Produced by OCHANOMIZU UNIVERSITY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL and GEICUNRAVELPROFESSIONAL EDITION, NOVEMBER 2019

A Solution to Poor Diet of Indonesians: Kakiage

During the latesummer of 2018,several students fromOchanomizu University SeniorHigh School visited Jakarta,
Indonesia, as members ofAEON Asia Youth Leaders,sponsored by the AEON One
Percent Club. Based on thetheme “Food and Health,” thestudents attended lectures byexperts on Indonesian food,participated in fieldwork, andheld discussions with students
from other Asian countries.
After returning to Japan, one
student, Mizuna Sato, continued
to study the Indonesian diet.
Indonesian dietary habits
With about 6,000 inhabitedislands and over 300 recognizedethnic groups, Indonesia has awide diversity of cuisine. Many
Indonesians have a preference
for fried food, which can beseen in national dishes such asnasi goreng and mie goreng.
These dishes use a significant
amount of oil and often lackvegetables. In fact, according
to the Indonesia ResearchInstitute, the vegetable intake
of Indonesians is 107 grams perday, which is a quarter of theWHO's recommended amount.
(Graph on the upper right)Such unhealthy Indonesian
food can be bought at a very

Vegetable consumption(grams)450400(per day)WHO recomendation

350294300
250200150
100

107500Indonesia
Photo by Mizuna Sato

Kakiage made by Mizuna Satolow price at street food stalls,
called warung. Warung foodis usually enjoyed by middleincome people, which make up
two-thirds of the population.
For such people, it is hard toeliminate cheap oily foods fromtheir dietary habits, because it isfinancially difficult for them toafford any other diet.
Furthermore, many Indo­nesians are not taught that eating
a lot of greasy food and notenough vegetables could lead toserious health issues.
In fa c t, c onsuming f oodthat falls short in nutrients has
resulted in a growing number ofpeople suffering from lifestylerelated diseases such as obesityand heart disease.

Mizuna Sato’s research
Mizuna Sato believes kakiage
could be an effective solution
to help improve people’s eating
habits in Indonesia. Kakiage
is a type of tempura made by
deep-frying many kinds ofingredients, mainly carrots,
onions and spinach. Carrots
and spinach contain dietaryfiber and β-carotene, which aresaid to help prevent lifestylerelated diseases. What is more,combining these vegetables withoil can accelerate the absorptionof nutrients because β-carotene
is a fat-soluble vitamin.
Although kakiage is deepfried, it has greater nutritional
value than the typical Indonesianoily foods. The kakiage that SatoJapan

Indonesia Research Institutemade as part of her studies canbe seen in the photo above. Sato
substituted kushinsai for spinach,as she learned that spinach isdifficult to obtain in Jakarta.
It can be said that if kakiage
was sold at warung in Indonesia,
it could improve the dietary habitsof middle-income people whocould be at risk of lifestyle-relateddiseases, while still providing
food that is within their budget
and preferences.The utilization ofJapanese traditional food such as
kakiage may become helpful insolving poor diet problems thatexist in other parts of the world.
By Hinata Toyoda, Karen
Nakajima, Mizuna Sato, Riko
Chigasaki and Yukino Tanaka

NOTICE TO READERS
This newspaper is publishedby Ochanomizu University Senior High School. The school islocated in Bunkyo Ward, situated in the middle of the 23 wards
in central Tokyo.
During the Edo period, manysamurai took up residence inthe area. Then in the beginningof Meiji period, the class system
during the feudal Japan was
abolished and the residence

sites were rebuilt into universities.
Since then, Bunkyo Ward has
been the home to many schools.
Furthermore, nowadays many
foreign students study in thedistrict. This has led to cultural
diversity, as well as an increasein curiosity among local students
towards internationalism.
In 2014, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology designated ourschool as a Super Global HighSchool (SGH), which aims tofoster global leaders.
Unravel shares some of thestudents’ activities for “Studiesin Sustainable Society.” Basedon each individual’s interestsand concerns for global issues,
students chose one group tobelong to from among seven:“Economic Development andthe Environment,” “Life, Healthand Medical Care,” “International Cooperation and Gender
Issues,” “International Relationsand Resolution,” “Information
Technology and Creativity,”“Globalization of Music” and “Artand Expression.”
We hope this newspaper will
convey to you part of our activities and help you unravel thiscomplex world.
(By Yuino Chiba)

