Table 1-1-3 France's 2010 -2013 Nine Strategies and New Indexes for Sustainable Development

Highlight Index (Level 1)	Supplementary Index (Level 2)
Socio-Economic Background	0.1 Domestic gross income per person and GDP / citizen (EU)
0.2 Unemployment rate and underemployment
0.3 Income distribution
0.4 Birthrate
Strategy 1 - Sustainable Consumption and Production	1.1.1: Productivity of raw materials	1.2.1: Change in waste generation; Biannual measurement at source, by type of waste
1.2.2: Percentage of waste recycling
1.2.3: Ratio of SAU in organic agriculture (goal: 20% in the year 2020)
1.2.4: Employment rate in eco-activities
Strategy 2 - Knowledge Society	2.1.1: 18 to 24 year olds who leave school before obtaining a graduation diploma
2.1.2: Percentage of research and development in GDP	2.2.1: Ratio of young people who have difficulties in reading
2.2.2: Comparison of the number of people who have obtained high school diplomas in the age groups 25 to 34 and 25 to 64
2.2.3: Ratio of people who pursue continuing education, by age group and social position
2.2.4: Barometer of knowledge in each household about the concept of sustainable development
Strategy 3 - Governance	3.1.1: Rate of participation by women in the upper levels of governance: Ratio of members of the Upper House	3.2.1: Rate of participation in the previous election of the same type
3.2.2: Participation in group activities (every two years since 2006)
3.2.3: Number of measures against climate change in local areas and the local version of Agenda 21
Strategy 4 - Climate Change and Clean Energy	4.1.1: Amount of greenhouse gas emissions (EU)
4.1.2: Carbon debt: In final domestic demand	4.2.1: Ratio of energy consumption per resident to GDP for energy consumption
4.2.2: GES emissions by sector
Strategy 5 - Sustainable Transport and Mobility	5.1.1: Energy consumption for transportation per resident	5.2.1: Distribution of transportation by type (car, bus, railroad, airplane)
5.2.2: Ratio of use of public transportation: Ratio against the total number of ground travelers
5.2.3: Distribution of transportation by type for commercial use
5.2.4: Amount of emissions of exhaust pollutant materials from transportation (NOX and aerosol)
Strategy 6 - Sustainable Conservation and Management of Biodiversity and Natural Resources	6.1.1: Number of wild birds (EU)
6.1.2: Change in ratio of land made artificial	6.2.1: Ratio of fishing resources for fish catches (EU)
6.2.2: Water quality analysis index for surface water
6.2.3: Consumption of phytosanitary products
Strategy 7 - Public Health, Risk Prevention and Management	7.1.1: Average life expectancy by occupation and average life expectancy of those who were born healthy (EU)	7.2.1: Accidents in the workplace
7.2.2: Work-related illnesses
7.2.3: Ratio of people unable to receive desired medical care (due to economic circumstances)
7.2.4: Suicide rate
7.2.5: Waste from nuclear power (every 3 years)
Strategy 8 - Demographics, immigration and social inclusion	8.1.1: Rate of economic poverty after social movement (EU)
8.1.2: Comparison of employment rates among older people for the age groups 55-64 and 55-59
8.1.3: Young people's assimilation into society: Ratio of people aged 16 - 25 who are not in education, employment, or training	8.2.1: Number of households with excessive debt
8.2.2: Unprivileged living environment (payment arrears, difficulty obtaining housing, restrictions on consumption, etc.)
8.2.3: Overpopulation in housing environment
8.2.4: Salary disparities between men and women
8.2.5: Ratio of long-term unemployed people
8.2.6: National debt (against GDP), and corporate and household debt
8.2.7: Population composition by age
Strategy 9 - International challenges of sustainable development and the fight against world poverty	Development assistance by public organizations	Ratio of imported goods in domestic resource consumption

Note: "EU" within the table denotes indicators that use indicators common throughout the European Union

Sources: “Les indicateurs de la strategie nationale de développement durable 2010-2013 from France’s Ministry of Sustainable Development

“FY 2010 Policy Research on the Environment and the Economy” (Professor Masaharu Yagishita, Yuki Nishiguchi, et al. Sophia University) from the Ministry of the Environment

capability approach that conceives an individual's life as a combination of the various "doings and beings" (functioning) and his or her freedom to choose among that functioning (capability). The third approach is a welfare economics approach, based on theories of welfare economics, of weighting non-monetary dimensions of QoL in respect to people's preferences, such as fairness of income distribution.

Although these approaches are different, they also have similarities with each other. When measuring QoL it is important to focus on measurement of subjective elements (the individual situation and the person's actual feelings) and measurement of objective elements (health, education, individual activities such as leisure, status of governance, social connections, status of the environment, personal safety and peace of mind).

Further, based on these results, the Ministry of Sustainable Development of France adopted a National Sustainable Development Strategy for the period from 2010 -2013, including nine key challenges and indicators (Table 1-1-3).

As seen above, all these discussions about GDP’s usefulness and its limitations, measurement of QoL, and measurement of sustainable development aim to establish an important evaluation method in order to achieve sustainability and life satisfaction so that future and current generations can both enjoy their lives. We expect that international discussions that include Japan will continue in the future.

In the next section, we will provide an overview of the sustainability and QoL of the Earth and Japan, mainly in terms of the environment.