectives. I also think about the world

Japan has been by values from the U.S. rather

in which all the people can just live

than from Europe.

happily.

2016/04/16 ‐GUS Basic Session‐ 1st Year High School

The issues and challenges they faced while living in various countries and world
regions
In the 4/16 session of the GUS Basic class, students were grouped by class and instructed to utilize the KJ method(affinity diagrams) to explore the issues and challenges they faced while living in various countries and world regions.
Issues and challenges were separated into "large" and "small", after which students shared their own thoughts andopinions on each. From these, students then identified those that they regarded as "global issues". By expanding thescope to include issues and challenges encountered on a more every day, familiar basis, students were able to utilize
their own knowledge to begin to think about which of these require solutions on a truly global scale.

20160430 ‐GUS Basic Session‐1st Year High School

From MDGs to SDGs
Today we had a lecture from Kaori Chosa, at the Communication Hall, on the topic of “From MDGs to SDGs”.
The MDGs, or Millennium Development Goals, established as a global effort to respond to the key challenges facedby the international community, provide a concrete process towards realizing eight quantifiable goals by 2015. In
2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed upon, and supplement the remaining MDGs. They
establish 17 key goals of sustainable development, including new approaches towards the environmental problems
we face. The SDGs are inclusive and universal goals that apply to developed and developing countries alike.
After a detailed introduction to the content
and results of the MDGs, we heard about
UN Secretary-General Ban’s call for all
people to act from where ever they are.
There are many issues, and there must be
many solutions as well. It is hoped that each
student will maintain a high awareness of
the key words of sustainable development.
Transitioning from the MDGs to SDGs
https://youtu.be/5_hLuEui6ww2016/05/04 ‐GUS Basic Lecture‐1st Year High School“The dilemmas of developing countries: The case of Myanmar”
Prof. Yumiko Okamoto
Today we were happy to receive a visit from Professor Okamoto Yumiko, a specialist in international economics andinternational development at Doshisha University. She provided a lecture on “The dilemmas of developing countries:
The case of Myanmar”.
The lecture began with the question, “Do you know how many SDGs there are?” Professor Okamoto is well versedin the complex situation of development around the world. In her talk, she explained the need for balance between
environment and development. With the adoption of the SDGs last year, these previously disconnected concerns werebrought together. This is bringing about surprising changes of historical significance. As an example of this, she told

us about the widening of the gap between the rich and poor, and waste problems in Myanmar, one of Southeast Asia’spoorest countries. These dilemmas lie at the intersection of rapid economic development and the lack of capacity toaddress environmental problems. This talk illustrated how these difficulties will continue into the future. We willcontinue to discuss the problems faced by countries and regions that trying to develop. At the end, Prof Okamoto
remarked how happy she would be if even one of the people present at the talk was motivated to get involved in thisfield.

2016/05/28 ‐GUS Basic Lecture‐1st Year High School

From SDGs to environmental problems
How many global issues do we find in our surroundings? In today’s class, we reflected on what we have learned
about the conditions and difficulties faced in developing areas, and how this is related to our understanding of global
issues. We did this through by using the KJ method to identify topics from the countries and regions that each of us
has lived in. There were many issues that we understand because we live in Japan, a developed country. We had
appreciation for other issues because of the experience of living there. And some issues we are still not able relate to.
We took another look to see which of these are global issues with respect to the 17 SDGs, and discussed how deeply
we understand them.
With the SDGs, there is a realization that the developed countries
must strive to achieve global goals. This means a focus onenvironmental problems. The students’ discussions covered
climate change and the safe water to protect the bounty of theocean and the land. There was also a reconfirmation of the direct
linkages between environmental problems and protection ofpeoples’ wellbeing in poor countries. This class helped us deepen
our understanding of what type of world we want to live in by2030, and what actions will be needed in order to solve society’s problems. In the next two classes will continue todeepen our knowledge and understanding of environmental problems.

2016/06/04,11 ‐GUS Basic Lecture‐1st Year High School

The outline of Environmental Problems and energy problems
On the 4th and 11th, we had two lectures from Sakashita Jun’ichi concerning Environmental Problems. Environmental
problems are not new. In 1972, the think tank Club of Rome presented its “Limits to Growth”, predicting that in 100
years the growth of humanity would reach its limits. In Buckminster Fuller’s 1963 book “Spaceship Earth”, he madethe parallel between the earth and a spaceship, warning that the earth was wonderfully designed, but as there was nouser’s manual, its use was left up to us. He also sounded the alarm that we must not be so stupid as to use up all of
the stored energy in one moment.
NHK Eco Channel also showed a 60-year-old Japanese television program that took up the issues of Yokkaichi
Asthma and Minamata Disease and the pollution problems of those times. We learned how prioritizing economic
development led to the appearance of a number of environmental problems.
In the second class, we deepened our understanding of the nine environmental problems that were identified in the
Ministry of Environment’s Environmental White Paper. We learned how these are not nine isolated environmental
problems, but rather interrelated issues. We discussed where those linkages are, particularly with regard to energy.
Among the environmental problems caused by the consumption of fossil fuels are global warming and acid rain.
There is an urgent need in developed countries to conserve energy and develop new sources of energy that do not
exacerbate environmental problems. Moving forward, we hope to rise to the challenge by using the information andknowledge we have attained in order to contribute ideas and suggestions for solving environmental problems.

2016/06/18 – GUS Basic Session – 1st Year High School

The speech of the president Mujica at Rio+20 summit“Is Japanese people truly happy? That’s what I want to know.” Mr. Jose Mujica, the former president of Uruguay,
visited Japan recently. Mr. Mujica made a speech at Rio+20 summit in Brazil and people all over the world weredeeply moved by the speech. He was the man who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. What did he tell in the
speech? In the class room, we based what we learned about the Environmental issues and picked what we agree or
not with his speech. Then we discussed each other intensely about what we learn from there, what we should do andwhat kind of problems we have.
Mr. Mujica’s life is very humble and simple and he donated 90% of his surely to poor people in Uruguay. That’s
because people call him the poorest president in the world.
He said,“I don’t think I am poor. The old thinkers. Epicurus, Seneca and even the Aymara put it this way, a poor person is not
someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more.”“Development cannot go against happiness. ““Are we ruling over globalization or is globalization ruling over us?”
“In my humble way of thinking, that the problem we are facing is political.”“We do not come into this planet simply to develop, just like that, indiscriminately. ““We have to work and we have to sustain a civilization of “use and discard”, and so, we are trapped in a vicious
cycle.”“The challenge ahead of us is of a colossal magnitude and the great crisis is not an ecological crisis, but rather apolitical one.”“When we fight for the environment, we must remember that the essential element of the environment is called
human happiness.”

2016/07/02‐GUS Basic Lecture‐1st Year High School

Let’s focus on Energy problems and make suggestions for sustainable development
Last week, we shared ideas about which messages of Uruguay’s president Mujica from the Rio+20 Global Summit
we were able to related to. In today’s class, we did group work to discuss what we can do in order to achievesustainable development, based on these messages.
President Mujica said that he was not advocating a return to the stone ages. Rather, the question is, without returning
to the stone ages, what types of innovations are needed for us to be able to be satisfied with our lives, while
maintaining sustainability. In a society that remains dependent upon dwindling fossil fuels, we decided to focus our
discussion on the familiar topic of energy, dividing into four areas.

1. Immediate surroundings (individual, family, school)
2. City, prefecture
3. Country
4. Global society
We were able to have a lively and continuous exchange of ideas, even including opinions that some things might be
impossible. For example, in 1 we discussed things that could be done in our immediate surroundings to improveenergy savings; in 2 we discussed awareness building in order to sustain eco-friendly activities; in 3 we discussed
ideas for improving public facilities for recycling and waste collection; in 4 we considered suggestions for how theseissues could be discussed with developing countries, together with questions about development cooperation. The
numerous proposals and recommendations were added to the group sheets that we have been using. We hope that weall can continue to raise our own awareness and understanding of the issues over summer vacation by watching thenews, in addition to reading newspapers and other materials.

20160903 ‐GUS Basic Lecture‐1st Year High School

From a piece of woody pellet
The second session of the GUS Basic class started. In the first session, we still didn’t have any
knowledges or many information, but we have thought about the global issues and discussed ideas ofsolving problems as much as possible.
Today, we had a lecture and learned about the case which are already executing near us by Ms.Satowith her experience to visit on the spot. Using the woody resources, Kitayama-sugi as representativesof local specialty, Morinochikara-Kyoto efforts toward regional revitalization, and the biomass town
in Okayama, Maniwa City is becoming a model of regional revitalization. Woody pellet in forms suchas woody fuel chips are made from thinned wood and other forest residue and this tiny chip is expectedto activate the forest industry and lead the sustainable energy cycle in a society. These efforts are also
let us reconsider our full of forest resource in Japan. These two models are both making woody pellet
but their starting point and situation now are totally different. We will examine by comparing thesemodels and keep searching for from various viewpoints.

2016/09/10 – GUS Basic Lecture- 1st Year High School

From a single pellet 2 – Environmental Economics
This is a continuation of last week’s lecture by Ms. Sato Yasuko, ‘From a single pellet’. Today we learned from theareas of commonality and contrast between the two sites of pellet production used as recycled energy, in Kyu
Keihohoku-cho in Kyoto Prefecture and Maniwa City in Okayama Prefecture. The lecture started with a chance totouch, smell and discuss the possibility contained in a pellet that Ms Sato brought back from Kyu Keihoku-cho. The
pellets have the nice smell of trees.
Both Kyu Keihoku-cho and Maniwa, with more than 80% forest cover, are both surrounded with a rich environment.