2UNRAVELNOVEMBER 2019RESOURCE UTILIZATIONThe Struggle for Water, from Asia to Africa
Safe Water in the World

Population not using safety
managed drinking water services
60 %
40
20
10
5Renewable water resources
per capita
50,000 m3
10,000
5,000
1,000
500
Basic and safety managed water services. Data by country FAO, 2016. AQUASTAT Main Database, Food andAgriculture Organization of the United States (FAO)“If the wars of this century werefought over oil, the wars of thenext century will be fought overwater,” said Ismail Serageldin, the former
vice president of the World Bank, in 1995. A
global water crisis was already feared at thetime, and the world today is facing serious
problems regarding water.
In the Republic of the Congo, no matter how
abundant the water resources, people are unable
to access water without proper infrastructuredevelopment. As men are busy working,
women and girls have to carry water from rivers
to their houses all day, keeping them from goingto school. As a result, the illiteracy rate among
Congolese girls is 27.1 percent, which is twice
as high as boys, at 13.6 percent.
Singapore, a small tropical nation in

the Malay Peninsula, has a fair amount ofrain throughout the year. However, it lacks
usable water resources because the land'swater-holding capacity is low. Many streetsin Singapore are paved with asphalt or
concrete and there are not enough large rivers
to use as a source of water supply. Withstrong economic power, Singapore secureswater resources by importing water fromneighboring countries, but being dependent
on other countries for such resources brings
a risk of water shortages in an emergency.
Therefore, Singapore is now making three
approaches to secure new water resources:
the installation of 17 reservoirs in the country;
the conversion of sea water into fresh water;
and the recycling of used water into potablewater called “NEWater.”

Created by Megumi Sano

Many people may think that Japan is not
involved with the world’s water shortage
problems. However, Japan imports many
agricultural and livestock products fromcountries like the United States, which means
Japan indirectly uses water for these imports.
Therefore, if an exporter faces a problem
regarding water, it can be implied that theimporter is associated with the issue as well.
The circumstances of the use of water varyfrom country to country. Water problems areconnected with many other issues as well,such as poverty, sanitation, human rights,
etc. Therefore, it is crucial to think beyond
borders and have everyone take responsibility
toward the usage of water.
By Chika Fujita, Megumi Sano, Misato
Kobayashi, Rin Kurosaka and Sayaka Ieki

Consumers are Key in Battle against Food Loss
In Japan, about 64.6 million
tons of food loss is produced
every year, 35.7 million bycompanies and 28.9 million byhouseholds. This means thatcon­sumers waste a cup of rice
per person every day.
Food loss from homes can be
cut down rather easily, such as byusing as much of a food ingredientas possible when cooking (suchas broccoli leaves or hearts ofcabbages); buying and cooking justthe right amount of food to reduce
leftovers; and understanding that a
best-before date is different froman expiry date.
Food loss produced by com­panies is much more com­plicated.
Japanese com­p anies are verysensitive to food hygiene, so they
have very strict criteria whensorting out products. When ahygiene issue occurs on one partof the production line, companies
often dispose of all the food, evenwhen it is still edible.
Mayuu Yoshizawa, Juri Asao
and Karin Saito, three students
at Ochanomizu University
Senior High School who studied
food loss in Japan among theirpeers, claim that excessive
food loss from companies iscaused by Japanese consumers’
hypersensitivity toward foodhygiene. “Companies try their best
to meet such demands for the sakeof satisfying customers,” Yoshi­
zawa said. “If we want things tochange, the consumers need tomake a point to the companies.
Companies would eventually haveto listen to their voices.”
One of the ways consumers
can appeal to companies is toparticipate in ESG investments.
An ESG investment is the actionof purchasing products fromcompanies that prioritize making
an ethical and sustainable impact
on the environment, society andgovernance. According to the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestryand Fisheries, the rate of ESG
investments out of working
assets in 2015 was only 3.4
percent in Japan, whereas it was52.6 percent in Europe and 21.6
percent in the United States.

