Following the initial confirmation of cases in China in December 2019, the new coronavirus has spread around the world.
With the number of infected persons in Japan increasing and concerns of a crisis that could cause the medical system to collapse, the Japanese government declared a state of emergency on April 7.

Reporting: The Nippon Foundation Journal Editing Department

Key Points in this Article

Key Points in this Article

Key Points in this Article

Reporting: The Nippon Foundation Journal Editing Department

The Nippon Foundation launched its Children’s 3rd Place program in 2016, to build and support places where children can spend their after-school time with peace of mind and develop personally. Children’s 3rd Place Minuma, the 38th location nationwide and the fourth in Saitama Prefecture, opened on March 30, 2021.

“The Nippon Foundation DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS” is calling for entries towards its 4th annual international art exhibition, an open call exhibition for artists with disabilities inaugurated in 2018. Entry is open to artworks produced by people with disabilities that have previously not won awards.
This open exhibition aims to leverage the power of art to encourage interactions among all people, with or without disabilities, in which they share the excitement and joy, as well as to provide people with disabilities opportunities of artistic activities so that they can find potential in themselves. We look forward to seeing this time again many talents aim at this stage and send their creations so that we can unearth artistic talent, support the activities of artists with disabilities, and continue to convey the society with the significance and value of diversity.
Artists are encouraged to create their work with any material or subject. Past exhibitions of the series saw the artists’ messages conveyed outside the box; through various paintings, illustrations, graphic designs, calligraphy, photography, and formative artworks, directly speaking to the senses of the beholders. The jury panel consists of six artists and people in the art world who will make use of their knowledge in their respective fields to select the works of talented artists. At the open call for the 3rd exhibition, we received 2,089 applications of artworks from 12 countries.

On February 18, 2021, lawmaker and Olympic speed skater and track cyclist Seiko Hashimoto was named president of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, replacing Yoshiro Mori, who had stepped down after making sexist remarks that created a media uproar in Japan and overseas. Japan is considered to lag much of the rest of the world in terms of women’s social participation, ranking 121 of 153 countries covered by the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, and her appointment was seen as a step forward in this area. Looking back through history, until recently the Olympics have not been accommodating toward women.

The 35th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from February 12 to 16 on the subject of “Coronavirus and Stress.” When asked about an increased sense of confinement caused by the coronavirus, 59% replied that they sensed that people around them felt confined, and 50% felt so themselves. With regard to things experienced over the previous month, 37% cited a “continued sense of uneasiness and irritation” and 34% noted “continued fatigue.” The survey was conducted soon after the government’s state of emergency was extended in 10 of the originally covered 11 prefectures and clearly shows a strong feeling of stress among young people, with almost half of respondents saying they could not spend their leisure time as they wished, and of those 91% reporting a feeling of stress.
Additionally, 23% replied that the pandemic has had a negative effect on their pursuit of higher education or employment, and 18% reported a negative effect on family and personal incomes, showing that the coronavirus is negatively affecting young people’s lives in concrete ways.

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 34th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from January 12 to 17 on the subject of “Decarbonization.” When asked about the cause of global warming, two-thirds of respondents cited greenhouse gas emissions associated with human social activity as the main cause, and more than three-fourths were aware of the risks posed by global warming. With regard to the government’s pledge to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and make Japan carbon neutral by 2050, although 60% of respondents approved of the objective, only 14% believed it was achievable. One of the main reasons for approving of the objective was that it will raise awareness of reducing emissions. In addition, 63% of respondents had positive expectations for renewable energy, with the most promising sources seen as solar (69%), hydroelectric (40%), and biomass (35%)

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, causing a massive tsunami that caused major damage and loss of life across a wide area. One of the iconic images from the aftermath of the disaster was the “miracle pine,” a single surviving pine tree from what was previously a forest of 70,000 trees along the coast of Rikuzentakata City in Miyagi Prefecture. Although the tree has since died from exposure to salt water, it has been preserved as a permanent memorial.