They also share certain problems such as aging, population outflow and deindustrialization. In order to stop theoutflow of population, Kyu Keihoku-cho is trying to revitalize the forestry industry so that young people can findwork in the areas they are born and raised, while Maniwa is branding itself as a Biomass Town, based on the strengthsof the responsible timber companies that are based there. Both sites are working to revive themselves by realizing
local energy self-sufficiency.
Each pellet is packed with not the enormous concerns of global warming and resource degradation, but rather theconcerns of various problems that are being faced locally. We understand that the simple desire to solve local
problems can be linked to solutions to larger problems of global concern.
At the end, there was a call to fieldwork: ‘How would you like to go visit the people that are actually involved insolving these problems in Maniwa City?’ Further details will be announced.
Next was a lecture on Environmental Economics by Ms Chosa Kaori.
“If pellet-burning pellet stoves were available on the market for 200,000 yen (manual operation) and 450,000 yen(automatic operation), which one would you purchase?”“Just when you decided to buy one after hearing that there was a subsidy from the Environmentally Friend Lifestyle
Policy, you found a 30,000 yen air conditioner on the Internet. So what do you do?”Everyone was puzzled by these questions. Many people quickly answered that they would buy the air conditioner.
Today brought in discussion of economics for environmental problems. We will continue to think about how
economic and policy perspectives on environmental problems help us to understand how society is structured andhow to get people to make decisions that are good for the environment.

2016/10/08 - GUS Basic Lecture- 1st Year High School

Environmental Economics
Today was the second half of Ms. Chosa’s lecture on Environmental Economics.
“Last time we talked about pellet stoves, but I wonder if anyone bought one?” Of course there were no hands in the
air. Even with the good feeling and the positive benefits for the environment, most people bought the convenient andcheap air conditioner. Even if there is a good product, it will do nothing for the environment if people do not use it.
We used this as an opportunity to think about the issue of pellet stove adoption, considering the simple question“What would make people want to use it?”. This type of questioning – how to influence people’s behavior to lead tobetter environmental outcomes? – is at the heart of environmental economics.
The field of classic economics was born in the 18th century, amidst the Industrial Revolution in England. The famous
economic thinker Adam Smith was at the center of this development during these times when many new types ofthinking were gaining popularity. The movement of people, products and money would continue to be globalized,
and the different problems would become shared by people all over the world as the basic relationship between
society and state started to weaken. The basic mechanism of the market is based upon the determination of pricebased on supply and demand, but environmental economics is concerned with balancing the tradeoffs between‘convenience in lifestyle’ and ‘environmental protection’ outside the market. Environmental economics considers thestandards of pollution for the entire global society.
It is difficult to regulate in order to protect the environment without hindering economic activities. It is impossible todiscard the conveniences of modern life and return to a more primitive lifestyle. Instead, policies are being created
to provide incentives for better environmental outcomes, such as environmental taxes to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions, charging trash disposal by weight and charges for driving cars in urban areas. One problem, for example,
with carbon is that it has low price elasticity, which means that companies will relocate operations to countries withoutcarbon taxes and producing countries will experience deindustrialization.
In 1997, targets and measures for reducing greenhouse gasses were discussed at the Kyoto conference. At this time,
it was decided that emission trading would be adopted – this would allow emission rights to be traded on international
markets. This is an effort to get the relevant parties to come together and negotiate the establishment of environmental
use rights in the hopes that it will help solve environmental problems. Countries can engage in trading within theemissions frameworks decided for developed countries, while cooperative projects to reduce emissions were created.
Financial and technical cooperation with developing countries would enable a greater global effort to reducegreenhouse gasses. In Japan’s response, purchase of emission credits would be supplemented by reduction of fossil
fuels. However, the details of establishing appropriate tax levels and the administration of these complicatedtransactions remain as serious problems.

At the end, Ms Chosa introduced messages from two individuals:
G. Hegel: “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at dusk.”
Henry David Thoreau: “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”
We must collect all of our wisdom together when times
get dark. We hope that everyone will work diligently to
improve the world. The solution is not one. The
environmental problems we face will continue to worsen,
but how will we meet the challenges this presents? Weneed to learn from a wide range of experiences,discussing the ways in which we can build a prosperous
society.

2016/10/15 - GUS Basic Lecture- 1st Year High School

Germany’s Environmental Industrial Revolution
Today’s lecture was held in the Hall, and we heard about the policy and approach Germany’s Environmental
Industrial Revolution, which started 25 years ago. We learned about how one certain policy from environmental
economics is adopted by society and implemented.
The original objective was to reduce the waste that was being produced amidst Germany’s economic development.
At that time, wrappings accounted for half of the produced waste. Focusing on this issue, in 1991 there a regulation
was issued requiring companies to collect and reuse the wrappings for the products that they produced. The
companies producing the products paid companies like Dual System Deutchland the costs of collecting and recycling
the wrapping. For this, they were able to get permission to use the Grunepunkt (a common recycling mark). After the
product was collected for free, it was returned to the relevant firms in the form of paper, glass, plastics, bricks andaluminum. In this way, they created a clear and common system of collection and recycling among the companies.
The use of the mark differs according to the type and size of wrapping. The firms that use plastics, the most difficult
to recycle, began to develop ways to switch to materials that can be recycled like paper and glass, in addition to
reducing the size of the products in order to reduce the amount of wrapping needed. Glass bottles are all of the same
design, so they can be collected by many different firms and recycled without the need to separate, making it mucheasier than before. And households began to purchase Grunepunkt mark products, which were inexpensive and ofgood quality, as well as collected for free after use.

The German people have a high awareness of environmental problems. This was based on a revolution in awarenessbrought about by the education system, in which understanding of the issues is passed directly to the next generations.
We heard about a kindergarten where the children separated their garbage after lunch and took it directly to the dump.
In Germany they were able to reduce waste by 10% in the first two years, and improvements continue to this date.
This revolution in environmental industry signals the end to high production high consumption society. This is an
important view on economic activity that places protection of the environment at the center.
2016/10/22 -GUS Basic Lecture- 1st Year High School

Satoyama Capitalism
Today we watched a video about Satoyama Capitalism in the Hall. We
learned about Gussing, in Austria, where Satoyama Capitalism is being
practiced as an alternative to money capitalism and global economics.
Gussing is a green town on the border between Austria and Hungary. At theend of the Cold War, there were high hopes that with entrance to the EU andadoption of the euro, the local agricultural products would start to circulate.
However the exact opposite happened. Cheap agricultural products began to flow in, and 70% of the population had
to leave in search of work. As a result, the town’s finances were reexamined and people puzzled over why an annual
energy import of 600 million yen just disappeared. “Why were sources of energy being shipped and trucked in fromafar, when the timber in the forest that are in front of us is not used?”
Gussing began to develop the technology to produce energy from the timber resources on hand, creating an entirely
new energy provision system. Now, the heat produced in electricity generation is utilized completely as it istransferred by pipeline, taking care of the entire region’s energy. Students in the national schools of Austria are taught
not to look for short-term benefit, but rather to look for sustainable ways to protect prosperity. Even though Austriais the size of Hokkaido, the amount of timber logged is more than that logged in all of Japan, creating jobs, andmaking use of the valuable resources contained in the mountains and returning prosperity to the region.
“It is not good that the global economy is controlled by just a handful of people. It is very important that we havetaken control of the field of energy for ourselves.” These are the words of the mayor of Gussing.
The money capitalism economy has continued to expand, and is about to move forward to the next stage. Attention
is being turned to the diversity of local traditions and regional prosperity, and this is leading to new solutions toenvironmental problems. By studying model cases like this, Japan’s Satoyama movement is also getting ideas ofwhat can be incorporated.
As announced at today’s lecture, we have begun to take applications to visit Maniwa City’s Biomass Town Maniwa,
which has become Japans model of Satoyama capitalism, in addition to Tokyo Fieldwork, where we will make anofficial visit to the Embassy of Austria and the Embassy of Germany. If you are interested please submit theapplication materials by October 31.
2016/10/29 -GUS Basic Lecture- 1st Year High School

The challenge of Austria, the Developed Forest Nation – Visiting the Pioneer Town
of Gussing
Our instructor Ms. Sato Yasuko visited Gussing, in the Developed Forest Nation of Austria in March of this year.
Traveling three hours on the still snowy road from Vienna, she arrived at the border with Hungary, where the town
which experienced an outflow of people who had to look for economic opportunity in the city. Today we heard about
this town, upon which Japan’s Biomass Town Maniwa was modeled.
Gussing is a small agricultural town, where there is no particular industry, the train does not stop and there is nohighway link. In the past, about 70% of the population had to leave to find work. Now, however, the town is called
Eco-Energyland, because 60% of the energy comes from next-generation energy sources. Using the value creationof renewable energy sources, firms have begun to come to the town and employment creation has started to increase.
Tax revenues have increased three-fold over the past 20 years. Various form of biofuel are being adopted and target
is to eventually achieve 100% energy supply from these sources.
She visited many places around town, traveling in a biofuel-powered car. She was deeply impressed by the logicalway in which even household energy use is managed together, with no waste, alongside automated and extremely
efficient bio-resource storage and local thermal facilities. The town’s infrastructure has been developed in an
integrated way, in which hot water is supplied, along with heating, not on an individual basis but on a regional scale.
In Kyu Keihoku-cho they were producing pellets, but what happened to pellets in Gussing? Why is it that Japanesevillages do not become like Gussing? The time that Ms. Sato was doing her observations overlapped with 3-11. She
encountered anti-nuclear protests in Germany. Austria is a rare example, in that the constitution has prohibited theuse, experimentation, storage and production of nuclear energy. She expressed her feeling that Austrians have a muchhigher sense of realization that energy issues are directly related to their own personal wellbeing. It seems that Japan
continues to follow America’s lead of high production high consumption. Is the American common-sense correct?
Technology is of course important, but maybe it is more important to learn about the values and awareness of energy

options, and then consider what types ofapproaches can be integrated appropriately into
Japan’s energy strategies. After a stimulating talk,she left us with this important question to continue
thinking about.
2016/11/12 -GUS Basic Class- 1st Year High School