This shows that the ideaof ESG investments has yetto spread in Japan. In otherwords, ESG investments havethe potential to become a useful
tool to connect consumers andcompanies in the future.
To make the current produc­tion and consumption systems
more sustainable and ethical,
consumers and companies mustchange, work closely together andact together. ESG investments
may be one of the keys to solving
food waste in Japan.
By Juri Asao, Karin Saito,
Mayu Takigawa, Mayuu Yoshizawa
and Saki Okawara

NOVEMBER 2019UNRAVEL3

GENDER INEQUALITY

MClosing Japan’s Gender Gap

en at work, womenin the kitchen — thisidea was the norm inJapan in the 2000s, but things
have changed over the years.
Now, Japanese have a wider
range of opportunities regardlessof gender, but there is still muchroom for improvement.
According to the Global
Gender Gap Report 2018 by theWorld Economic Forum, Japanscored 0.662, and ranked 110
out of 149 countries.
As the report shows, Japan isnot considered a very progressive
nation in terms of gender equality,
due to the slow advance inpolitical empowerment and genderequality in economic participation.
One reason that Japan has notcompletely overcome genderinequality may be “unconsciousbias.” Unconscious bias is,for instance, prejudice against
men or women that is formed
subconsciously. It can exist
inside anyone and shape the way
people think about others.
One group in the course“International Cooperation andGender Issues” focused on theCreated by Yuka Ishida

Leaflet for recognition

representation of gender in TV
commercials. According to thestudy they conducted, among
24 commercials for detergent
broadcast in the past year in Japan,
17 showed women playing thepart of those doing the laundry,
while only four men were shownplaying the same role. The
group suggests that this could
give viewers the idea that it is awoman’s job to do the laundry.
The group later drew up
guidelines based on their research

and advice from experts. The
guidelines encourage readers to
acknowledge that media shows
only one side of a variety oflifestyles.
Another group took quite adifferent approach to this issue.
The group members saw it asnecessary to improve earlyeducation to reform awarenessbefore identifying stereotypes
regarding men and women.
They read a “gender-free”
picture book to children and theircaregivers at Sengoku library
in Bunkyo Ward for a day. The
book overturns stereotypicalideas of how boys and girls“should be,” and teaches thechildren that they should not betied down by gender and insteadshould live the way they want to.
Members of the group also
made original bookmarks anda website with information
about gender issues, their entire
activity and their message.
“We hope these activities willencourage people to take actionsof their own toward resolving
such issues,” they said.
Media and society are very
powerful in that they can easily
embed opinions and stereotypes
into people’s minds. Gender roles
are a social construct, but manytreat them like they are part ofnature. People must take a stepback and reassess why they think
the way they do, and consider
how to be more open-minded.
By Mai Futagawa, Riko
Asano, Saki Fukuda, Shiho Hase­gawa and Yuka Ishida

Peer to Peer: Soap andLeaflets for Zambian GirlsIn developing countries,
many women have little accessto sanitary materials and lackknowledge about menstruation.
This situation has resulted inmany women managing theirmenstruation in unsanitary ways.
For instance, in some rural
districts in Zambia, women andgirls reuse the same sanitary
pads and napkins made from oldcloths. Such conditions can cause
infectious diseases. What is more,girls often feel uncomfortable andembarrassed about having theirperiod because of local myths
and taboos as well as inadequate
education on menstrual hygiene
at school. Such girls need asupportive environment forlearning about menstrual hygiene.
A group of students in thecourse “International Coope­ration

and Gender Issues” inter­viewed
NGOs such as the Japanese
Organization for International
Cooperation in Family Planning(JOICFP) and Plan International.
The students were shocked to
discover that many girls around thesame age as them were suffering
under severe circumstances.
The group decided to help out
their counterparts. They madetheir own soap, along with leaflets
about the importance of washingcloth pads and information on
how to wash them with soap.
Wanting to offer sustainableaid by providing information, notjust material, they had the soap
and leaflets delivered to 19 girls
between the ages of 13 and 22 inrural Zambia, through JOICFP.
The Zambian girls responded
to a questionnaire both before andPhoto by Yume Abe

Soap and a leaflet

after distribution. All 19 of themunderstood from the beginning
the importance of washingsanitary pads, but only from theperspective of not doing so being
uncomfortable. In contrast, after
they were given the soap andleaflets, they acknowledged themedical reasons for keeping theirundergarments clean, specificallythe prevention of diseases andinfections.
Now, many organizations suchas JOICFP and Plan International
are working to provide thefemale population in developing
countries what they need to live
comfortably. Just like the groupof students who carried out thesoap project, individuals are also
capable of making a difference.
By Anri Takano, Asami Ito,
Kae Bannai, Maho Yatsugi andYume Abe

