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- Introducing ANMC 21 Joint Projects
| The ANMC21 conducts joint projects addressing common challenges among major Asia cities. In this issue, we introduce the Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games 2009, one of the ANMC 21 joint projects related to 窶弸outh-to-Youth Program窶・ were recently held in Tokyo. |
Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games 2009
The Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games 2009 were held over eight days in Tokyo from Monday, Aug. 24 to Monday, Aug. 31. These Games are held with the objective of enhancing the competitiveness of junior Asian athletes, as well as contributing toward the teaching of future generations through international exchanges.
This year窶冱 event was the third time the Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games have been held and, like last year, the sports engaged in were badminton and judo. This year窶冱 Games were enormously successful, with 322 people taking part, including athletes, managers and coaches, with the participants drawn from 16 different cities.
During the exchange event, there was a tournament made up of friendly games, training sessions held under the instruction of Olympic athletes (International Sports Camps) and cultural events such as visits to a Tokyo school. The friendly games in particular provided a chance to go up against athletes from overseas, becoming a valuable experience that allowed for growth mentally and technically.
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Cultural Exchange
One of the highlights of the cultural exchange event was not just exchanges through sports, but also actually going to junior high schools and high schools in Tokyo where children took a class, ate school lunches and took part in cultural exchanges such as club activities. These school visits allowed for the athletes to gain understanding of their respective cultures and provided an ideal opportunity to experience Japanese culture and the charms on offer in Tokyo.
We spoke to Duc and Huyen, badminton players from Hanoi, about their experience when enjoying a tea ceremony demonstration at Nishi Waseda Junior High School.
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Volunteer Yuri Tanaka,
Huyen (aged 15) and Duc (aged 13) |
Scenes from the tea ceremony demonstration |
・晃hat did you think of the tea ceremony?
Duc: The tea tasted different to the tea we have in Vietnam. I could experience a taste I had never tried before, so it was really new for me. The Japanese tea is really delicious and I like it.
Huyen: We experienced a lot of things at the Japanese school. You cannot experience the Japanese tea ceremony at Vietnamese schools, so it was really enjoyable.
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・晃hat left the most lasting impression with you following your trip to Japan this year?
Duc: Everybody was just so kind and gentle. And I was really surprised by how clean the roads and the streets all are.
Huyen: I really liked the Imperial Palace, which we visited on a tour. There was lots of greenery and it was very beautiful. And the aquarium also left an impression, too. In Vietnam, there is nowhere we can see such a huge variety of different fish.
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・孝inally, please tell us your dreams for the future?
Duc: I want to make it to the Olympic Games as a badminton player. I want to become the world窶冱 best badminton player.
Huyen: I also want to take part in the Olympic Games as a badminton player. I want to use the experiences of these Games to encourage me to continue my badminton practice after I go back to Vietnam.
Both have very refreshing personalities and are promising athletes.
Finally, many volunteers helped out with the operation of the Junior Sports Exchange Games. The support and cooperation of the people from local communities links toward the promotion of sports.
We pray for the continued success of all the athletes who took part in the Junior Sports Games.
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- Major Cities窶・Cutting-Edge Approaches
| An Introduction of Cutting-Edge Approaches Taken by ANMC 21 Member Cities
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(1) From Seoul: The C40 Seoul Summit and the Seoul Municipal Government窶冱 Global Warming Countermeasures
In this issue we receive a report on the C40 Seoul Summit held in May this year from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
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★ What is the C40?
With the speed of global warming increasing year by year in recent years, there have been rises in average temperatures and ocean water levels, having an influence on a global scale and human society in such ways as through extreme heat, water shortages, floods, the spread of transmittable diseases and food crises. Unless we do something drastic within five or six years, we will be inviting a situation catastrophic for all humanity.
The C40 refers to the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group comprised of representatives from 40 major cities located across five continents, and is a consultative body set up spontaneously among the respective large cities with the awareness that climate change needs to be tackled not just on the international and national level, but also within cities. The group started in 2005 upon a proposal from the Lord Mayor of London, with 18 cities forming a network approaching the issue of how to reduce exhaust emissions that turn into greenhouse gases. The second summit was held in New York in 2007, with representatives from 51 large cities gathering there. Seoul hosted the third global summit in May this year.