Freiburg im Breisgau Part 1“This summer Ms. Chosa and I went on a research trip centered on Freiburg, but including other places in Germany,
Switzerland and Austria as well. Today I would like to speak about what we learned on that trip.”In the previous class, we learned about how an effort to revitalize a depopulated village was linked to improvementof the environment. Today, we will hear about Freiburg im Breisgau, a larger city in Germany. The talk will take theform of a discussion between our two instructors Mr. Sakashita and Ms. Chosa.
“The town was completely different from what I had imagined before I got there. From the moment I got off the train,
I was surprised by the relaxed and peaceful atmosphere of the town – not at all what I had expected.”
With a population of 230,000 people, the town is of similar scale to Neyagawa. The town is located near the bordersof Switzerland and France. And with no airport, one wonders why someone would want to live in such a small townthat seems so inconvenient. When you get there, you quickly see that it is a well-organized and maintained town,with a lovely concert hall, department store, and soccer stadium. It is also a university town, with a pedagogicaluniversity and a music university. Many students and faculty live here, making it a very intellectual town.
“Why has this town received so much attention?”In the 1970s, the Schwarzwald was under threat of degradation from acid rain, and there were demonstrations against
the plans to construct a nuclear power plant in the French town of Ville, located just 20 km away. In 1975, BUND
(the German Alliance for Environmental Protection) was established as the center of an effort to protect the
Schwartzwald. Several strategies were implemented to improve the environment, including promoting a shift from
nuclear power to natural energy. A shift away from reliance on automobiles towards strengthening of the public
transport system and bicycle use was promoted as an approach to fighting air pollution.
“City planning and environmental policies were thoroughly implemented.”
As you walk around the town, you will notice that the zoning policies are solid, and there are no cars in the central

area of town during the day. Instead of allowing cars in the central area of the town, there are trams that conveniently
take special local environmental passes (Regiokarte). With the well-maintained bicycle lanes, you do not feel theneed for cars or taxis at all. Kyoto has various measures such as No My Car Day, but the level of commitment to theurban environment here seems much higher than in Japan.
“I was very impressed with the message about how people are proud of Freiburg and feel that it is a place where theywant to continue living”
We had a chance to walk around the town with Ms. Mineko Imaizumi, who has lived in Freiburg for 30 years. It
was wonderful to see how she loves the old city so much that she would be happy to live here for the next 100 years.
In this class, we learned about how clear policies were designed and implemented, the people had pride in their city
and a highly livable space was created. The next class will continue with discussion of measures to deal with waste.

2016/11/13-14 -GUS Basic Fieldwork-1st Year High School

Maniwa Biomass Tour
Thirteen students from the GUS BASIC class visited Maniwa city in Okayama prefecture, where they are striving toconstruct a sustainable local society focused on biomas from the rich forest resources found there. Through this tour,
we were able to see firsthand a site where different forms of energy from local natural resources are being utilized asalternatives to carbon fuels.
Details
Maniwa City Hall: Overview of Maniwa city biomass vision
Forestry Site: Forestry conditions, the beautiful 100 year forest Miyahara-no-Mori
Katsuyama: Visit to city-scale preservation site
Maniwa City Hall Facilities: Biomass Boiler installed facility, local resource utilization facility, solar energy
production, electric automobile shop, CLT-use bus stop
Biomass Collection Base: Visit collection facilities for stable biomass fuel supply

Biomass Electricity Generation: Overview of electricity generation site, visit biomass electricity generation facilities
Our students’ visit was reported in the Sanyo Newspaper on Friday, January 6.
Excerpt from article: In mid-November of last year, 13 high school students from Kyoto prefecture participated in astudy tour about energy problems. They visited the hinoki Cyprus forest with trees of over 100 years of age andobserved operations at the Maniwa Biomass electricity generation facility where unused timber is utilized. The 1-day
tour featured the Maniwa Model, in which the region’s timber resources are utilized without waste. Nagahama
Chinami (16) commented, “I learned a lot from interacting directly with the local facilities and staff.” The groupleader Yamamoto Shinji said, “We received a very professional welcome, and we felt peoples’ desire to community
the Maniwa experience to the public.”

2016/11/19 -GUS Basic Lecture-1st Year High School

Freiburg im Breisgau Part 2This lecture followed on from the previous session, the discussion between Mr. Sakashita and Ms. Chosa. This session
was a report on the situation of Waste Management and Energy Strategies in Freiburg, Germany.
To review just a little, in 1991 a regulation on packaging waste was issued. Since then efforts have continued toreduce packaging waste, which comprised more than half of all garbage produced. It is noteworthy that success in
reducing waste has been the result of multiple approaches to the problem. Trash bins are lent to households, and thecost is determined by the size of the waste that is put out. This has raised people’s awareness about reducing small
waste. There is also a system in which packaging with the recycle mark is collected for free, which means that the
producing side is also working to make packaging that is easy to recycle. They are also making efforts to develop
technology to reduce the size of products as well, which will have impacts for waste production.
“There are many products in the supermarket that have been adjusted for waste reduction. The awareness of shoppers
is a different thing. It is fun!”In fact we visited Imaizumi-san’s house and accompanied her on a shopping trip. We saw how she was actually
enjoying her shopping, searching always for ways to reduce waste through selection of products. It was also

interesting to see that some drinks with damaged containers were being sold.
“The deposit system is actually quite nice!”
There is a 25 cent deposit on drinks sold in one-way containers, regardless of the size of the container. This amounts
to about 30 yen, and is quite large compared to the 10 yen deposit system used at schools.
The next topic is related to energy saving strategies. BUND (German Environmental Protection Alliance) wasestablished in Freiburg early on, owing to the threat of degradation of the Schwartzwald and the plans to build anuclear power plant nearby on the French side of the border. There are now measures to switch from nuclear energy,
develop natural energy sources, reduce dependence on automobiles and promote the use of public transport andbicycles.
“The hotel we stayed at was at first-glance a normal hotel, but that was in fact not the case at all. Breakfast wasdelicious as well!”At breakfast, the jams and such were in glass containers but the small serving dishes were even made from edible
materials. The food products are produced locally and consumed locally. They do not bring food in food products
from far away. There is an energy garden on the roof, outfitted with solar panels. The energy shortfall is sourced only
from recycled energy producers. This is a thorough energy-saving set up. The water supply system has also beenmaximized for water conservation, windows are insulated, and bath tubs are an efficient size. They also provide cards
for public transport, and rent out bicycles. The sheets are eco-certified organic cotton. The beds are not made ofcomposite board, but rather from natural timber. On sunless days, there is a timber pallet hot water supply systemthat burns 100 tons of wood a year, but it is a carbon-free operation and does not contribute to CO2 emissions. Surplus
energy is sold, and the money obtained is channeled back into an energy generation facility that uses recycledmaterials. The hotel has such a sophisticated approach to eco-friendliness, yet the motto is “more luxurious” and thehotel has a 4-star rating.
“I was so impressed by the young person I happened to become acquainted with, who is involved in setting up a new
eco-energy business.”
Another of Freiburg’s experiments is to provide fluorescent lightbulbs free to households. They also send out experts
to schools to educate students about energy. The region’s heating is provided by cogeneration using waste heat. There
are also dynamic efforts to develop renewable energy sources such as wind power generation. There is an area called
Vauban that is a leader in eco-friendly systems. The social bonds between the people are deep, and one can see
exceptional levels of prosperity, aesthetics and identity. The heliotrope solar residences have been developed to rotate
towards the sun, meaning that they cover all their energy needs from solar power. This system reduces 60% of
greenhouse gas emissions compared to areas where the system is not implemented.

“Comfort and eco-friendly are joined together, and it will continue for a long time because it is accepted by the people.
All of these systems are successfully implemented, which means that people are contributing to eco-friendly measures
without being aware of it. The value of the town has risen because of this, and it has become a place that people wantto live in. This is a wonderful virtuous circle.”“When we are living in Japan, we tend to buy all sorts of things, eat out, and prioritize things like this. While wewere in Freiburg, I was amazed at how enjoyable it was to be involved with the eco-friendly systems of the city. It
made me wonder if there was something that the school could do as a community to contribute.”
There is a strong interest in Freiburg, as a result of this class. Using the wonderful eco-friendly systems developedby this city, it feels as if we have much potential to enhance our creativity about eco-friendly measures at our school.

