Japanese attracted to SDGs campaign for safer future life to survive covid-19 days

 

November 26, 2021

Japanese attracted to SDGs campaign for safer future life to survive covid-19 days

Japanese people find media reports and news featuring  the U.N.-sponsored SDGs campaign almost every day this year. The campaign reminds Japanese of the need to make their daily life more sustainable, by using more environmentally friendly products, among other things. They have come to pay more time than earlier to thinking about what is really a sustainable daily life for them, as the covid-19 corona virus pandemic has somewhat subsided in Japan. 

The Sustainable Development Goals, proclaimed in 2015, call for developed and developing countries alike to work harder to solve the world's serious challenges in 17 fields by 2030, or nine years left before the target year.

Globally, such targets as those for ending poverty and hunger, taking action on climate change and realizing gender equality are much publicized, but environment-conscious citizens in Japan are interested in the 11th target of the SDGs, which envisages making cities and communities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. 

At present, redevelopment projects are under way at some 300 locations in the heart of Tokyo, mainly aiming at relocating urban facilities like utility poles to sites underground and building antiflood regulating reservoirs under the ground. But small, grass-roots endeavors to realize a sustainable, pleasant living environment also can be seen in part of the capital.  

In the calm residential area of Daita, Setagaya Ward,  passers-by enjoy strolling on a riverside road lined by cherry trees. Flowing by what local people call the "green road" is a small stream of recycled, purified water. 

The artificial "seseragi" stream, built in 2008, extends about 4 kilometers past Daita above an underdrain, which used to be called Kitazawa River or Daita River.  

Members of a group of local residents gather twice a month for activities to preserve the environment around the stream. Their effort has helped to keep the area so clean as many kinds of wild birds can be seen. 

I find myself taking a rest by Daita River, as the willows riverside have started to bloom.

(A personal translation)

This is a poem made by Mokichi Saito, a distinguished poet who was active in the early years of the 20th century. 

He actually lived near the river in the 1940s. So, a monument with the poem engraved was set up beside the seseragi stream by local residents in 2013. 

The monument should lead many people to think about the preciousness of their ordinary life, as Japan moves toward building a new corona-era life while keeping the pandemic subdued.