Typhoon Hagibis, the season’s 19th typhoon, struck Japan on October 12-13 and caused major damage in the Tokai, Kanto, Koshinetsu, and Tohoku regions. The Nippon Foundation is dispatching NGOs and volunteer organizations to the affected areas, and is collecting donations to support their recovery activities.

Thinking, supporting, and rearing together. 
These are the goals of The Nippon Foundation’s Kids Support Project. 
We are working to connect people, knowledge, and activity, 
to create a society in which “everyone helps to raise everyone’s children.”

The worldwide movement to eliminate leprosy has been enjoying considerable success since MDT was endorsed by the WHO in 1981. The Nippon Foundation has been instrumental in this success, to the point that in 2001 WHO asked Yohei Sasakawa, our chairman, to be its Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination.

A ceremony was held on December 27, 2019, to mark the opening of The Nippon Foundation Disaster Recovery Support Center in the town of Marumori in Miyagi Prefecture. The center, opened in Marumori’s volunteer center, will support recovery work being done by Marumori residents who experienced major damage from Typhoon Hagibis, which caused widespread flooding and other damage across a large section of central and northeastern Japan in October 2019.

Since 2006, The Nippon Foundation has issued an annual Global Appeal to end stigma and discrimination against persons affected by leprosy, joined each year by influential individuals and organizations in conjunction with World Leprosy Day in January. Via the launch ceremony, we aim to foster a correct understanding of leprosy throughout the world and bring an end to the discrimination associated with the disease.

One of the sessions at The Nippon Foundation Social Innovation Forum 2019, held in Tokyo from November 29 to December 1, was titled Yume Jitsugen Taikai (Rally to Achieve Dreams). The program was organized by “i stand,” a group of students at Hiro Gakuen Senior High School in Tokyo who are working to bring about social change with an emphasis on individual initiative. The session featured a keynote address by Takeshi Okada, former manager of the Japan national soccer team, a panel discussion with four junior and senior high school students who are involved in social activities, and a presentation by members of i stand.

The Nippon Foundation Social Innovation Forum 2019 was held from November 29 to December 1 in Tokyo. The event included a keynote address by Minister of the Environment Shinjiro Koizumi, 12 “Future Session” programs dealing with issues related to family, society, and the global community, 9 special sessions with presentations on social innovation activities around Japan, and The Nippon Foundation Social Innovation Awards.

The 19th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in mid-September on the theme of “Media.” The survey showed that the information deemed most important for daily life was weather and disaster-related information, followed closely by entertainment and music, and then government, economic, and society. Television was the most popular source of information, followed by social media, news websites, video distribution and sharing sites, and friends and family. More than 80% of respondents have felt that information available on the internet is false, and more than 65% have confirmed the accuracy of information they saw on social media.

The 20th installment was an “Awareness Survey of Society and Country,” and for this installment the survey covered 17- to 19-year-olds in nine countries: China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam, with the results announced on November 30 at The Nippon Foundation Social Innovation Forum 2019. The survey showed that in a number of areas, young people in Japan ranked last compared with their peers in other countries in terms of considering themselves to be adults, having dreams for the future, and believing that they can change society or their country.

The Nippon Foundation and the Bangladesh-headquartered, international NGO BRAC held a joint press conference at the BRAC Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 11 (local time) to announce an agreement under which the Foundation will provide roughly US$2 million in support to BRAC for the construction of 50 steel 2-story structures, to be used as learning centers in refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.

The 2^nd Coast Guard Global Summit, bringing together top officials involved in ocean safety from around the world, was held in Tokyo on November 20-21. Roughly 200 people representing 84 institutions from 75 countries attended the event, which was jointly organized by The Nippon Foundation and the Japan Coast Guard, to discuss the future direction of ocean policies. Attendance was more than double that of the first summit, held in 2017.

The Nippon Foundation’s HEROs project, which promotes activities by athletes that contribute to society, held an event in cooperation with the NGO Snowbank on November 9-10 at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. “Tokyo Snow Festival x HEROs FESTA 2019” featured a number of top-level athletes who serve as “HEROs ambassadors,” who gave talks and demonstrations and interacted with children, using sports as a way to instill a desire to pursue challenges. Under sunny autumn skies, many young people and families with young children visited the event, which was held with a theme of “On your marks.”

The Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Guiding Committee jointly launched The Nippon Foundation – Gebco Seabed 2030 Project in 2017 with the goal of mapping 100% of the ocean floor by 2030. An event to report on the project’s progress to date and plans going forward, under the title “From Vision to Action,” was held at the Royal Society in London on October 22, with roughly 100 researchers and members of the media attending.

The Nippon Foundation has received a $100,000 (roughly 10.8 million yen) donation from Ryan Kaji and his family, who operate the popular YouTube channel “Ryan ToysReview,” to support the Foundation’s relief and recovery activities in response to Typhoon Hagibis, which struck Japan on October 12-13. The donation will be used primarily to support children in areas that incurred damage.