2016/11/26 -GUS Basic Lecture-1st Year High School

The flow and issues until now
Today was the last GUS BASIC lecture of the semester. We reflected on the classes this semester, through Mr. Toda’s
interviews of the GUS teachers. We also identified important issues that have emerged.
Regarding the starting point of our classes, Global Issues“It seems that there are many issues that must be resolved at the global level.”“It seems that these problems cannot be solved by one country acting alone.”“These seem to be problems that developed countries play a central role in the search for solutions.”
were some of the opinions. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were set by the United Nations, as targets to befollowed by developed and developing countries alike, and measures to achieve these goals are being taken. Within
this framework, we took up Environmental Issues as a theme that is very close to our daily lives.
Our learning covered a wide range of cases: the problem of waste in Myanmar as that country develops, consideringhow to shift from a scientific understanding of environmental and energy problems to how an economic perspective
can offer ideas on how to improve the situation; Maniwa city in Okayama Prefecture as satoyama capitalism, Kyoto
Kyu-Keihokucho, Gussing in the environmentally developed Austria, Freiburg in Germany, all provided views on
actual measures that are being implemented in each area today. We learned about how the macro-level problems
observed in far-away places may have micro-level solutions that we can find in our daily lives. We raised ourawareness of the possibility and necessity of this type of multi-scale thinking.
Are you doing something good for the environment?
We took up the speech delivered by the former President of Uruguay Mujica at the Rio+20 meeting. The challenge
to large-scale consumption society was raised. In this type of society, large-scale resource extraction and utilization
drives large-scale production. People are endlessly searching for new things, and quickly discard the old. In today’ssociety, this type of consumptive activity continues to accumulate naturally, as we believe that we can satisfy ourdesires by purchasing things. It is true that the economy is driven by consumption. However, it is desirable for us toshift our mindset from one where we discard the old and purchase the newest things, to a mindset in which we are
happy with a lifestyle that gives full consideration of the environment and can find joy in living this type of life.
There were many hints about how to achieve an ecofriendly city that we can be proud of, not to mention vibrantlocalities and fashionable products like reusable bags.
After reflecting on all this, the teacher made the proposal “You all should think 30 years into the future!”. Compared
to 30 years before, environmental problems have slowly sustained cumulative damage, like a boxer that continuously
takes body blows. At that point, volunteers for the Sustainable Action Committee were taken, and plans were madeto spread fun activities that are good for the environment around the school. Over the winter vacation, each person
was charged with taking notes on observations about how each different area managed waste sorting, and sharing
with the group in the new semester. We will think 30 years into the future, aiming to raise our awareness about ourcurrent lifestyles and how to feel fulfilled in our daily lives.

2017/01/14 -GUS Basic Session-1st Year High School

Workshop “Waste problems in the regions and countries we have been in”
After winter vacation, this was the first class of GUS BASIC. Before going into the winter break, we had reflectedon activities to present, and begun to work on focusing on local issues around us that represent larger global issues.
The school SAC (Sustainable Action Committee) was formed, and many activities were enthusiastically proposed.
The objective of this class was to come together and share our experiences, observations and ideas from the various
regions and countries where we had encountered waste problems. Using the KJ method, students held workshops ineach class. We were able to see through the students’ eyes, the range of situations found in countries such as China,
Korea, America and Europe, as well as our local home in Kyotanabe. Is the waste sorting going well? Are each of us
in line with larger society? We will be looking for answers to these questions.

2017/01/21 -GUS Basic Session- 1st Year High School

Creating a Logical Tree in Search of Solutions to the Waste Problem“Everyone, would you say that waste problems are going well?”This was a continuation of the previous workshop. What other types of waste problems are there? The groups
discussed solutions to these problems. Needless to say, there were many opinions.
In order to process all of the information on waste problems, we used the MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively
Exhaustive) method to enumerate efficiently the range of issues we had gathered. From there we were challenged toconstruct a logical tree concerning these issues. In a logical tree, one clarifies different levels of issue category, whichmakes it easy to compare between categories of the same level. We started with something close to us in everyday
life. The varying introductions of individual drinks was organized by type, brand and maker, and then classified
drawing on hints from the different category levels. At the highest level of classification was the type of drink, thenext level was the physical form of the container (cans, etc), and then maker, product, and so on.

After this exercise, we created a logical tree to help find solutions to waste problems. From the large, overarchingissue of waste problems, many subsidiary categories emerged, and logical trees were designed based on the thinking
behind each of these categories.

2017/01/28 -GUS Basic Session- 1st Year High School

Looking for solutions based on logical trees
Following on from the last session, this class was a joint meeting of two classes in the CDR (large classroom).
Students were by now comfortable with the group work. The exercise was to continue with the development of thelogic trees on waste problems, and then moving into discussion of possible solutions. The point of the logical trees is
to line up all the information on waste problems in category levels in order to more easily compare across them tosee inconsistencies and overlaps.
Groups that were able to bring their logical tree ideas for discussion and completion, then moved on to thinking about
concrete solutions for the issues. From here, the challenge is to give full consideration to priorities and feasibility incoming up with concrete solution approaches.

2017/02/04 -GUS Basic Class- 1st Year High School

Toward presentations
Today we moved to the more open space of the Communication Center for a joint session including both classes.
Last time we worked with the issues coming out of the waste management logical tree to come up with some concretesolutions. In this session, our work was even more concrete. We looked to the area and school situation in our
immediate vicinity to visualize problems with statements like “There is the problem of XXX, which could be
addressed by XXX”. Groups that had come up with proposals began to prepare their presentations. The groups
discussed what messages would be communicated and how the slides could be designed to achieve this. All groupmembers were working together, and we look forward to seeing the final presentations.

2017/02/18 -GUS Basic Class- 1st Year High School

Waste problems: Presentations and evaluation
Today we heard the presentations of each group, summarizing their discussions about how the waste management
problems could be solved. The groups displayed their data on the large screens, and the students in the audience noted
down their impressions and filled out an evaluation form for the presentations.
The faculty conducted a comprehensive evaluation, giving consideration to the student evaluations as well, and chose
six representative groups from each class. At next week’s final GUS class, the chosen representative groups will
present in front of all classes in the CC Hall.

2017/02/25-GUS Basic Class- 1st Year High School

Class Representative Presentations on Waste Management Problems
Today was the last GUS Basic class. The groups chosen last week gave their presentations in front of the full groupin the Hall. The students in the audience had an evaluation sheet in hand, with areas such as ‘importance’,‘concreteness’, ‘feasibility’ and ‘effectiveness’.
The group presentations covering local waste problems raised various aspects for consideration. These problems are
many, while the waste separation rules are complicated and difficult to understand. The presentations covered anumber of concrete measures that could be adopted, such as rental of supermarket Eco bags, charging for plastic bags,
local campaigns to reduce production of waste such as gomi de kyousou ‘waste competition’, deposit system forsupermarket packaging, effective use of waste in landfills. These all recall a clear feeling of the benefits to be had bythose participating in recycling activities.
The group dealing with the school’s waste issues began their consideration with measures that do not produce any
waste. For example, the school lunches could be changed to washable containers, the deposit system for plastic bottles
could be improved so that more people have a higher awareness of the problem and get involved, separation of waste
could be improved by installing color-coded receptacles that would be more easily understood by the student body,or implementing an Earth Day campaign to produce no waste. In addition, there were proposals for how to more
effectively and proactively engage in recycling while having fun at the same time. For example, the school could
participate in free markets together with the community.
The GUS first year high school students presented their learning as synthesized into proposals. The students in theaudience developed their own ideas about these issues as well. As the year’s learning ended with this activity, we
hope that each individual continues to develop into an environmental leader with the ideas and skills to take action.

2016/04/12‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

TED Speakers
As a new elective class in the second year of the SGH (Super Global High School), the first GUS-I
seminars were held on April 12 and 15. Students were divided into two groups, totaling 52 participantsin all. In the first session, the theme of "Developing global leaders for a sustainable tomorrow" wasexplored. After students shared their ideas of what makes a "global leader", two participants from
TEDx Sapporo and TEDx Kyoto were introduced to the class.
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes
or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged,
and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100
languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around theworld. http://www.tedxkyoto.com/about-us#01
Tsutomu Uematsu The representative director of Camui Space Works
Tsutomu Uematsu has been fascinated by space since his childhood. After returning tohis hometown in Hokkaido, he has contributed to four research projects: ‘rocket
developments,’ ‘experiments on microgravity,’ which creates the zero-gravity
environment like space, ‘developments of a miniaturized satellite,’ and ‘cooperative
projects with American private space development corporations’. His main
accomplishments are the research and the launch of the artificial satellite “HIT-SAT,”
experimental launch of Camui Rocket (reaching 3,500 meter altitude) ), the cooperative
experimental launch with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), a start-up of
ARC project, and etc. In 2012, he achieved a 7,400 meter altitude on the experimental
launch of Camui Rocket 500p

Daiko Matsuyama

Buddhist Priest

Far from the stereotypical image of the secluded, meditating monk,Matsuyama seeks to spread the teachings of Buddhism throughout theworld. After hosting a G8 Summit Sherpa Meeting in 2008,
Matsuyama was appointed as a Visit Japan Goodwill Ambassador aswell as a Kyoto Travel Omotenashi Ambassador. He also visited the
Vatican as a representative of Buddhist priests, and participated inEvery year, Doshisha International

Ekiden in Luxembourg. This year he helped organize the interfaithasks him to support our 3rd year

leaders’ Ekiden in Kyoto and attended The World Economic Forum as

Religious StudiesⅡ and the parent’s

a young Japanese leader. Both in Japan and internationally,group Shalom at Taizoin in Kyoto

Matsuyama seeks to teach the importance of communication inwhich he serves as a deputy headbuilding a peaceful future.

priest.

2016/04/19‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

The speech of the world’s poorest president, the 40th president of Uruguay, at
Rio+20The Topic of today’s session was about the speech of the world’s poorest president. Mr. Mujica also
visited Japan recently and he was the 40th president of Uruguay, who is famous for his speech at 2012’s
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20.
Students listened his speech carefully first and talked each other what makes his speech so impressive
and why it reaches people’s hearts. At each group, they focused his original perspective and view point,
component of a sentences, his character, gestures, speech technique and so on.
Mr. Mujica lives a simple austere life and donates 90 % of his salary to a charity. That’s why he is
known as the poorest president in the world. "I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor.
Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more andmore." and also “development cannot go against happiness” he said.

2016/06/03‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

Simulate the proposal of each topics
Today we divided ourselves into nine groups of three to do a simulation exercise. Each group was
given a topic, and discussed issues, solutions and recommendations.
In each topic, the possible solutions involved a number of problems. We summarized the important
points for each solution, and considered possible audiences and ways of communicating ourrecommendations. Along the way, each group made a presentation of the problems it was discussing.
Groups that could work together to move their thinking forward were merged. The groups then took
the first steps of research to devising solutions at the communication center, using a range of tools
considered appropriate in each case. The topics given to the groups involved issues to be consideredfrom several different viewpoints. Issues from our immediate surroundings included the adoption ofsolar panels, re-greening of urban areas and taxation of food disposal. Issues for the cities we actually
live in included banning automobiles from Nara city center, a full ban on smoking in outdoor spaces
in Osaka, and revival of street cars in Kyoto. With regards to issues for international organizations,
there was discussion of making contact with UNEP and WFP.

