No.159 World Children's Future Conference Supporting the United Nations

It was last August, but with the permission of Chairman Kitahama of the City Council, we borrowed the main assembly hall and held an event called "World Children's Future Conference Supporting the United Nations in INAGI."

This event was held as an expansion of education fostering leaders for a sustainable society (ESD) and the annual discussion meeting between the Mayor of Inagi City and elementary school students. Its purpose is to promote the development of the ability to create and survive the future by discussing and sharing ideas about the future of Inagi. In the Tama area of Tokyo, Inagi City was the first to hold this event.

The Children's Future Conference is jointly organized by the General Incorporated Association Peace Communication and Inagi City. In the first part workshop, a total of 24 participants, two from each of the 12 public elementary schools in the city, were divided into six groups. Using tools such as well-being cards provided by NTT Corporation, a business partner, they compiled proposals on the theme of "A Future Inagi City Where People Can Continue to Live." Each group of four children was composed of students from different elementary schools, so the participating children met each other for the first time.

In the second part of the presentation, under the moderation of freelance announcer Minako Nagai, each group presented their proposals at the podium in the main conference hall, responded to questions from the judges and children from other groups, and each judge scored the presentations.

The judges consisted of myself, Chairman Kitahama, Superintendent Sugimoto, Mr. Ichiki, Representative Director of Peace Communication, and Mr. Yumeto Ito, a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs official and Senior Advisor at avex Inc. After tallying the evaluations, the Grand Prize was decided and an award ceremony was held.

For last year's event held in Inagi City, we received cooperation from NTT Corporation as a supporting partner of this project, and we would like to thank avex Inc., Yomiuriland Co., Ltd., and Morinaga & Co., Ltd. as cooperating and sponsoring companies for their support in operations and provision of prizes.

At that time, the four individuals selected as the top group participated in the "5th World Children's Future Conference Supporting the United Nations," held on March 23 of this year at the Tokyo Innovation Base located in Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward.

At this Tokyo event, in addition to children selected from the Children's Future Conferences held by local governments nationwide, foreign children invited through various embassies also participated. This time, instead of judges selecting the excellence awards, the heads of participating local governments, including myself, joined as special speakers to encourage the children and provided comments after each group's presentation.

There were a total of 96 participants, including those from Inagi City, Shinagawa Ward, Toshima Ward, Kita Ward, Hamamatsu City, Osaka Prefecture, Hiroshima Prefecture, Matsuyama City, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Okinawa Prefecture.

After the opening at noon, the first part consisted of a lecture on SDGs learning with the theme of peace and climate change. In the second part, participants were divided into 12 groups of 8 people each to create presentation panels based on the theme in a workshop. In the third part, the presentations were delivered.

Each group presented analyses, evaluations, and recommendations regarding peace and global warming, mixing Japanese and English. Beyond the content, everyone demonstrated excellent language skills.

Children who participated in this Tokyo event are also granted eligibility to participate in the "World Children's Future Conference FUTURE SUMMIT Mirai General Assembly," scheduled to be held in August at the Osaka-Kansai Expo supporting the United Nations.

Furthermore, from among these children, selected applicants will be given the opportunity to visit the United Nations Headquarters in New York to express their opinions. This time, one person was chosen from Inagi City. Congratulations!

I felt reassured thinking that these wonderful children will be responsible for the future of Inagi City, Tokyo, and Japan.

We hope that Japanese children will spread their wings globally and grow into individuals who can communicate with people of different cultures, languages, and races while having their own values!