In January, The Nippon Foundation carried out an awareness survey of women in eight countries on the subject of “declining birthrates.” The world’s population surpassed 7.7 billion people in 2020, and the United Nations expects this number to reach 10.0 billion later this century. Against this backdrop, many developed countries are experiencing declining birthrates, while the populations of developing countries, especially in Africa, continue to grow, with inequality and migration becoming major issues for international society.

Japan’s Olympic movement began in 1909, when Jigoro Kano, principal of Tokyo Higher Normal School (the present University of Tsukuba), became the first person from Asia to serve on the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Back to Blue is a new initiative from the Economist Group and The Nippon Foundation that is being launched today at the Economist Group’s eighth annual World Ocean Summit. With an initial focus on ocean pollution, the three-year collaboration seeks to address the escalating challenges posed by pollution from plastic debris and, less visibly, pollution from nutrients and chemical contaminants that are damaging ocean life and ecosystems, and in turn human health. The specific program is currently being developed based on the findings of a Back to Blue global survey (see below), which identified plastic pollution (59.6% of respondents) and chemical pollution (39.1%) as the top two concerns, followed by climate change (31.1%).

Jack Sim, also known as “Mr. Toilet,” is a social entrepreneur from Singapore who is working to create a “toilet culture” around the world. According to a 2019 report jointly issued by UNICEF and the WHO, of the world’s 7.8 billion people, roughly 2.0 billion do not have toilets and an additional roughly 4.2 billion do not have access to toilets that are safely managed. As a result, 297,000 children under the age of five die every year (more than 800 a day) from diarrhea caused by contaminated water and unsanitary conditions.

The 33rd installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from December 1 to 4, 2020, on the subject of “Gaps in Education.” More than 40% of the survey’s respondents replied that they felt there were gaps in their own educational environment compared with those of others, with the main reason given as “my home did not have an environment where I could concentrate and study.” In addition, more than half of respondents felt that the new coronavirus pandemic is causing gaps in learning environments to widen, and roughly 30% see the pandemic having an effect on their future educational or career choices.

The Valuable 500 is a global network launched in January 2019 at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, created as a call to the CEOs of 500 global companies to promote reforms that will enable persons with disabilities to demonstrate their potential social, business, and economic value. The Nippon Foundation has agreed to cooperate with The Valuable 500 as a Global Impact Partner and to provide support totaling US$5 million (approximately 520 million yen) over the three years from 2021 to 2023 to promote inclusion in business for persons with disabilities – specifically, access to hiring, products, and services without disadvantage.

Organized by the Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Initiative, this year’s appeal was endorsed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and focuses on the right to work.

The Nippon Foundation responded to the flooding that occurred in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures on the island of Kyushu in July 2020 in a number of ways.

The Nippon Foundation launched the Manga Edutainment Project to Open New Worlds in 2015, to identify manga (Japanese comic books) that are published as general works but can also open new worlds and lead to learning. To date, a total of 200 manga had been selected, and a selection committee recently met to choose 50 new titles to be added to the list. English versions are available for eight of the titles, including one that is the Japanese translation of a graphic novel originally published in English.

Noting that participation by women in politics in Japan is said to lag that of other countries, The Nippon Foundation conducted its 2nd Awareness Survey of 10,000 Women on the topic of “Women and Politics.” The survey found that more than 60% of respondents consider the percentage of female legislators in the national Diet and prefectural assemblies in Japan – the lowest among developed countries – to be “too low” and “needs to be increased.” Regarding the fact that only two of the 19 members of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet are women, again more than 60% of respondents called the number “too low,” with more than 90% of those respondents saying that the ideal percentage of female cabinet members would be between “roughly one-third” and “roughly half.”

