© OKINAWA INTERNATIONAL MOVIE FESTIVAL

Japan: Taking Action for Sustainable Development

What are the bold actions being taken by the private sector toachieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Japan?
Gender equality is not only afundamental human right, but anecessary foundation forpeaceful, prosperous andsustainable world. Japan usescomedy as a means ofpromoting the importance ofgender equality for achieving
sustainable development.
Yoshimoto Kogyo, Japan’s
comedy-entertainment giant has
joined forces with the United
Nations Information Centre(UNIC) in Tokyo, to promote theimportance of the 17 SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs). In
March 2017, Yoshimoto Kogyo
and UNIC Tokyo jointly
organised an online campaign

for International Women’s Day
under the new partnership.
Several popular female
comedians from Yoshimoto
Kogyo shared their messages ongender equality with theJapanese public throughwebsites and social media
platforms showing solidarity withall women around the world.
Their messages, based on theirown experiences, deeply
resonated with the Japanesepublic.
Led by Yoshimoto Kogyo, thepartnership also expanded to theOkinawa International Movie
Festival in April 2017 to raise
public awareness of the SDGs.

I believe that the purpose of every
profession is to make the people
we love happy. In other words, weall work for the well-being of people
in Japan and across the world. As
the saying goes, ‘laughter brings
forgiveness, and forgiveness brings
laughter.’ When there is laughter,we can muster the strength to bringhappiness to others. By being
involved in an activity to promote
the SDGs, we wish to help inspireand create hope for the future withwhat little we can do as comediansand entertainers. We arecommitted to advancing the efforts
toward actualising a global societyfilled with laughter.
Hiroshi Osaki
President and CEO
Yoshimoto Kogyo

Laughter can open up people’s
minds. Comedy and entertainment
can break barriers. We reallyappreciate this great partnershipwith the creative community in thespirit of partnership crystallized inGoal 17.
Kaoru Nemoto
Director
UNIC Tokyo

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Japan: Taking Action for Sustainable Development

Mr. Hiroshi Osaki, President and CEO of Yoshimoto Kogyo© OKINAWA INTERNATIONAL MOVIE FESTIVAL

The event included a screeningof a short promotional movie on
the SDGs produced by topJapanese creators; a SDGs
photo exhibition which included
some taken by the Yoshimoto
comedians; and a game forchildren to collect 17 SDG
stamps featuring the comedians’
messages.

Society is shackled by its own
stereotypes of what women shouldlook like. We are preoccupied withstriving towards achieving societal
standards of beauty. I like myself
as I am.
Yuriyan Retriever
Female ComedianWell-known female comedians promoting SDG5 on International Women’s Day insolidarity with all women around the world (March 2017)© YOSHIMOTO CREATIVE AGENCY

Why do the above actionsmatter to the people in Japan?

influencers and connectors inthe country.

Although the 17 SDGs areuniversal goals for all countries,
people’s awareness andrecognition of the SDGs is low inJapan. According to a PwC
study in 2015, the global
average of the public recognition
rate across 16 countries
surveyed was 33 per cent, but inJapan it was only 22 per cent.

What SDGs have been
particularly advanced?
This approach helps advance
Goal 4 on Quality Education,
Goal 5 on Gender Equality andGoal 17 on Partnerships for theGoals.

Comedians are uniquely
positioned in the Japaneseentertainment business as they
not only perform comedies, butalso appear in TV shows aspresenters and commentators.
Promoting the SDGs using
public figures, such as theYoshimoto comedians, isincreasingly important as they
have a wide public outreach as
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