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★ What was the significance of Seoul hosting the summit?
In 2006, the city of Seoul became a member of the C40 Climate Leadership Group and during the second summit held in New York the following year, the decision was made for Seoul to host the third summit. During the Seoul summit approximately 1,040 people of mayoral rank or equivalent attended, representing a little over 80 cities from 41 countries around the world, making the summit the largest of its kind so far. Competition to cover the summit within the mass media was fierce and succeeded in allowing for the realization that climate change is a global issue. Of particular note was that former United States President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at the summit窶冱 opening ceremony and he asked the representatives of the world窶冱 respective cities to stand at the forefront of actively engaging the issue of climate change.
The theme of this year窶冱 summit was 窶廚ities窶・Achievements and Challenges in the Fight Against Climate Change,窶・while the conference was divided into seven plenary sessions discussing such matters as 窶廚limate Change and the Economic Crisis窶・and a further 23 sub-working groups.
In addition, green industries such as The Samsung Group, Hyundai Motor Co. and Honeywell International Inc. were among the many world-leading businesses to take part in a climate change exhibition held through the duration of the summit at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul, and they provided information and cutting edge technologies related to climate change matters as seen in the cities taking part in the summit.
Furthermore, the Seoul Summit made an enormous contribution toward the mutually comprehensive and cooperative relationship between the cities by presenting the opportunity for each city to actually be able to communicate and deepen cooperation with others in respect to climate change-related issues through such ways as exchanging information on latest technologies to fight climate change and signing memorandums of understanding based on substantial examples already taken.
The Seoul Declaration adopted on the final day of the summit organized such things as the environment policies of many cities with large emissions of global warming gases and adopted the declaration that also outlined the joint objectives of the respective cities aimed toward reduced carbon use.
During the summit, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced that Seoul aimed to raise the ratio of renewable energy used in the city to 20 percent by 2020 and revealed the details of such projects as rationalization of building energy use as a representative countermeasure to climate change, the creation of tracks exclusively for the use of bicycles, and the Han Renaissance, a greenery expansion project for the banks of the Han River.
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★ What are the Seoul Metropolitan Government窶冱 initiatives regarding global warming countermeasures?
In Seoul, we have already expressed the vision of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 under the Seoul Declaration on Environmentally-Friendly Energy. It has also continued substantial efforts in other ways such as the announcement of environmentally friendly building standards.
Moreover, in the past year or so, Seoul has campaigned to reduce the amount of dust within the atmosphere by at least 10 percent, as well as converted just over 6,000 of the roughly 7,600 buses running through Seoul to compressed natural gas (CNG) power in consideration of the environment, and an explanation given that the plan will be completed with 100 percent of conversions completed within next year.
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★ Please tell us more about the project to construct tracks exclusively for bicycles.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is currently tackling a project that will by 2014 lay down a total distance of 400 kilometers of tracks within the city of Seoul exclusively for the use of bicycles. Right now in Seoul -- a city where passenger cars alone are a major form of commuting vehicle, and where a decision has been made that this makes it impossible to deal with the problems of climate change and traffic congestion -- an effort must be made to turn the city into one where it is possible to commute by bicycle. Construction and maintenance of bicycle tracks is not only friendly to the environment, the city expects it will also lead toward alleviating the problem of traffic congestion.
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| Promoting detailed environmental policies such as these shows how the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as a leading environmental city, is actively engaged in the prevention of global warming. |
(2) From Tokyo:縲The Initiative to Turn Sewerage Sludge Into a Resource
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government regards progression toward reducing sewerage sludge or turning it into a resource as issues of pressing urgency.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government窶冱 Bureau of Sewerage has been carrying out at its Tobu Sludge Plant a 窶彜ludge Carbonization Project,窶・which it started in November 2007.
This project 窶・the first such initiative of its type in Japan -- involves taking sludge generated during the sewerage treatment process and making it into carbide, which is in turn used as an alternative fuel source to generate thermal power.
In this edition, we will talk about the Tokyo Metropolitan Government窶冱 initiatives in projects that involve turning sludge into carbide.
