Category: Information

Tohoku Future Creation ForumSecond Generation 2024　

This forum inherits the basic philosophy of "nurturing the next generation of reconstruction leaders" from the "Tohoku Mirai Creation Summer School" (renamed the Tohoku Mirai Creation Forum in 2012), which was held in Iwate Prefecture from 2019 to 2018, and aims to prevent the lessons of the earthquake disaster from being forgotten. The main actors of the forum are young people of Gen Z who are participating in the "Nichigo Junior Project" and the "Mago no Te Project."

The Nichigo Junior Project sends junior high school students from areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake to Melbourne for a short period every year, with a total of 2012 students participating between 2017 and 34. The online meeting in March of last year marked the first time that these grown-up students gathered together.

　The "Mago no Te Project" is a project to support the information-poor by providing ongoing online support to elderly people of the grandparents' generation living in disaster-stricken areas from a distance. The total number of cases supported since 2020 has exceeded 1,000.

This time, participants from both projects and their supporters will come together to deepen future-oriented discussions on "food issues caused by climate change" through intergenerational networking.

Order of events (titles omitted)
16:00 Opening remarks: Keiko Saito (Head of the Iwate Prefecture Branch of the Japan Women's Medical Association)
　　　　Explanation of the purpose: Mitsuru Suzuki (Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Certified NPO Kokoro no Kakehashi Iwate)　　　　　　 　　
　　　　Guest speech: Takuya Tatsuzo (Governor of Iwate Prefecture)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Reader: Koichi Nakamoto (Director of Iwate Prefectural Central Public Health Center) 16:15 Keynote speech: "Food issues due to climate change" Takefumi Shimao (Regional Counselor, Tohoku Regional Agricultural Administration Office)　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　Chair and comment: Koichi Nakamoto
17:05 Multi-generational relay talk (20 people in their 80s-7s)
18:00 General Discussion - Towards sharing global environmental issues among multiple generations -
　　　　　　　　　　Chair and comment: Kunifumi Higuchi (Professor at the Graduate School of Project Design)
18:25 Future Creation Declaration by Fuka Kikuchi
　　　(Participated in the Nichigo Junior Project and the Mago no Te Project)
18:30 Closing remarks: Keiko Haneda (former Consul-General of Japan in Melbourne)　

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Summary of Keynote Speech　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Food problems caused by climate change

Takefumi Shimao, Regional Counselor, Iwate Prefecture Base, Tohoku Regional Agricultural Administration Office, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

A. The relationship between climate change and agriculture
・The climate change issue has a long history (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came into force in 1994)
・Agriculture is one of the sectors most vulnerable to the effects of climate change

Two. The current situation regarding food, agriculture and rural areas in Japan
(1) Impact of climate change
-Frequent and large-scale natural disasters such as floods
・Rice quality declined last year due to high temperatures → Reiwa rice riots
・Last year there was a poor apple harvest.
(2) Other issues
Decreasing number of producers and aging
- Food self-sufficiency rate

Three. Review of the Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas
(1) Ensuring food security
・Responding to the instability of agricultural production around the world and the increase in the world population
・Effective use of domestic resources = reduced environmental impact
(2) Food Systems
- Building a sustainable food system (procurement, production, processing/distribution, consumption)
- Developing innovative technologies and production systems at each stage of the food system
The role of the consumer sector

Four. Let's think about food
・The history of food
・The distance between "food" and "agriculture"

XNUMX. in conclusion
・The Potential of Tohoku
・Expectations for young people