Program

Program Overview (tentative)

Period
July 28 (Mon) - August 10 (Sun), 2008 (total 14days)
Site of Activities
National Park: Hokkaido -- Kushiro Marsh (wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention)
Industrial/Urban: Aichi Prefecture (observation tours of automotive and logistics industries, onsite activities with Nagoya City government and NPOs)
Content
The program provides joint teams of Thai and Japanese and youths with education and work study focusing on "environmental coexistence."
  1. Participants will learn about the richness of the natural environment yet remaining in the advanced industrialized nation of Japan, become familiar with the environmental problems latent therein, and study the people's efforts to preserve the environment.
  2. Participants will gain onsite experience working on a variety of governmental, business, NPO, and grass-roots efforts to reduce environmental burdens in urban areas.
  3. Participants will have occasion to engage in group work with a variety of highly knowledgeable and experienced instructors, with all persons involved learning together and sharing issues.

Dates (tentative)

* Program content is subject to sudden changes due to weather and other conditions.

Date Activity (tentative) Location
July 29
  • Arrive in Japan, move to Hokkaido
Participants meet at Kushiro		 Kushiro, Hokkaido
July 30-August 2 Let's Look at Our Coexistence with Nature: Experiencing Japan's Extensive Nature in Hokkaido
  • Study of Kushiro Marsh's diverse ecosystems while canoeing down the Kushiro River
  • Learning from a wetland restoration project in Kushiro Marsh
Japan's preeminent wetlands area, Kushiro Marsh is designated under the "Ramsar Convention," an international convention for the protection of wetlands. This habitat supports great numbers of plants and animals. Additionally, this environment that has been altered at the hands of humans is now being restored, again by humans. Participants will visit this environment and learn how humans can coexist with nature.		 Kushiro, Hokkaido
August 3-6 How Do Thailand and Japan Differ?: Onsite Experience in Sharing the Urban-Style Environment
  • Industries' environmental technologies: future environmentally-friendly auto companies
  • Environment coexistence in the urban context: how Nagoya's measures to deal with trash began with tideland preservation
  • Environmental conduct in the logistics industry
  • Thai-Japanese pairs in homestay visits with Japanese families: Japanese people's, authentic experiences with energy and water conservation measures, trash, and other issues of environmental coesxistence familiar to the Japanese
Businesses are endeavoring to develop technologies required for manufacturing products that place a lower burden on the environment. While major cities are confronting the problem of ever-increasing volumes of trash, Nagoya has been taking thorough action to reduce solid waste. General households are working hard to conserve energy and limit resource consumption. Through onsite experience with such measures, the Thai and Japanese participants will consider the issue of environmental coexistence based on a variety of value systems.		 Aichi Prefecture
August 7-9 "What Can YOU Do?": Sharing Studies in Teams, Proclaiming Ideas Individually
  • Group work: "What We Can Do on Our Own to Promote a Sustainable Society: Creating an Action Plan"

  • Farewell Party
Aichi Prefecture
August 10
  • Dismissal
 Group dismissed in Aichi

Participation in this program requires attendance in the following orientation, training, and forum sessions

Orientation and training
Held around May 2008 (two days, one night). Thai participants take part in sessions in Thailand; Japanese participants take part in sessions in Japan.
Forum
October 24 (Fri) and 25 (Sat), 2008. Held in Aichi Prefecture (participants will take part in the forum as presenters, reporting on the results of their program activities)

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