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★ Schematics of the Projects
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government supplies about 99,000 tons of dried sludge every year to companies and commissions them over 20 years to make this into carbide.
The companies buy the roughly 8,700 tons of carbide produced and sell this on to electricity companies. The electricity companies mix the carbide with coal used to fuel thermal power generators and use it to generate electricity.
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 Project Schematics |
★ Promotion of Creating Resources
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been for a long time promoting the creation of resources from dried sludge, employing such methods as burning the entire amount of sludge and using the incinerated ash as a raw material in cement, or putting the burned sludge to uses within construction materials. During the 2007 fiscal year, about 65 percent of all the dried sludge generated was turned into a resource.
The roughly 99,000 tons of dried sludge supplied annually to companies makes up about 10 percent of all the dried sludge generated within the 23 wards of central Tokyo and contributes even further toward to turning this into a resource.
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★ Contributing Toward the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases
The volume of greenhouse gases emitted during the sludge incineration process accounts for about 40 percent of all such gases emitted in Bureau of Sewerage projects. But the carbide manufacturing process cuts the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by about 80 percent compared to the amount generated during the existing sludge incineration treatment.
Compared to the existing sludge incineration treatment, this represents the effect of an annual reduction of 37,000 tons of carbon dioxide generated.
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★ Power Generation Through Biomass Fuel
The amount of electricity generated through the use of carbide at thermal power stations is the equivalent to the energy needed to power about 2,000 average households for one whole year.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, carbon dioxide generated through biomass fuels is not counted as part of the overall emission of greenhouse gases, so this process makes a contribution toward the reduction of greenhouse gases emitted in thermal power stations.
This project will continue on in the future, progressing with the transformation of sewerage sludge into a resource, while at the same time expected to make a contribution toward the prevention of global warming by reducing greenhouse gases.
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 Tobu Sludge Plant |
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- International Students in Tokyo
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, through the Tokyo Metropolitan University, accepts students from cities throughout Asia and promotes advanced, cutting-edge research into development in Asia and solutions for urban problems.
In this issue, we hear from Mr. Nono, a foreign student from Indonesia who is carrying out fluid engineering research, and his supervisor, Professor Mizunuma. |
Interview Mr. Nono, a foreign student from Indonesia
Mr. Nono |
—What are my motives for studying at Tokyo Metropolitan University?
Please allow me to firstly introduce myself. My name is Nono Darsono. I come from Indonesia. I feel very happy to continue my studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University. After I have finished here, I will complete my Master窶冱 degree in South Korea. I have a goal to continue my doctorate in a country other than Korea. My purpose in continuing to study in another country is to gain experience and build a network for the future. Continuing my studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan is one of the ways for me to fulfill that purpose. Japan is a developed Asian country. Science and technology rapidly grow and the economy has attained an advanced level. By studying in Japan, I have the opportunity to develop and learn about science and technology. I have the chance to study the Japanese language and culture. Indonesia and Japan have good relations. Japan provided scholarships to Indonesian students to continue studying in Japan. Major Japanese corporations such as Honda, Toyota and Kawasaki have built factories in Indonesia.
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—Please describe the outline of your study.
My research topic is 窶彝heological study on the Solidification Behavior
of Single Wall Carbon Nanotube-Dispersed Photopolymer and The Study of
the Sedimentation and Dispersion of the Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Dispersed System.窶・Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are allotropes of carbon with
a cylindrical nanostructure. CNT has nano-sized dimensions. These cylindrical
carbon molecules have novel properties that make them suitable for many
applications such as electronics, optics, and other fields of material
scopes.
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—How is your life in Tokyo? |
Tokyo is a huge metropolis. Public transportation is very good and equipment such as trains and buses are well maintained and convenient. It is very easy for me to go anywhere in Tokyo by train or bus.
Although, Japan is a developed country, it also preserves its Asian culture. People respect the elderly and disabled.
Tokyo has among the highest costs of living in the world. Everything in Tokyo is more expensive when compared to other cities, especially in comparison with my home country. Foreign students living on scholarships from the Japanese government need to manage their finances very carefully.