2016/06/07‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

What can and should be done
Today’s class looked at the results of research on the organizations that are directly involved inaddressing environmental problems. Each group then discussed and summarized ideas about what canand should be done now. This included presentations of what organizational arrangements could be
made, followed by sharing of ideas about the types of innovations and adaptations that might benecessary and possible.

In one group, there was a proposal that organizational arrangements should include not only thehorizontal linkages between state, private sector and citizens, but must also include collaboration
across the many levels from global to local. Another group came up with the idea that facilitating andincreasing the opportunities for participation is critical. There were many other observations as well.
For example, there are many cases of successful engagement with environmental problems at the local
level, and these could be shared directly with other areas around the country immediately. We also
heard voices suggesting that there are many things that we can start to do in our immediatesurroundings, in our daily lives, to address the problem of rapidly depleting energy sources. It was alsosuggested that education should do more to deepen understanding.

2016/06/14‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

Learn from NPO-Sora’s experiences about how important to meet, to realize andto have imaginations are.
Today’s class was visited by Akihiro Jinushi and volunteer staff from NPO-Sora. We heard about theirgroup’s activities, their own experiences and feelings from their involvement and what reflections theywant to share with others. NPO-Sora has many group activities, held once or twice a month. These
activities include provision and support of spaces for mothers and infants to get together,
implementation of educational programs for children with developmental disabilities and their parents,
and provision of lifestyle spaces for children with disabilities. Furthermore, they hold school activitiesduring summer, winter and spring vacations. There are also programs planned for long weekends
during the school semester, where participants go on trips and participate in local activities. These
activities are planned and implemented by high school and university volunteer staff.
One volunteer staff, a third year student at Doshisha University’s Faculty of Engineering, explained
the feeling that volunteers themselves grow as a result of their participation in these activities. We
heard descriptions of the activities that the group conducts, and were particularly interested how thestaff were moved by the children’s growth and ideas about how looking at problems from a children’s
point of view allows us to creatively come up with different approaches. The real experiences of thevolunteers provided many topics that we could share ideas about. The volunteers then left, as they werescheduled to go spend time with the children today.
Next, we heard more insights from Mr. Jinushi about the children and their lives. In the past ten years,
although the places where disabled people can enjoy their lives have increased, there is still the realitythat disabled people study and live apart, and they are losing contact with our society. Is it possiblethat by saying, “we don’t interact with them”, “we don’t know about the issues”, or “we don’t realize
who they are”, we are unilaterally establishing negative images of disabled people? Is it possible that
we are losing our willingness to accept people with developmental and cognitive disabilities becauseof our failure to recognize who they are, and in the process hurting them? These are some of thequestions we were asked to consider. “Everyone has rough edges and uneven sides. It is just that thecapacities of some people are more uneven than others. And there is a lot of ability to make up for
those uneven parts in the world, if we have a good understanding of them. We need to be able toimagine that some people may not be able to do some things, that some people may be feeling very
different things.” These words remain etched in our memories of today’s talk. In order to create asociety in which disabled people can live happily without the burden of feeling that they are living adisabled life, we have to make ever more use of our own imagination within our daily lives. These
reflections will give us important hints for deepening our understanding of the global issues we havealready learned, as well as the consideration of universal design that we will begin shortly. Developing
a rich and diverse imagination is one of the key qualities of global leaders in their efforts to achieve
co-existence.

2016/06/21 ‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

Learn from the idea of universal design
Today’s class followed on directly from the previous one, giving us a chance to learn and think about
universal design. The idea of universal design comes from a questioning of how we can create a societythat does not discriminate between disabled and non-disabled people. This is a society in which thesebarriers have been dismantled by on-going trial and error learning and progress, where we are
increasingly able to create signs and goods that everyone can understand and use. The Tokyo Olympics
will show for the first time how understanding can be achieved without the constraints of language,
using visual images, pictograms and pictographs. All of these are elements of universal design. This
type of creativity is exactly what our idea of globalism is striving to understand and achieve.
In the second half of the class, we watched a video that presented both sides of the gun control debatethat envelops America’s gun society. While there are voices calling for control of guns as gun-related
crime rises, there are other people that assert strongly the right of Americans to bear arms in order toprotect themselves and their families which has been a part of society since the founding of the country.
We were struck by the message that “Only good people with guns can stand up to bad people withguns.” There was also an introduction of a priest who stands up against this issue as a religious person.
We learned how different the values surrounding this issue are, considering that in Japan guns do notexist in our immediate daily lives. We were also reminded of the difficulty of achieving globalization
in a world that consists of people with such different values.
Today was also Japanese Culture Day for international middle and high schools. Attending class inyukata, we were challenged to think of what special messages we might have to send out into the world.

2016/09/02 ‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

The current state of Germany
The GUS-I second semester began today. At the beginning of the class, Mr.Yamamoto made a reportof the primary inspections for the field work to Germany and Austria which students will take part incoming winter. Next, we watched a news program which is about Germany. Germany is the strongest
leader of Europe, on the other hand, German people are facing many difficulties of their life changes.
There were few stories about the unstable town with the scandal of Volkswagen caused, the homeelectric appliance company Miele followed a tradition and has expand well and about the refugees
issue, introduced a boy, how have his life and mind changed for this five years since he escaped from
Syria to Germany.
Regarding the German Government’s general refugee policies, there are also difficulties. When Prime
Minister Merkel got an interview about this issue at Ise-Shima summit, her comment was very positiveand it was impressive. She told about the worker program for refugees and expectation for the labor
power and the consumption they will bring in after all.
2016/09/09 ‐GUSⅠ Session‐2nd Year High School

Thinking about ‘danger’ as a keyword
For today’s lecture, we change our location to the Communication Center and divided into three small
groups. The nine topics below were given to each group, with an objective of sharing what they could
discover in the allocated time. The groups worked together enthusiastically, not least because of theneed to devise ways to organize the information obtained from the Internet. The plan is to present andshare the findings among the entire class.
●The Environmental Doomsday Clock●Doomsday Clock●Global Food Problems ‘World Food Day’ World Environment Day●WWF What happens when global warming precedes?
●JCCA Japan Center for Climate Change Actions●UNEP United Nations Environment Program●World Heritage in Danger●Global Financial Crisis●European Debt Crisis

2016/10/04 ‐GUSⅠ Lecture‐2nd Year High School

Global Leadership 1
International Business Consultant Mr. Takaaki Nakano
Mr. Nakano is a graduate of Doshisha English Literature, and is 77 years old this year. His lecture
began with warm words ‘It is a strange feeling to be here giving this talk at this age’, but the class wasquickly drawn into the dramatic and powerful life story of this former Doshisha upper classman.
“A rolling stone gathers no moss” – Repeating new challenges
This phrase is considered to be a positive message in America, where value is placed on continuous
work. However, in England and Japan, where the lessons of history are valued highly, the phrase may
indicate a lack of focus or concentration. Mr. Nakano has moved a total of 25 times, including 25 years
in America and a wide range of experiences in Japan. He has truly lived a life that has in many ways
rolled like the stone of the proverb, requiring continuous effort and the courage to meet constantchallenges.
It is very important to keep in mind the people that you can always go to for advice!
During his childhood in Sasebo, everything including his own family house was destroyed by theAmerican bombing. After that, his father, who was in military service at the time, would meet Otis
Kelly, who would end up being a professor at Doshisha. Mr. Nakano had to abandon his plans to attend
college because of the difficult financial situation of his family, but he then decided that he would go
to university, eventually entering the Doshisha English Literature Department, as a result of themassive efforts he made himself. He expressed his appreciation for the teacher that gave him advice
in those times, accepting him as an auditing student in high school in order to prepare for the entrance
exams. He got a job in the tourism industry at Pan-Am when he was still a 4th year student. Getting a
job like this was very difficult, and he had to figure out a way to balance work and study as he went
back and forth between Kyoto and Tokyo. He was able to make it through this difficult time becauseof the people around him who provided support to his efforts. Work continued well after that, but soon
there was talk of going to Colby College as an exchange student. His desire to learn more about English
compelled him to decide to quit his job and go to America.
When you go abroad, you need to be aware of Japanese history and culture.
At Colby College he was under great pressure to meet the needs of studying. Both the quality andquantity of studying meant that he did not have much time to sleep, although he also worked as a TAfor a Japanese Conversation class. During those years, he was asked many questions about Japanesereligion, culture and history. Not only did he feel the difficulty of communicating these things in
English, he regretted deeply that his knowledge about these aspects of being Japanese was insufficient.
He also learned the important of being able to make ones own observations and interpretations of thesocial problems around oneself, for example the unfamiliar problem of discrimination against black
people in America.
Move forward with confidence.
After graduating from Colby College, he worked at the Consulate of Japan and then moved to
Mitsubishi Corporation America. Ten years later he would be the first Japanese person to work for theState of New York, but then moved to the private sector for a job with TIE. However the work did not
go well and he found himself unemployed in America at the age of 52. At that point he got a job with
Cannondale USA, in charge of Japanese marketing, and found himself with a new start in Japan again
after 25 years of living abroad. But the differences in marketing strategy meant that he lost his job aspresident, and with the bitter feelings still raw in his heart he decided to start his own enterprise. This
new work was as an international business consultant, and he has been involved in supporting the start
up of numerous foreign operations in Japan.
Finally, people, products and money know no national boundaries. Mr. Nakano expressed his desire
for us all to be brave people always moving forward, no matter where we are. We gained great courage
from his life of constantly meeting the challenges that life presented him.