4UNRAVELNOVEMBER 2019

NEW PERSPECTIVESLight-giver: Byobu More than Just a Work of ArtJapanese folding screens,known as byobu in Japanese,are traditional art andpractical furniture. Byobu werecommonly used by nobles inancient Japan, as they wereeffective for dividing rooms,
blocking breezes or drafts, and for
women to avert the eyes of men.
However, there may be more
to byobu than what has been
known: they may also have beenutilized as a method of lighting.
One of the major hints was thefact that gold and silver foils
were often used on surfaces,
which reflect light well.
Ako Okaniwa, a student at
Ochanomizu University SeniorHigh School, who studied
byobu in the course of “Art andExpression” demonstrated thisthrough an experiment. She
created a miniature model of aroom and a replica of a byobu
with gold wrapping paper.
(Photos 1-4) As the room withthe byobu was brighter than
the room without one, it can besaid that byobu with gold foil
is effective in lighting a room.
(Photos 2, 4)
Byobu screens are not only
beautiful art pieces, but also a
useful objects. Okaniwa pointed
out that people tend not to consider
the practical aspects because
museums tend to emphasize
the artistic side of byobu whenexhibiting them. Looking into theorigin of a culture can make us
appreciate aspects that have beenpreviously overlooked.
By Ako Okaniwa, Mayuko
Kuriyama, Reiko Kishi and Yuna
Osaka

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo by Ako Okaniwa

Interpretive Learning: History from Multiple Viewpoints
Today, the increasingly
globalized world has madeinternational relationships morefamiliar to people. However,there are several ongoingissues between Japan and someother countries. One student,Yuka Suzuoki, studied thefrictions between Japan and itsneighbors.
Suzuoki explained that inter­national conflicts occur partly
because of misunderstandings
caused by neglecting differencesin political values and historical
recognition. She says that people
must change their awarenessto build good international
relations, by putting prejudiceaside against foreign countries,
acknowledging differences invalues between cultures, andunderstanding that different
views could be justifiable.
As part of her research,
Suzu­o ki focused on history
education, which plays a greatrole in establishing the values ofan individual. Education could
implant one-sided viewpoints
of intercultural understanding
without being questioned.
Suzuoki proposes “inter­pretive learning,” which is based

different ways.
“This workshop helped merealize how divergent historicalinterpretation and education canbe from country to country,”
said one participant.
Interpretive learning may
become a style of education thatis increasingly relied on in thefuture.
Photo by Yuka Suzuoki

The lecture

on common historical materials,
pioneered by the EuropeanUnion.
Interpretive learning isa method whereby students
discuss historical events basedon facts and data, and cometo a conclusion on their own
without being given the answers.
In order to train one’s ability
to grasp things from different
points of view, she divided theinterpretive learning process into
three steps.
The first step is to becomeaware that what is regarded ascommon sense may not be sofor other people. The second
one is to understand different
ideas of common sense. The
final one is to learn how to put

oneself in the shoes of someone
whose cultural backgrounddiffers greatly.
Suzuoki then presented herresearch as a lecture to first- andsecond-year students. Using
original teaching materials,
she talked about the RussoJapanese War. The material
includes quotations from actual
newspapers that were publishedat that time in China, Korea,
Russia and the United States,
and from a Japanese elementary
school textbook that wasactually used during the war.
The participants were put into
groups to discuss the war basedon the given information. They
discovered for themselves that it
is possible to interpret things inBy Hana Miyagaki, KahoOka, Maho Higuchi and Yuka
SuzuokiUNRAVELPublished by a group of 39
students of Ochanomizu University
Senior High School, national highschool, in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, in
cooperation with the not-for-profit
Global Education Information Center(GEIC).
Publisher: Ochanomizu University
Senior High School
Project Supervisor: Naoko
Tamatani
Editor: Mizuki A Bowles-Rokudo
Assistant Editors: Akari Noto,
Inori Shimohata, Minami Washio,
Mona Hirooka, Yuino Chiba
Contributing Editors: Ayano
UsukuraStaff Writers: Akari Noto, InoriShimohata, Minami Washio, Mizuki
A Bowles-Rokudo, Mona Hirooka,
Yuino Chiba
Contact: 2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo
Ward, Tokyo, Japan 112-8610
URL: http://www.fz.ocha.ac.jp/fk/