Public service facilities such as hospitals, banks, and the post office do not provide enough information in English. Foreigners who cannot speak Japanese have difficulties if they need to complete forms in Japanese. Perhaps the Tokyo Metropolitan Government can provide all important documents in English.
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—Please tell us your goal after finishing your studies at the Tokyo Metropolitan University. |
After completing a doctorate, I want to devote myself to research and technological development in Indonesia. I am listed as a researcher at the Metallurgy Research Center in the Indonesian Institute of Science operated by the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology. I will try to study continuously and with further depth the things I have learned at the Tokyo Metropolitan University. And I want to nurture a close relationship between the Tokyo Metropolitan University and my place of work.
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Here is the interview with Professor Mizunuma, supervisor of Mr. Nono
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| Interview |
Professor Hiroshi Mizunuma, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering |
Professor Hiroshi Mizunuma |
The student I am currently supervising is Nono Darsono from the University of Indonesia. Emeritus Professor Keizo Watanabe, my predecessor at the Faculty of Thermal and Fluid Engineering, started what has now become a long relationship with the University of Indonesia. You have to go back about 16 years to the start of the relationship, to the time when Yukio Aoshima was governor of Tokyo, and the then Professor Watanabe accepted Yanuar from the University of Indonesia, who was the first student who came here under a Tokyo Metropolitan Government plan to provide a scholarship to a student from Asia. Yanuar is now a professor at the University of Indonesia, as is Budiarso 窶・another student from the same institution who later came to study in Japan 窶・and I have heard that Emeritus Professor Watanabe was invited to attend both of their investiture ceremonies when they became professors.
When I inquired with Yanuar as to whether he could recommend a student to come to study under the current scholarship, he introduced me to Nono Darsono, who had just returned to Jakarta and was working at a national laboratory after having completed his Master窶冱 degree at Taegu University in South Korea. When Yanuar came to Japan as a scholarship student, he did so on a program that had targeted Master窶冱 degree students. Even now there are still many students in Asia whose economic status makes it extremely difficult for them to progress through to a Master窶冱 degree regardless of how talented they are, so it would be wonderful if the Asian Human Resources Fund scholarship was targeted toward Master窶冱 degree students to meet those needs and allow for the cultivation of outstanding human resources who give nothing away to those from the West.
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Indonesia has a very close affinity for Japan, with Indonesian universities using experimental machinery provided by Japan and Japanese-supplied trains run through its cities, while through television, children there have come to know more about Japan窶冱 J-League soccer players or anime than people such as myself do. I would truly love to see scholarships such as this one be used to continue to maintain these relations.
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Allow me to change the subject to things I have noticed since Nono came to Japan. My laboratory and another laboratory have joined together to form an independent research lab, where about 20 students altogether are carrying out their research. There are currently two foreign students, but in another three months they will be joined by a further two students. Yet, when Nono arrived in Japan, he was the only student from overseas and I was a little worried about language problems. At the Tokyo Metropolitan University, part of the English language instruction is contracted out to an external language college and I had heard it was devoting a lot of energy toward providing practical language education, but the results of this were not apparent in the actual language abilities of the students. However, with an increase in the number of foreign students studying here as we are seeing now, I get the feeling that students窶・awareness of the importance of language abilities has gradually begun to change. When I studied at the University of California in Berkeley 17 years ago, I remember being very surprised to hear that foreign students accounted for more than half the faculty窶冱 set number of students in the Chemical Engineering Department. Even if we do not reach Berkeley窶冱 levels, an increase in the number of foreign students studying in Japan carries deep meaning for Japanese students. I have every intention of enjoying my relationship with Nono, even after he has graduated.
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- Tokyo Company Introduction
Bringing a 窶廴ade in Developing Nation窶・Brand to the World Motherhouse窶冱 Challenge (1/2)
We introduce a small-to-medium sized company from Tokyo that is doing business
with the world. We will have two reports on Motherhouse Co. & Ltd.,
a company active in Bangladesh.
