Japanese experts give public lecture on environmental education

UTAR Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) and Centre for Environment and Green Technology (CEGT) organised an online public lecture under the sponsorship of Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO) grant on 27 August 2022 via Zoom. The talk aimed to educate the participants on the importance of environmental protection and introduce them to the successful Japanese method of environmental protection and education.

The talk focused on two interesting topics, namely “Nature Conservation at Nagareyama City: Field of Firefly” and “Japanese Experience in Solid Waste Management”. The first topic was addressed by NPO Communet Nagareyama member Mr Munehiro Fukuda and President Group of Nagareyama Field of Firefly Mr Hideji Takahashi. The speaker for the second topic was Acting Director of the Overseas Environmental Consulting Department, Ex Research Institute Ltd Mr Satoshi Sugimoto.  

Speaking of Nagareyama City’s fireflies or Hotaruno, Mr Munehiro explained that the focus of the organisation was to preserve fireflies in the city and it has been active for two decades. He also spoke about the organisation’s activities, “We perform many tasks to ensure the fireflies are preserved, such as conducting water quality surveys, mowing in the forests of Ohguro, incubating firefly larvae, and hosting firefly observing events. As a result of our activities, we have seen an increased number of fireflies. For the last five years, about 400 larvae were incubated by our members and released into various locations around Japan such as Ohguro and Riso Park.” Mr Munehiro also talked about other topics such as the life cycle of Heike fireflies and the proper methods to raise larvae.

Mr Munehiro giving his lecture

The floor was then passed to Mr Satoshi, who mainly spoke about waste management in Japan. His talk was comprised of a few topics, one of which was the history of waste management in Japan. “There are three eras that we can look at, the first being the era of public health improvement which took place from 1900s to 1950s. The next era was the era of pollution problems and protection of the living environment which took place in the 1960s and the 1970s; a series of pollution control acts and regulations were enacted and enforced in this era. Finally, in the era of the establishment of sound material-cycle society, which lasted from the 1980s to 2000s, we mainly emphasised on the recycling system of end-of-life vehicles,” said Mr Satoshi.

Mr Satoshi educating the participants on Japan’s waste management

Mr Satoshi went on to enlighten the participants on the current status of waste management in Japan. He said, “To understand Japan’s current condition when it comes to waste management, we have to look at three things; the amount of waste generated, the amounts of final waste disposal or landfill and waste reduction, and the waste management expenses.” He ended the talk by explaining Japan’s development for the future, citing an example of the challenges that Kamiku, a small town in Japan, faced in achieving zero waste. 

The talk ended with a short Q&A session.



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