With the new coronavirus crisis accelerating the use of digital technologies, the 32nd installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from November 13 to 17 on the subject of “Digitalization.” Opinions regarding Japan’s pace of digitalization were divided, with roughly 38% calling it “lagging” and roughly 31% saying that it was not. The top areas in which respondents wanted to see digitalization progress were “online learning” (36%) and “making it easier to receive new coronavirus-related subsidies” (25%). More than 60% of respondents considered government efforts to promote digitalization as “necessary,” while less than 6% felt they were “not necessary.” Of those favoring these government efforts, more than half gave “maintaining national strength” and “facilitating government services” as their reasons.
Of respondents who felt Japan’s digitalization is lagging, the top reasons given were “firmly rooted customs including paper documents and face-to-face meetings” (34%) and “a sense of difficulty” (32%). Roughly 39% of respondents expect results from the digital agency the government plans to establish in the fall of 2021, which was almost twice the percentage of those who do not. When asked what is needed to promote digitalization, the top responses were “teaching of information and communications technologies in schools” and for the “national government to take the initiative.” In addition, fewer than one in five respondents felt they possessed the knowledge needed for digitalization.

Support for seriously ill children is one of the elements of The Nippon Foundation Kids Support Project, and since 2019 this has included a project to select and distribute toys to these children. Recently, toys were distributed to roughly 100 hospitals and other facilities nationwide, and on December 17 a ceremony was held at the Tokyo Toy Museum with some of the recipients.

University Music Festa was originally launched by Haruki Takamura during his first year of university, as a group of students who shared a love of music. The group organized festivals featuring music played by DJs in clubs and other venues, eventually attracting up to 800 people. Initially, the events were entirely about enjoying music, with no connection to social issues. Over time, however, local governments and junior chambers of commerce from around Japan began asking the group to organize events in their areas, and increasingly they were asked to organize events to raise awareness of social issues. Through this experience, Mr. Takamura saw that outside metropolitan areas, initiatives to get young people to vote or raise awareness of things like the Sustainable Development Goals were struggling. This gave him the idea of using music festivals, which bring together fans of different types of music across generations, to harness this energy to bring about social change. Recently, UMF organized a festival in Osaka to coincide with the local referendum on a proposed restructuring of Osaka City’s administrative structure.

The 31st installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from October 9 to 14 on the subject of “New Foods.” The survey showed that roughly 60% of respondents consider Japan’s low food self-sufficiency rate to be a problem. At the same time, less than half of respondents see possibilities for technological innovation in food, but of those who do, the areas of reduction of food waste, creation of better-tasting meals, and development of more environmentally friendly industries were seen as the most promising. With regard to alternative sources of protein, close to one-third of respondents see meat substitutes and insect-based food products as future food sources, with fewer than half being interested in trying meat substitutes and only 16% in trying insect-based food products.
On the effect of the new coronavirus pandemic, three-fourths of respondents replied that their diet and eating habits have not changed, while of those who noted changes, roughly 85% replied that they are eating out less often and roughly 60% are cooking more often.

Older residents of rural areas in Japan are facing increasing difficulty with regard to transportation and mobility. On the one hand, many of these areas are losing population and public transportation services are being curtailed as a result, while at the same time driving one’s own vehicle ceases to be an option as drivers become older and functional decline makes operating their own vehicle dangerous to themselves and others.

The True Colors Film Festival will be held online from December 3 to 12, 2020, featuring 28 award-winning full-length and short films, documentaries, and dialogues from 15 countries.All of the films can be streamed online for free (although certain geographic restrictions apply).

The Nippon Foundation and Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd., together with the cities of Yokohama and Fujisawa in Kanagawa Prefecture, have launched a project to recycle plastic bottles (made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, the type commonly used for soft drinks) with the aim of making effective use of limited resources, promoting recycling, and reducing ocean debris. The project began with 7-Eleven convenience stores in 15 locations in Fujisawa in late August, and is being expanded to stores in Yokohama from October 30, with installations at 120 stores planned. This project will carry out “bottle-to-bottle” recycling that recycles discarded PET bottles into new PET bottles, and the collection machines will have a capacity of approximately 280 bottles (500ml bottle equivalent basis).

The 30th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out from September 29 to October 5 on the subject of “Reading and Writing.” The survey showed that roughly 60% of respondents “enjoy” reading books, while slightly more than 10% do not. Asked how many books they read per month, the largest group, at 45%, read one or two books per month, which was more than the 33% who don’t read any books at all. The most popular genres were “novels” (liked by 63% of respondents), followed by “manga” (Japanese comic books; 50%) and a type of Japanese young adult novels called “light novels” (26%). In addition, one in four respondents replied that they have been reading more during the new coronavirus pandemic. The percentage who read newspapers was roughly 33%, which marked a 15 percentage-point decline from the 48% who replied that they read a newspaper in the 2nd installment of the survey, carried out in September 2018. With regard to the time spent reading newspapers, the largest group, at 44%, replied “at least 5 minutes but less than 10,” which was followed by 33% who replied “less than 5 minutes.”