Part One: To Bangladesh
In recent years, Asia has been referred to as 窶弋he World窶冱 Growth Center,窶・and the continent carries an image of accounting for remarkable economic growth. But within Asia, Bangladesh is designated by the United Nations as being among the Least Among Less Developed Countries (LLDC) and it remains as one of the world窶冱 poorest nations.
In this edition, we look at Motherhouse Co. & Ltd., a young company
established in March 2006, which plans, produces and provides quality guidance
for products such as apparel or sundry articles in developing countries
like Bangladesh and then sells these items in industrialized nations. Motherhouse
uses jute (a kind of hemp) from Bangladesh and locally produces such items
as bags and purses within that country. |
 Inside Motherhouse窶冱 Iriya Store. Profiles of workers from Bangladesh are displayed in the rear of the store. |
 Motherhouse Public Relations Officer, Ms. Rieko Kudo, who was also involved in the design of her own website. |
We spoke to Ms. Kudo, Motherhouse窶冱 public relations officer, at Motherhouse Iriya, the company窶冱 main store.
Upon entering the store, the first thing apparent is the rich variety of colorful products. These are all made in Bangladesh, providing a fresh surprise.
窶弃roduction is all carried out in Bangladesh. At first, our company president, Ms. Eriko Yamaguchi, took plans to a factory in Bangladesh and had items made for us, but recently we have started selling products based on plans drawn up by other Japanese members of staff. There are all sorts of obstacles that we have to overcome, like making sure we produce products that are going to meet the needs of consumers, but eventually we are thinking about selling products that Bangladeshis have designed,窶・Kudo says.
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・宏oing back to the beginning, why did you go to Bangladesh?
窶弩hen our company president, Ms. Yamaguchi, was in her fourth year at university, she worked at an international organization based in Washington that was involved in development assistance, but she always had her doubts about how the money used for assistance in developing countries was used and where it ended up. She thought it was important to see for herself, and when she did a search with the words 窶連sia窶・and 窶湾oor country窶・online, 窶錬angladesh窶・came first. She used the money she had saved up from a part-time job and visited the country, which became the starting point for the company.
窶廴s. Yamaguchi later went on to graduate school. One day, she happened to chance upon a bag made from jute and was greatly impressed by its unique texture. 窶露 know. We can make this in Bangladesh and sell it in Japan. That way we won窶冲 just be providing assistance by going through the motions, it could lead to continued cooperation,窶・she thought to herself. She immediately set about trying to find a producer and that was how things started.窶・
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・控here must have been many difficulties involved in setting up a production system in Bangladesh.
窶廣t first, she was cheated out of her money, lost her passport and went through a series of tough times. And it was extremely difficult to build a relationship of trust with the local employees, who lived in a country where customs and thought patterns were different to what she had been used to up until then.
窶廣fter overcoming all sorts of struggles, we finally got our 窶弄ade in Bangladesh窶・bag completed, but back in Japan, Ms. Yamaguchi was carrying out cold-call sales and meeting up with a fairly icy reception. Some buyers would hesitate at the mere sight of the 窶錬angladesh窶・label. But although we only sold online at first, we soon started dealing with a major department store and that led to an improved reputation for our products, while the Motherhouse philosophy spread around to a lot of people through word of mouth and these factors combined to spark a good increase in sales figures.窶・
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・好o the people working for you in Bangladesh gain inspiration by knowing that the products they make are selling well?
窶廬t窶冱 something that only happened recently, but we joined together with a major travel agency in a joint project to host a tour to Bangladesh. People visited our company窶冱 factory and for the workers there, it was the first chance to see the people who are buying the bags that they had made. It gave an incredible boost to their motivation.窶・
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・巧ncidentally, where did the name 窶廴otherhouse窶・come from?
窶廬t is a combination of 窶藁other窶・and 窶鷲ouse.窶・The 窶藁other窶・comes from Mother Theresa, who was a person that Ms. Yamaguchi respected, while 窶鷲ouse窶・represents the home that our company would like to make so that street children would have a place to live at ease.窶・br>
Even though Motherhouse had finally gotten off the ground, there were still unexpected tribulations awaiting it.
Read our next edition to find out more about how Motherhouse was hit by a cyclone in Bangladesh and the kinds of support activities it is carrying out there.
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