Members of the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team, led by alumni of The Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Ocean Bathymetry training program at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping of University of New Hampshire, visited Japan recently to report on their winning of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, an international competition in underwater mapping technologies. On September 18 team representatives briefed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his official residence, and held a briefing for field professionals in Japan at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo.

Training for the “field cast” volunteers who will assist with the operation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games began on October 4 at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Yoyogi, Tokyo. A total of roughly 550 persons attended one of the two three-hour sessions, held in the morning and afternoon, and learned about the rules and mental preparation expected of volunteers, along with Olympic and Paralympic history. The training will be held at 13 locations in 11 prefectures through the end of March 2020. The Bureau of Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 Preparation also held a similar training program on the same day for “city cast” volunteers who will assist visitors outside the Games venues.

In cooperation with Salzburg Global Seminar, The Nippon Foundation is delighted to announce the “Call for applications for the Asia Peace Innovators Forum.”

The Tokyo portion of the True Colors Festival, which exhibits the diverse abilities of artists with disabilities, begins this month and will last through July 2020, to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The first event was held in November 2006 in Vientiane, Laos, as a festival for artists with disabilities. Since then, it has grown in terms of both size and content, and for the upcoming series the term “disability” has been removed from the name. Under the banner of “True Colors,” the arts festival will emphasize the goal of an inclusive society in which everyone can participate, regardless of whether or not they have a disability, or their sexual orientation or gender identity, age, language, or nationality.

ImpacTech is a startup accelerator founded in 2015 and based in Singapore, with additional operations in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan. Together with The Nippon Foundation, it recently held The Nippon Foundation Social Change Makers, a four-month program for Japanese startups looking to make a social impact. Founders Kineret Karin and Yoav Elgrichi recently sat down with Hayato Hanaoka of The Nippon Foundation to discuss the program and social startups in Japan.

The 17th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in late July on the theme of the “Consumption Tax.” Japan’s consumption tax (similar to other countries’ sales tax or value-added tax) rate rose to 10% from 8% for most items effective October 1 (with the 8% rate remaining in place for certain designated items). The results, announced on August 29, showed that more than one-fourth of respondents felt the 10% rate was appropriate or that the rate should be higher, while close to half of the respondents felt the rate should be kept at 8% or lower, and roughly 10% thought the consumption tax should be eliminated entirely.

The results of the 18th installment, on the theme of “Work,” were announced on September 17 and showed that more than half of respondents have decided on a field in which they want to work, with the top choices being civil servant, company employee, and IT-related. The survey also showed that roughly one-fourth of respondents want to work in a major city in Japan, roughly one-fourth want to work in a regional city in Japan, and slightly less than 5% want to work overseas. In addition, slightly more than half of respondents intend to give priority to their personal life over their work, and slightly more than one-third want to spend their entire career at the same company.

Our mission is social innovation.

Through this innovation we aim to achieve a society where all people support one another, reducing the burdens and challenges they face together.

The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), an international conference led by the Japanese government to support economic development in Africa, was held on August 28-30 at Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama. As an official side event, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), which is supported by The Nippon Foundation, held a symposium titled “Sasakawa in Africa – Building on the past, looking to the future; Africa’s youth and entrepreneurship in agriculture” on August 28. The symposium focused on the serious problem of growing youth unemployment in Africa, and the possibilities now offered by agriculture.

Established in 2001, Fukushi Gakudan (Social Welfare Orchestra) operates nursing homes (legally designated as “intensive care homes for the elderly”) and centers providing daytime services in Chiba and Saitama prefectures. Daisuke Iida, Fukushi Gakudan’s managing director, originally had no interest in social welfare.

With roughly one year to go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, HEROs PARA-SPORTS DAY 2019 was held on July 8 at The Nippon Foundation Para Arena in Tokyo. The event was part of The Nippon Foundation’s “HEROs Sportsmanship for the future” project, which seeks to bring together currently active and retired athletes to build a framework for creating social bonds across Japan.

In recent years, cosplay has spread beyond Japan to become an activity that is popular around the world. On June 8, cosplayers from Japan and other countries gathered at Tokyo Tower in central Tokyo, dressed as characters from anime (Japanese-style animation), manga (Japanese-style comics), and video games to participate in the “Nationwide Cleanup Campaign by domestic and foreign cosplayers at Tokyo Tower,” as part of The Nippon Foundation’s Change for the Blue program. A total of 430 cosplayers, including representatives of countries including Italy, Mexico, and Taiwan, collected roughly 90 bags (2,700 liters) of trash in the area around Tokyo Tower.

The 15th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in late May and early June with a theme of “National Elections.” The results, announced on June 27, showed that roughly half of respondents of voting age planned to vote in the July 21 House of Councillors (the upper house of Japan’s national legislature) election, and of those who planned to vote, roughly 60% said they would cast their vote based on the candidates’ policies, while roughly 20% would vote based on political party.