The Nippon Foundation, together with the Nagasaki Marine Industry Cluster Promotion Association, Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki University, and the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, have established the Nagasaki Ocean Academy as Asia’s first human resource training institute focusing on offshore wind power generation and other areas of ocean energy development. Classes began on October 1, 2020, and the academy aims to train 1,600 professionals over the next five years.

Tennis player Naomi Osaka posted this statement on Twitter on August 26 after reaching the semi-final stage of the Western & Southern Open, considered a warm-up tournament for the US Open, a Grand Slam tennis tournament. This protest was in response to the shooting three days prior of a Black man by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States. Indicating the anguish she felt, she added, “And as a Black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis.”

The 29th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in early August on the theme of “Regional Revitalization.” The survey showed that roughly 56% of respondents want to live in an urban area in the future, compared with roughly 43% who want to live in a rural area. By comparison, in the 10th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, carried out on the same theme in January 2019, roughly 61% of respondents wanted to live in an urban area in the future, while roughly 39% wanted to live in a rural area. Of those respondents in this year’s survey who want to live in an urban area, the top reasons given were “daily life agrees with me” and “amusement, entertainment, recreation, etc.,” while those who want to live in a rural area cited “abundant natural environment” and “daily life agrees with me.” In making their choice, roughly 44% said that they took the risk of infection of the new coronavirus into consideration.

In the fall of 2019, The Nippon Foundation conducted an “Awareness Survey of Society and Country,” covering 17- to 19-year-olds in nine countries: China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. 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.

Japan is known as one of the cleanest countries in the world. However, the use of public toilets in Japan is limited because of stereotypes that they are dark, dirty, smelly, and scary. The Nippon Foundation and the Shibuya City government have launched THE TOKYO TOILET project to build public toilets that can be used comfortably by anyone regardless of gender, age, or disability, in 17 locations in Shibuya by the summer of 2021. Seven of the toilets have been completed, and the remainder are scheduled for completion by the summer of 2021.

The 28th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in late June on the theme of “Social Media.” The survey showed that more than 90% of respondents use social media, and of those respondents, roughly 60% used social media at least two hours every day. Of social media users, 75% described social media as “indispensable” and 44% said they “relied” on social media, while roughly 1 in 20 replied that they had posted unsubstantiated criticism or insults.

The Nippon Foundation, in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum of Los Angeles, has conducted a global research project (awareness survey) of Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants) young adults. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive awareness survey targeting young Japanese emigrants and descendants around the world. For this survey, Nikkei is defined as “Japanese emigrants and their descendants throughout the world.” The survey targeted young adults between the ages of 18 and 35.

The 27th installment of the Awareness Survey of 18-Year-Olds, launched by The Nippon Foundation in October 2018, was carried out in mid-June on the theme of the “Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.” This was the second survey carried out on this topic, the previous being in July 2019, prior to the new coronavirus pandemic. The survey showed that more than half of respondents were looking forward to the Olympics, Paralympics, or both, although the figure of 55.5% was less than the 68.5% recorded in the previous survey. In addition, slightly less than half of respondents felt the Games should be held in some form in 2021 as currently scheduled, while roughly one-third thought they should be delayed further, and almost 20% thought they should be canceled altogether.

The Cosplay de UMIGOMI Zero Award 2020 ceremony was held jointly by The Nippon Foundation and the World Cosplay Summit Executive Committee (WCS) on August 2 at World Cosplay Summit 2020 Online, to recognize unique activities using cosplay to address the issue of ocean debris (umigomi is a combination of the Japanese words for ocean (umi) and waste or trash (gomi)). Cosplayers often have to pick up trash in locations they use for photography when they assume their characters, and many are very interested in environmental issues.