2016/10/21‐GUSⅠ Lecture‐2nd Year High School

Global Leadership 2
Doshisha University Student OECD Tohoku School Ms. Yoko Tsurimaki
The guest speaker for the Global Leadership 2 lecture was Ms. Yoko Tsurimaki, who graduated from
Doshisha International High School two years ago and is now a student at Doshisha University Facultyof Medicine.
Ms. Tsurimaki introduced herself in a relaxed and humorous style.
“I chose my high school on the Internet, and chose my University by feeling.”“Teacher, I am going to quit school.”“Something changed my school life. Love!”
With these words we began to learn of Ms. Tsurimaki’s style of going with her own flow, observing
with her own eyes and making her own clear decisions. She has her own sense of justice that draws in
the people around her. As a high school student, she was the president of the student body, and traveledwith 100 students from the OECD Tohoku School who were victims of the Tohoku disaster to Paris.
The held a Tohoku Revitalization Festival in Paris with the theme “Death, recovery and future as seen
through the children’s eyes”. They met many important figures and attended an international meetingof the OECD. They traveled to Japan as the Global Enterprise Challenge representative of Japan,
participating in business design contests as the team Ninja. They received an award of excellence.
We also took the opportunity to think together with Ms. Tsurimaki, who is such an active individual,
about the meaning of global leadership. According to Ms. Tsurimaki, global leadership is...
“Don’t compete where you cannot win” – Do not run away, compete where you can fully exercise yourown strengths.
“There are always people behind the work” – Always be polite with people, and do not do things tocause embarrassment.
“There is an opposite to any opinion” – Always look at things from different perspectives.
From this we can imagine people who can take in diversity in a field that suits them, processing eventhings that contradict what we believe. She explained to us in very convincing terms how a broad
perspective can find the truth, but a shift in perspective can show us a different world.

Finally, she gave us a very simple psychological example, asking “Can justice be decided?” Can
leaders make decisions on justice? We learned that amidst all the many different and difficult problems
we face, it is important to think and act together, no matter how small the matter is.

2016/10/28‐GUSⅠ Lecture‐2nd Year High School

Diplomat Family Experience and Perspectives Ms. Jun Kasai
Today’s speaker, is Ms. Jun Kasai, who graduated from our school and is now a student at Kyoto
Zoukei Geijutsu Daigaku’s Creative Writing Department. Her father was a diplomat, and today’s talkfocused around their family’s experience of being posted to Kyrgyzstan. She compares is life after
graduation to a ship. During high school, her parents and school were the anchor, but after entering
university the anchor was raised and she became free. But when a ship has been freed, the captain must
always hold the rudder. She used her university experience to explain how one must decide theirpriorities and then take responsibility for the things that one can do.
About Kyrgyzstan
The Republic of Kyrgyzstan an ex-Soviet republic located in Central Asia. The population is 5.9
million people, and 75% are Muslim. The area of the country is about half that of Japan. Because theland is 40% mountains, the beautiful landscape means that Kyrgyz is often described as the Switzerlandof Central Asia, or the Land of the Gods’ Vacation Homes. Animal husbandry is very common, andsheep are a valuable resource. Because Kyrgyzstan is a developing country, infrastructure is stillinsufficient and there are daily blackouts and water cuts. There is also a large gap between the rich andthe poor. The capital is Bishkek, and Ms. Kasai lived here from 9 to 12 years of age.
Kyrgyzstan Quiz
Ms. Kasai introduced us to the flag, currency, culture and history of Kyrgyzstan through a fun quiz.
Kyrgyzstan became independent in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The current president
Atanbaev is the fourth since independence, and it has taken some time through a period of revolutions
and unrest, including the defection of previous presidents, for the country to stabilize. Kyrgyz people
look very similar to Japanese, and there is even a story that the people who liked eat meat stayed inthe West, while the people who liked to eat fish went to the East and became the Japanese. As
Kyrgyzstan is very far away, it was the first time for many of us to hear about this country. We had agreat time with the quiz.
Ala-Kachu
Ala-Kachu is a type of Kyrgyz wedding, in which the bride is abducted and married. In the video, we
saw the shocking images of a girl who was carried away suddenly by a group of men, screaming andcrying. These types of traditions have started to come under criticism, as a sense of diversity and humanrights has been raised in this age of globalization. It is very difficult for someone who does not know
the tradition to say whether it is good or bad. Ms. Kasai urged us to think about tradition, considering
whether tradition should be continued just because it is a tradition. This calls us to think about themeaning of the word “tradition” itself.
Be a Sponge
Having lived in a number of different countries, Ms. Kasai was reminded how prosperous Japan is.
However, if one lives all one’s life here, it is difficult to gain an understanding for different social
values, so she suggested that we all need to act like sponges, absorbing things from all sorts ofexperiences. Her final advice was that none of us can absorb all the water in the ocean, so we should
be aware of our own capacity.

2016/11/11 ‐GUSⅠ Lecture‐2nd Year High School

Global Leadership 3
Mr. Ken Uzuka, Mainichi Shimbun Reporter“What image does everyone have of Middle Eastern Islam?”
Mr. Uzuka was based in Iran as a correspondent for the newspaper just before Middle Eastern affairs
got worse. Today we got to hear Mr. Uzuka’s valuable first-hand observations of the situation in the
Middle East.

(Image of the Middle East)
Desert, old, backwards, continuous wars. These are probably some of the images we have, but two of
the four World Civilizations arose here. In this region, high culture flourished since more than 2,500
years ago, with the Egyptian civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization. Moreover, oil-producers
like Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain are prosperous countries that have GDPs several
tens of times larger than Japan. These countries are also famous for soccer. Countries like Yemen,
Afghanistan and Egypt, without large reserves of oil, are extremely poor. Other religious states like
Saudi Arabia do not accept the culture and values of the West, preferring to live by the ancient
principles of their religion. At the same time, other secular countries like Turkey and Lebanon are
increasingly Westernized.
(What is happening in Syria?)
Syria used to be a prosperous country. With the 2011 Arab Spring, a movement of primarily agricultural
people dissatisfied with President Asad’s dictatorial politics began to protest. This quickly developed
into a civil war. Neighboring countries experiencing religious sectarian conflict saw involvement in
the Islamic State increase, just as Russia, America and the United Kingdom engaged in humanitarianassistance. The result is a very complex situation in which the civil war continues to intensify. 300,000
lives have been lost, of which 80,000 were civilians. The situation is dire. Bombing continues today,
and incredibly half of the population has become refugees, domestically and internationally. Of thecountries accepting Syrian refugees, Germany has accepted the most, at 1,000,000 people. Japan has
accepted just three people. The strict standards for recognizing refugees in Japan has come undercriticism from the international community. There are serious concerns that the facilities for receiving
refugees is insufficient. Fears about public security problems and the threat of terrorists coming toJapan underscore the basic question of whether Japan can accommodate the cultural stresses ofreceiving refugees. It has been decided that 150 exchange students will be accepted.
(Living in the Great Middle Eastern Power Iran)
Mr. Uzuka lived for three years in Iran. Surrounded by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, public security is good,
and the Iranian people are proud of their long history of Persian civilization, which includes being
located along the Silk Road. The area of Iran is 4.5 larger than Japan, and the population is 80 million.
Because the county is so large, the climate is varied. In winter you can ski, and there is an abundanceof inexpensive fruit and vegetables. According to Islamic tradition, woman are obliged to wear the
hijab, and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. Until high school, boys and girls are educatedseparately, but the level of education among girls is particularly high, and woman are making more
and more contribution in society. Islam teaches that wealth should be distributed faithfully in society,so the social welfare system is advanced. Medical care and education are almost free. While there arerich people, there is not a large population of poor people. He was struck by how the Iranian people
are easy going, and place high value on the importance of family. From Mr.Uzuka’s talk we heard astory of a warm and religious Iran that was strikingly different from our basic image of the instabilityof the Middle East.
About Mr. Uzuka Ken
1993
Graduated Kyoto University Faculty of Economics, entered Mainichi Shinbun
Worked at the Otsu Office and Osaka Main Office Society Division, Foreign Correspondents Division,
Political Division (Covering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and then was posted to Teheran from
October 2000 to March 2013.
Currently he works at the Osaka Main Office, as the Vice-Director of the Local Society Division.

2016/11/15 – GUSⅠ Lecture – 2nd Year High SchoolStudent Activity: The World as a Field Site

Doshisha University AIESEC

Today we had a talk by students from Doshisha University’s AIESEC (Association of International
Economics and Industry Students), who explained the objectives and activities of the Association.
AIESEC is the world’s largest student organization active in 126 countries and regions. Their aim isto achieve a peaceful world in which peoples’ capacities are realized to the fullest. They have runinternational internship programs, producing highly motivated young leaders dedicated to solving
global issues around the world.
There was an initial proposal for Ice Breaking Time. Everyone was encouraged to express who they
are and share within groups. After this exercise, the classroom atmosphere was relaxed andcomfortable.
Next, there were talks about the activities of AIESEC and personal exchange and internshipexperiences of the participants. Doshisha AIESEC activities are divided into four teams working on

environment, education, regional revitalization and traditional industries. Today’s members were fromthe education team. They work to ensure that children’s future options are as broad and diverse as
possible, based on the vision of education that avoids narrowing options and increasing inequality. Mr.
Sugimoto, one of today’s members, visited Taiwan for his internship. He led a class at a public middle
school introducing Japan to the students, and had a session of intercultural exchange. Through thisexperience he realized that education must be at the center of our efforts to improve the world. The
connections made between students, teachers and peers transcends language, and he explained the
feeling of fulfillment to be had from teaching something that one cares about and is at the same time
useful to others. As a result, the children learned about a different culture and felt the desire to learn
English. What’s more, the praise he got for his teaching was a major encouragement and helped build
his confidence. The smiles of both Mr. Sugimoto as he explained about how he found new personalgoals and the Taiwanese children show how important this experience was.
After a break, there was a workshop for the participants.
•

What are your favorite things? What can you let yourself get totally immersed in? Whatmakes you happy? What efforts have been successful?