The results of the 16th installment, on the theme of the “Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” announced on July 22, showed that close to 70% of respondents are looking forward to the Olympics, Paralympics, or both. The events in which respondents were most interested were aquatics, followed by the opening ceremony and athletics for the Olympics, and wheelchair basketball, followed by the opening ceremony and wheelchair tennis for the Paralympics.

The LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE exhibition, with a theme of “To Love is To Create,” was held at the Tokyo Midtown complex in central Tokyo from July 14 to 16. This was a preliminary event to promote the LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Exhibition being planned for the summer of 2020, to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Nippon Foundation will hold a ceremony in Tatkone Sanpra Baptist Church relocation camp to mark the completion of shelters for IDPs in Myitkyina, Kachin state. 32 households currently living in a temporary camp will be located to a commodious land and will receive vocational training.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal, one of the fiercest battles of World War II. With support from The Nippon Foundation, the Imphal Peace Museum has opened on the site of the battle, with an opening ceremony held on June 22 and attended by representatives of India, Japan, and Britain.

The Nippon Foundation is asking for documents related to the Battle of Imphal and has begun accepting donations to support the operation of the Imphal Peace Museum.

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal, which was one of the fiercest battles of World War II and is also said to have later played a role in India’s independence movement. Despite the historic significance of this battle, few people living in the area today are familiar with that history and related documents have been lost. The museum seeks to pass on this history to future generations.

The Nippon Foundation is supporting the Manipur Tourism Forum’s construction of a museum in Imphal in the state of Manipur, which is scheduled to open June 22, 2019, with a theme of “Peace and Reconciliation.” The museum is asking for donations of documents and other related items so that they can be exhibited and stored there.

The 13th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in early April with a theme of “Japan’s Constitution.” The results, announced on April 25, showed that fewer than 40% of respondents are “familiar” with the Constitution. At the same time, more than 70% responded that they know the Constitution’s three underlying principles of pacifism, popular sovereignty, and the guarantee of fundamental human rights, but fewer than 60% feel that these principles are functioning in today’s society.

The GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team (the “GEBCO-NF Team”), comprising mostly graduates of an international scholarship program operated by The Nippon Foundation, has won the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, an international competition in deep-sea exploration technology. The award, which includes a prize of US$4 million, was presented at a ceremony in Monaco on May 31.

Bringing together The Nippon Foundation’s project implementation capabilities and the University of Tokyo’s research capabilities, a signing ceremony was held on May 14 at the Ito International Research Center at the University of Tokyo to mark the launch of The Nippon Foundation – University of Tokyo Ocean Debris Project to tackle the continuously increasing amount of ocean debris.

Athletes can demonstrate sportsmanship when they are not competing.
Sportsmanship also means proactively working to create bonds and assist society.
Nevertheless, athletes’ activities outside sporting events receive little attention, and not all athletes engage in these activities.

A Cooperative Framework for Maintaining Safety in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore

Roughly one third of the world’s crude oil and more than 80% of Japan’s oil imports pass through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. Ensuring the safe passage of ships in these waters, with their many narrow and shallow spots, is a task that exceeds the capabilities of the three littoral countries bordering the Straits. Recognizing this, The Nippon Foundation has been working for more than four decades to help enhance the safety and protect the natural environment of these waters.

Leprosy is a disease that has created severe stigma and discrimination since the beginning of recorded history. The Nippon Foundation, based in Tokyo, has been engaged in activities to eliminate leprosy around the world for 50 years. In recognition of his leading contribution to these activities, The Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei Sasakawa was awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize by the government of India in 2018, and was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, conferred by the Japanese Emperor in May 2019.

Subsequently, the book “No Matter Where the Journey Takes Me: One Man’s Quest for a Leprosy-Free World” has been published by Hurst Publishers.*
Mr. Sasakawa, who also serves as WHO Goodwill Embassador for Leprosy Elimination, has travelled extensively to many leprosy-affected regions including India, Africa, Brazil, and remote islands. This book records those experiences, as well as dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church.
To commemorate the publication of this book, the Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation will jointly hold the event outlined below.

Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, was decorated with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun at the 2019 spring awards ceremony, the first to be held since the ascension of Emperor Naruhito and the commencement of the Reiwa Era on May 1. The Orders of the Rising Sun are Japan’s first award, established in 1875 to recognize politicians and members of the private sector who have made outstanding achievements to society in a variety of fields. This year, Mr. Sasakawa is among eight persons receiving the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. The awards were conferred by the Emperor at the Imperial Palace on May 23.

The Nippon Foundation’s agricultural assistance in Africa began in response to the severe famine in Ethiopia in 1984. To counter the worst stage of the famine, emergency supplies were being airlifted from London, but this only provided temporary relief. Searching for a fundamental way of resolving Africa’s food problems, Ryoichi Sasakawa, the chairman of The Nippon Foundation at the time, firmly believed that more than “giving a fish,” the important thing is “to teach how to fish.”

The Paralympic Games

Held every four years since 1960, the Paralympic Games are a major international sporting event for athletes with impairments. Approximately 4,200 athletes from 164 countries and regions, including Japan, participated in the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the 14th time the event was held.