文字サイズ
文字サイズ
Greetings! I am a new Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) who is working for the Consumer Policy Division at the Tokushima Prefectural Government. I have taken over the previous CIR after she reached the full five-year term of her employment. I hope to bring my bilingual English and Japanese language abilities and the prior experiences I gained through being involved in events related to sustainable and ethical living to the role. It will be a significant challenge to fill the shoes of my predecessor, but I hope to contribute greatly to the Consumer Policy Division!
This year’s Tokushima High School Ethical Summit was held on August 24–26. The goal of the summit was to advance education about ethical consumption at the senior high school level, and this year’s theme was (translated from Japanese) ”world challenges and ethical consumption related to housing”. Senior high school students from all over Japan stayed in Tokushima for 2 nights 3 days in Tokushima to participate in the summit.
Summit details:
Presentations by the senior high school students were held on the final day, August 26, at Shikoku University Plaza. The students pitched their ideas for improving sustainability practices or tackling social problems in the context of Tokushima, Shikoku or Japan. Topics that were raised include: waste and resource reuse, fast fashion and overspending trends, population decline and regional depopulation, and food and self-sufficiency.
An issue mentioned several times was abandoned houses. Tokushima Prefecture is said to have the highest percentage of abandoned houses in Japan, and the number of them is rising rapidly. The students presented a range of ideas for using abandoned houses: dog and cat rescue shelters, guesthouses for tourists, coworking spaces, community centers for children and parents (where children can play while parents relax and discuss their problems with other parents), cafes, and kimono dressing studios.
As someone who spent extensive time living outside Japan and recently started living in Tokushima, the summit gave me an opportunity to (re)learn about social problems in Tokushima, Shikoku and Japan. Considering an ethical day aimed at young children was held on the Sunday before the summit and the International Consumers’ Symposium in Tokushima 2026 is scheduled to be held in October, I got the impression that there are many events related to ethical living and sustainability aimed at young people, and that Tokushima Prefecture is putting significant effort into education about ethical consumption and sustainability. All presentations showed enthusiasm, and some of the students were particularly entertaining and passionate!
Some students identified that putting ethical or sustainable methods into practice is a non-trivial issue. In addition to not yet being aware of social problems or specific practices that are causing social problems, there is an awareness–action gap. People might not be familiar with ways to address certain social problems, and often there are convenience, cost, social, cultural, technical and other barriers to practising ethical living and sustainability even when people know of ways to address those problems. The students proposed ideas that could bridge this awareness–action gap by formulating creative solutions to the problems they identified.
The solutions proposed by the students involve a range of actions: first-hand experience, manual work, resource reuse, spreading information (with an emphasis on using social media), collaboration and entrepreneurship. While there are things consumers and producers can do to make the products that we consume more ethical and sustainable, I feel the solutions proposed at the summit highlighted the importance of actions beyond consumption.
Furthermore, the solutions that involve reducing, reusing or recycling resources served as a reminder that ethical consumption shall be practised with sustainability and a need to buy in mind ー not as a form of retail therapy or conspicuous consumption ー otherwise such consumption ceases to be truly ethical.
The Consumer Affairs Agency defines ethical consumption as (translated from Japanese): ”consumption that takes into consideration people, society, local communities and the environment, including regional revitalisation, employment, etc.”. There was a strong sense of ”ethical = environmental protection and contributing to society” at the summit, but the scope of what constitutes ethical/moral action is dependent on context and moral values and is also subject to competing interests, therefore is often unclear. I hope that the fields of ethical consumption/living and sustainability will give more attention to addressing topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital rights (human rights in the context of digital technologies) and empowerment of peoples who face ongoing marginalisation (LGBT people, women, non-Japanese people, etc.). As youths who are digital natives and have fresh perspectives on our world, the students who took part in this ethical summit might be well placed to tackle these topics.
I wish the students, who will become future leaders, all the best for tackling our world’s ongoing and future ethical and sustainability challenges!