• How can you get the people around you to enjoy the things that make you happy?
• Then what are the ways you can enjoy your university life?
Our students shared these ideas with the university students in group tables.
The final activity was presentations. One male student said that he wanted to make a presentation, eventhough he was not comfortable with speaking in front of a crowd. He likes to speak with people, andwould like to make use of this as a counselor and help other people. When he talked about his desire
to pursue this line of study at university, he got a big round of applause from everyone.
How can we turn our own personal happiness into something that also helps others in the world in the
future? And what can we do at university to realize this? It was a valuable change to consider the future.
The final message we got: It is never too early to start thinking about the future, especially because
expanding our imagination increases our future potential.

2016/11/22 –GUSⅠ Lecture- 2nd Year High School

Living in Vauban, Germany
We watched a video about the Southwestern German city of Vauban, where energy efficient housing
and sustainable city planning are very advanced. The video was accompanied by Mr. Yamamoto’s
supplementary commentary.
Vauban’s Architecture Groups
In Vauban, the future residents of the area form architecture groups, collectively purchased the land,consulted with experts to devise the type of residences they wanted to live in. Each is able to create
their ideal cooperative residential area. This group is part of BUND, which is active across the country.
One of the main concepts is the energy efficient ‘passive house’ (residence that meets the regulations
for energy efficiency).
Daily Life in Clay House
Clay House is a community residence created by one of the 60 architecture groups in the Vauban area.
There are more than 70 residents. There were close discussions before the residents moved in, andthese continue frequently as the group discussed how to sustain the community. The extremely close
relationships between the residents mean that they are able to depend on each other and cooperate intheir daily lives. This is from the start a group of people who share the same living concept, and therelationships within the community remain good. In the video we saw how children played in thestreets without concern for cars, and the residents engaged in cooperative gardening activities and held
parties. The energy of these people came across strongly in the video.
After the video was over, many of us felt as if we had seen the ideal community for environmental
concerns. However, it also raised the question of whether we can live in such close relationship to ourneighbors, and whether this eco-logic approach will be too much burden or cause too muchinconvenience for us who live modern lifestyles. In fact, there are movements in Japan to create thiskind of community living. Although it has begun to face in recent times, there was originally a cultureof close neighborhood relations and mutual assistance. Having seen the various systems developed by
the people, we are encouraged to reconsider what we think to be happy and environmentally-friend
communities.
The December fieldwork to Germany will visit Freiburg, the area in which Vauban is located. In
addition to the systems developed in Vauban, Freiburg is a place where other measures such as natureenergy promotion, release from automobile dependency and recycling are being applied to achieve asustainable city. We will deepen our understanding of this area in our visit.

2016/11/25 -GUSⅠ Lecture- 2nd Year High SchoolStudent Activity: The World as a Field Site Doshisha International Residence
Research Club
Today class was provided by 6 guest speakers from the Doshisha University International Residence
Research Club.
•

half of the world’s population suffers in poverty

•
•
•
•

we could not ignore this
there should be something that we can do as students, even if we lack knowledge and money
this dream is granted to us
by the international residence research club

The club is divided into four – GV, SALT, BANDHU and Ajia Gakuin. Each group makes the most of
its own characteristics in its efforts towards to create a fair society in which everyone in the world has
the fullest potential.
BANDHU: Interaction with children in an orphanage in a small Bangladeshi village, providing support
to delivering the children’s smiles to the Japanese foster parents.
SALT: Working on the problem of waste in the Philippines, and attending to the women and children
who are directly involved in the problem, providing support for them to articulate the future that they
desire.
GV: Sweating together in the design of residences, providing assistance to building the cohesive
communities that are necessary to sustain important living spaces.
Ajia Gakuin: Learning seriously about life and food with friends that have gathered from around theworld in a school in Tochigi, providing support from the agricultural side to foster local village leaders.
Today we were visited by the members of the GV (Global Village). We heard about their activities andat the end participated in a workshop together. GV is a group of volunteers that engage in 14-21 day
overseas residence construction work in collaboration with the globally active international NGO
Habitat for Humanity. The member all participated in the 2016 Philippines GV. The motivates forparticipation included things like wanting to know a new world, wanting to do something useful, andwanting to produce something together with friends. In the Philippines, there are still innocent, smilingchildren that must engage in selling items on the roads or begging for money. The members still had
some doubts about how much use they could be in a situation like this, but when they worked a hard
day together and shared some laughs with the people, they realized that it is not just a question of who
we can get help from, but what it means to help someone else.

In the final workshop, we shared ideas about what ‘home’ means. For the students, home means ‘awarm place that will always be there to live in’, ‘somewhere you can return to no matter what happens’,or ‘a valuable resource’. When the same question is asked in the Philippines, there were shared ideas
such as ‘a place that you can relax in’, but in many cases the answer included ‘hope’ and ‘dream’. The
members strongly believe that ‘home’ is not just a physical place to live in, but rather represents aplace from which the downward circle of poverty can be broken.
“Everyone can change. Let’s find out the value of acting.” These words struck a chord in our hearts.

2016/12/06-11 - GUSⅠ Fieldwork - 2nd Year High School

Environmentally Advanced Countries Germany and Austria
Eighteen students from the GUS1 class participated in fieldwork to visit the cities and facilities in theenvironmentally advanced countries of Germany and Austria. Everyone returned happy and healthy
from the trip. The fieldwork was an opportunity to observe a range of issues, including energy policy,
local revitalization, forest coexistence, environmentally friendly residences and towns, and the conceptof prosperity in general. The lessons and daily workshops in Germany and Austria provided a good
point for comparison with the situation in Japan.
First Day Wednesday December 7
Lecture: German energy policy, how to prevent the outflow of economic power to other countries
We listened to a lecture and took the opportunity to compare Germany energy policy and the current
situation in Japan. We reconsidered many basic ideas regarding energy supply, politics and capital.
Visit: Bio Energy park (Redevelopment of an army facility to a renewable energy park)
This is a large-scale facility supplying energy from solar, wind, biogas and regional fuel sources. The
project is being realized through a number of participatory models, including producing biogas
electricity from the waste of the local people, sourcing biogas materials from local farms.

Accommodation: Dortmund
Second Day Thursday December 8
Lecture: Degradation of industrial area and housing projects
Rich industry without growth and social change can at times produce depressed conditions. What isprosperity without growth in a retracting society?
Travel: Movement around the city on regional public transport (subway use=U-Bahn)
Visit: Klarenberg Housing Revitalization Project
Decline began after a period of rapid growth, and many social problems lingered in the housing
projects. We visited the project that is working to rejuvenate the area with participation of the local
people.
Visit: Steel plant, Aluminum Factory Redevelopment Project
The steel plant and aluminum factor has been redeveloped into a business park and high-classresidential area. The explanation covered the positive and negative aspects of the project’s results.
Accommodation: Dortmund
Third Day Friday December 9
Travel: To Wuppertal (German Rainway=DB and bus)
Lecture: Many-birds-with-one-stone effect in efficient energy use in buildings, differences between
Japanese and German housing policy and industries
Houses have energy costs too. We thought about houses in a different way than usual. Dissect building
energy efficiency approaches from a physics point of view.
Visit: Energy Efficient Housing (Housing Exhibition Area)
We observed ‘plus energy houses’, where the energy produced in the residences exceeded energy
consumption, while maintaining a comfortable living environment.
Travel: To Dortmund (German Rail and bus)
Visit: Craftsman skills development by Handicrafts Cooperative
We visited the skills development organization that nurtures Germany’s craftsman with more than 10times the amount of time – this system has been in operation for a long time – than in Japan, wherecompanies are in charge of skills development.
Accommodation: Dortmund
Fourth Day Saturday December 10
Visit: Koln car-free residential area
Case-study visit to a former railcar depot redeveloped into a car-free residential area. This is the kindof eco-lifestyle that is possible only in the suburbs.
Accommodation: Freiburg im Breisgau

Fifth Day Sunday December 11
Participate in religious service at Catholic Church in Munster
Visit: Frieburg im Breisgau Municipal Forest
Multipurpose sustainable forest management (2 hour walk in forest, 1 hour explanation)
Travel: to Hotel (Street car=LRT)
Visit: Current situation of Street car (LRT) and park android, former French military base in southern
VaubanVisit Communities involved in local development, including collective design of residential area toconfirm to residents’ vision for environmentally friendly living.
Accommodation: Freiburg im Breisgau
Sixth Day Monday December 12
Travel: to Bleibach village (Street Car=LRT)
Visit: Freiburg im Breisgau Vauban area eco-residential area
Lecture: By architect involved in participatory city planning activities
Travel: to Waldkirch (LRT+Street Car and suburban train)
Visit: Organ factory Jager&Brommer in Waldkirch
See exhibition room, church pipe organ, hand-crank organ, etc.
Workshop: Experience use of timber resources in woodworking workshop
Accommodation: Freiburg in Breisgau
Seventh Day Tuesday December 13
to Rother (www.busunternehme-rother.de)Workshop: Freiburg energy saving station (BUND)
Study visit for Gymnasium students provided by energy saving station Freiburg staff, Marine waste
City Site Seeing: Friedrichshafen
Accommodation: Bregenz
Eighth Day Wednesday December 14
Final day Bregenzerwald area
Study visit: Multipurpose wood architecture in Krumbach, transformation of farm pens into living
quarters, women’s museum of wood architecture in Hittisau
Study visit: Metzler milk face products and cheese in Egg village
All materials are used completely in production.
Workshop: Forest timber cluster, building in wood and conserving energy
Accommodation: Bregenz
Ninth Day Wednesday December 15

Free time: walk around Lindau
Travel: to Frankfurt for return to Japan (airplane)
Collaborating Institutions:
Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND) https://www.bund.net since 1975-6
FoE (Friends of the Earth)Ökostation Freiburg since 1986
http://www.oekostation.de

2016/12/11‐GUS ⅠOther Events- 2nd Year High School

Go Global Japan Expo 2016
The Go Global Japan Expo 2016 was held on Sunday, December 11 at the Tottori Campus of Tottori
University. Two students from the GUSⅠ class made a presentation of their experiences in SGH.
In these SGH experience presentations, students from the 5 designated SGH high schools in WesternJapan presented the activities in their schools and described the learning process. Our students first
introduced Doshisha International and then offered their ideas about what they learned in GUS Basicand GUS Ⅰ, and their classes. At the end, they talked of their ambition for the future, wrapping up theirunique presentation.

2016/01/10 –GUSⅠ Lecture- 2nd Year High School

Working Abroad: Life in Northern Europe

Ms. Yoko Kitaguchi

Today was the first GUS1 class after the winter break. We invited Ms. Yoko Kitaguchi, a graduate who
is also working in the school’s communication center, to hear about her ongoing activities and what
she has learned from her experiences. When she was a student at our school, Ms. Kitaguchi was very
quiet and reserved. She was a returnee from the United States, but upon becoming an adult she moved
to Northern Europe and has become a proactive and outgoing person.
After graduating from university, Ms. Kitaguchi pursued her area of interest, public welfare, learningand working in the industry. Through her work, she became familiar with a school in the advancedsocial welfare state Denmark. Wanting to continue her studies, she decided to enroll in Nordfyns
Folkhojskole, a social welfare school where she joined people from many countries and age groups.
In the four and a half years of studying social welfare, she was exposed to many other courses, raising
her interest in several different areas. She also learned the importance and difficulty of navigating themany value systems of that come into contact when people from different backgrounds live together.
In doing this she learned how to communicate her own ideas and thinking. As a Japanese person,
Kitagawa-san felt a resistance to mentioning difficult people or unpleasant things. But is it wrong tohave these feelings? Or is it natural? When she realized that there is no need to force oneself into
adjusting to these things, she was relieved and felt more relaxed. When one realizes that it is fine tounderstand things in the world from different perspectives, one can have confidence in one’s own
understanding. She explained how making friends all over the world is an important resource for her.
As a direct result of these experiences, she had the opportunity to participate in a project at the
U.C.Lillabaelt University, where people involved in Denmark’s social welfare sector can take courses.
In this six months, she engaged in the planning of products that would help the children of handicappedpeople participate in society. After that, she took advantage of the working holiday system, livingwith a homestay family and working in a facility for children with severe handicaps in Norway.
Working with severely handicapped children was a daunting task for her, compounded by the fact that
she was working in a different language. Outside of the United Kingdom, English is not the native
language, and she experienced difficulties in communication, even though she spoke English. But she
realized that the desire to understand and be understood, together with people who have the same
objectives, is more important for communication than just simple language capacity. In Norway, shefound she was supported like a family member and experienced great personal growth. The enthusiasm
was clear on her face and in her words, as she explained how she wants to be involved in child social
welfare in Norway. She is an inspiring graduate for our student body.
Experiences and engagement create real benefits for the individual. You will never know if you don’ttry, you will never see if you don’t go. If you have a clear idea of what you are working towards, there
will always be people to support you. Her strong message was one of encouragement, “Please continue
to push yourselves to find and realize your interests and potential”.

2017/01/24 –GUSⅠ Lecture- 2nd Year High School

Global Products

Mr. Seiichi Saeki

Today we had a lecture from Mr. Seiichi Saeki, a businessman working on the frontiers of global
business. After graduating from Doshisha University, Mr. Saeki entered a company involved in the
production, sale and export of glasses frames and sun glasses. Since then he has spent more than 25
years in product development in collaboration with Chinese partners.
We will not find a day in which there is no news about China reported in the media. This is how
influential China is in the world, and in Japan as well. However, information from the news in
extremely limited in scope, and it is necessary to fully understand China by actively searching for
information from numerous sources, he explained. What’s more, China is an enormous country, andthe differences between north and south are enormous as well.

Over the past 30 years, the Chinese economy has continued to grow, and is now twice the size ofJapan’s economy. As a trade partner, China is a huge presence – number one in terms of imports, andnumber two in terms of exports. However, when we look at the data, we see that the mutual impressionof Chinese and Japanese people is not positive. Part of this is the nationalistic Chinese education
system, and the government’s manipulation, monitoring and control of information. These influence
the thinking of normal Chinese people. Just this morning, it seems there was a communicationprohibiting the use of VPNs that hide identities through encryption in transactions. Because the oneparty state lacks the separation of powers, sometimes injustices go unchallenged because of theconvenience of the state. In this sense, doing business with China is quite difficult.
The sunglasses produced at Mr. Saeki’s company are assembled and meet Japanese standards, andtherefore considered to be made in Japan. In the case of some products, the company that planned ordeveloped them, are different from the country that produced them. The products that we use in daily
life are produced through the interactions of many different countries. We live our daily lives in the
midst of globalization. At the same time, the TPP, which was a measure to handle trade with China,
was cancelled recently by the American President’s order to withdraw from that agreement. At
RECEP, China has taken the lead under the One Belt One Road scheme, and financial resources arebeing assembled for the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Bank. These developments aremaking things difficult for Japanese trade, but all we can do now is watch how things develop in eachcountry.
In its history, China has gone through many important turning points to get to where it is now. We
heard about relations with Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Chinese pop idols who are using the Japanesebusiness model. The class was excited to hear that AKB48 is being represented in Chinese characterswith the name “Japanese Large Girl Idol Group”. He also introduced some other examples of how
interesting Chinese characters are being used. Mr. Saeki also provided some advice, as only abusinessman can, about the importance of looking closely at who is producing statistical data and what
the motives are. We must not be complacent about our position in the world. We were impressed withhis attitude of calmly accepting, yet positively interpreting and understanding, differences in culturaland value systems.

Mr. Saeki introduced us to several books. He urged us toread Animal Farm and 1984, works of George Orwell who
was also a journalist, as people living in free society.

2017/01/31 –GUSⅠ Lecture- 2nd Year High School

Toward sustainable society
Mr Takemura form the Environment and Economics Department of Kyotanabe
City
Today we had a visit from Mr Takemura, head of the Environment and Economics Department of
Kyotanabe City, where our school is located. His talk focused on the city’s efforts to live closely withthe environmental challenges it faces, working towards sustainable local development.
Mr Takemura’s introductory remarks reached out to the students. “When I was your age, there wasalmost no talk of global warming, so I am very interested to learn more about how you all feel about
this problem”, he said.
The global target for greenhouse gas emissions is reduction to zero or a negative level during thiscentury. This ambitious target reflects the serious level at which greenhouse gasses have been emitted.
Have there been major changes in our lives, or is this just the way it is? Keeping this question in mind,
the students listened to the talk about what Kyotanabe City is doing about global warming. During theprevious period of rapid economic growth, the government’s measures towards the environment
focused on pollution and the improvement of environmental health for safe and healthy lives. However,society has since then shifted to high-consumption, high-production, high-waste living, and eachindividual is now considered to be a one causing problems or even a victim. Now the efforts of eachindividual to protect the environment are needed. In other words, it is not possible now for thegovernment to solve society’s environmental problems. Rather, this will require changes in lifestyle,people’s participation, and involvement of the private sector to bring about a transition to sustainable
society. Public and private sectors must now be moving together in the same direction. Kyotanabe has
articulated seven policy measures: promotion of energy-saving lifestyles, promotion of energy-saving
business, promotion of use of renewable energy resources, promotion of environment-friendly public
transport, promotion of recycling-oriented society, promotion of green policies, and promotion ofpeople and feeling for social transformation. And he introduced several initiatives to partner with civilsociety groups, a particularly important area of activity for the city. It is believed that increasing
knowledge will raise awareness of environmental concerns.
Government official and civil servants say that their job is to think globally and do what is possible
locally. The same is true for all of us. Yet this must go further in our transformation than simply finding
ways to ‘save and select’. For example, instead of just resisting the urge to use our cars, our thinking
should take us to wanting to have a nice bicycling that we are ready to ride. Transformations in thinkingof this scale are what might help us get closer to sustainable society. The talk also reminded us that thetype of lifestyle transformations that are necessary will require us to pose the difficult question, what
is true prosperity? There is no doubt now that we are living in an era of environmental degradation,
where we must learn at the global level, but think and act within the scope of our own capacities. There
were many hints in the introduction to Kyotanabe’s partnerships about what we ourselves can start
doing. We will continue to access information from the city, making use of resources available online
and at city hall.

2017/02/03,07 –GUSⅠ Class- 2nd Year High School

Germany and Austria Fieldwork Report
The students who participated in the December field trips to Germany and Austria reported on theiractivities in each GUS1 class. Dividing into five groups, each shared what they had learned along thetheme lines.
Group 1
“Germany and Austria Fieldwork Overview” – overall image of study trip materialGroup 2“City Planning and Housing” – introducing city planning in Germany, comparison with Japan
Group 3“Coexisting with Forests and Traditional Culture” – Japan’s Maniwa Model and Germany’s ModelGroup 4
“Energy Policy” – Introducing Germany’s energy policy, wind power, biomass and solar power
Group 5
“The road to solutions” – The current situation of microplastic environmental contamination andsolution proposals

The presenters used new ways to communicate their messages with slides. There was a new round ofquestions and advice from the classes. The presentations will be improved further and the groups plan
to present at this year’s SGH annual report meeting.