Talk between Munakata City and NTT West

Overview of Munakata City (Location and Industries)

- Host:

With the Sea of Genkai in the north and surrounded by mountains in the three other directions, I heard that Munakata City developed as a trading hub with foreign countries in ancient times.

- Izu:

With the Korean Peninsula located beyond the Sea of Genkai, Munakata used to be the gateway to trading and cultural exchange with the mainland. Subsequently, it developed into what it is today as a city that is blessed with abundant nature including sea, mountains and rivers as well as historical and cultural heritage by leveraging the geographical advantage of being situated between the two ordinance-designated cities of Fukuoka and Kitakyushu.

Located within a 30 kilometer range from the two ordinance-designated cities, it has flourished as a commuter and residential town. Living environment and urban infrastructure have also been developed with the establishment of universities and large-scale commercial facilities. Today, it is well equipped in areas including education, culture and childcare support with a population of about 97,000. In July 2017, inscription of "Okinoshima (Munakata) - island where God resides - and other associated sites" on the UNESCO World Heritage List helped to further raise the profile of the City. In the past, many could not pronounce the name of the City correctly, such as "Shuzo" instead of "Munakata." Now, typing the characters of "Munakata" automatically generates the kanji characters of the City, and it has finally become a name that is known to people around the entire country.

- Ozawa:

Just now, the Mayor mentioned that "Okinoshima (Munakata) - island where God resides - and other associated sites" were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that the City is focusing its efforts in tourism, and this reminded me that I saw some related news reports around the time of its registration. Were there a lot of hardships involved in order to make the inscription possible? Could you tell us more about the key areas that were highly commended by the committee?

- Izu:

The World Heritage site is made up of a number of sites. They include the three shrines of Munakata Taisha (Okitsu-miya, Nakatsu-miya and Hetsu-miya) enshrining the Three Female Deities of Munakata, which are said to be the origin of the belief in gods residing on the island of Okinoshima, Shimbaru-Nuyama Mounded Tomb Group in the neighboring Fukutsu City where the people who have built the tradition of worshipping are buried, and Okitsu-miya Yohaisho on Oshima that is facing Okinoshima in the far distance. It is easy to imagine that people in the early times risked their lives to set out on a sea voyage to the mainland from Okinoshima, which has long been worshipped as an island where gods reside. The island where national rituals were held to pray for maritime safety was an object of worship by itself. Besides the custom of "oiwazusama," which means one must not tell others what he has seen or heard on the island, there are also other taboos that are strictly observed till today, such as "misogi" to expel impurities in the sea and "prohibition from taking home any object on the island, including twigs, grass and pebbles."

About 80,000 items used as offerings that were regarded as national treasures have been unearthed from the ritual sites on Okinoshima, which has been kept intact for more than a thousand years. Based on this long-held tradition of praying for maritime safety, many people in the fishery industry have been preserving the island of Okinoshima by associating the indigenous worship for nature in Japan with "gratitude to the sea." This, I believe, is the key reason for it to be designated as a world heritage site that is not found elsewhere in the world. We are proud that the it was not the 80,000 items of excavated national treasures that were being highly commended, but rather the people of Munakata who have helped to preserve them for more than 1,500 years.

- Host:

Please share with us your future endeavors in urban development and enhancement of the environment.

- Izu:

While we are deeply thankful for the World Heritage site inscription, what we want to achieve first and foremost is for the public to deepen their understanding on how the people of Munakata have preserved this world heritage asset in the past and how we plan to hand it down to future generations. As such, we have been conducting "World Heritage Learning" sessions to help children gain a better understanding.

- Host:

I would like to ask about the initiatives by Munakata City to tackle environmental problems. Munakata City was one of the co-organizers of the sixth "Munakata Eco-100 International Symposium" held in August 2019.

- Izu:

As an event that has garnered attention from many different areas, the symposium was attended by experts and intellectuals from the respective disciplines, a famous actress, the general public, as well as local groups, students and companies from both inside and outside the City who are engaged in environmental conservation activities, and it offers a platform for different generations to think about "how to create a sustainable society" through collaboration among industries, academia, government bodies and the public. At this sixth round of the symposium this year, we had more than 900 participants over the entire duration of three days.

We adopted "umi-no-chinju-no-mori (sacred shrine forest of the sea)" as the concept of the symposium with the hope to share our belief that the sea is nurtured by the bountiful blessings of forests, villages and rivers, as well as our appreciation toward the sea for creating the ideal environment. Issues concerning the marine environment are no longer just the problems faced by those making a living from the sea. They are major issues in the 21st century that need to be addressed globally and I believe it is an SOS from the earth.

- Host:

I believe NTT West Group is also promoting environment conservation.

- Ozawa:

We took part in the recent "Munakata Eco-100 International Symposium" as part of our initiatives to promote environmental conservation and development of the local community, and have been a part of the executive committee since December 2017. I was also impressed by the discussions at this round of symposium held in Munakata.

Our company has implemented a human resource development program in January this year for junior high school and high school students with the aim of handing down the efforts to future generations. Besides the businesses that our company engages in, we also explained our stance as a company that aims to make contributions to resolve social issues.

Efforts by Munakata City to Tackle Environmental Problems

- Host:

Please also tell us more about the efforts by Munakata City to tackle environment problems.

- Izu:

In recent years, perhaps due to global warming, we have seen frequent occurrences of extreme weather events around the world as well as natural disasters and typhoons. Seawater temperature is said to have risen by 4ﾂｺC, and this is a matter of life and death for those working in the fishery industry. The impact on the global environment as a result of larger greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of marine resources and damage to the natural environment, among others, is a serious problem that is faced by everyone living on the earth. Extreme weather events, energy problems, depletion of resources and the like are largely attributable to our daily and business activities. For this reason, we hope to get as many people as possible to think together about what we can do in our everyday lives and to take the necessary actions.

Inscription of "Okinoshima (Munakata) - island where God resides - and other associated sites" on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which include Munakata Taisha, is, in a sense, part of the efforts to address global environmental issues. As a city with a world heritage site, Munakata City has assumed the mission to contribute toward achieving a sustainable society and to "protect the sea."

- Ozawa:

For us, we also regard environmental problems to be of direct concern to us when we carry out our business activities, and what is important is the specific actions to be taken. We hope to make good use of the capabilities we have, including our technologies, to help resolve the social issues.

- Izu:

I feel that the reason why the Eco Symposium took root in Munakata is because the spirit of worshipping nature, which has been practiced and handed down by those residing in Munakata since ancient times, continues to be relevant in the modern age.

To illustrate this with an example, we are currently conducting "Waterfront Workshops" for grade 4 students from all the elementary schools in the City as well as "World Heritage Learning" and "Learning about Our Hometown" with the aim of handing down the bountiful natural environment of Munakata to future generations. The "Waterfront Workshops" also include hands-on learning to appreciate the importance of living organisms, nature and water through study tours from the headwaters to the mouth of Tsurikawa, a river that is a vital resource for Munakata.

There is also the "Adopt Program," a beautification activity participated by the residents. "Adopt" means to "become a foster parent" by "cleaning a specific segment in the way similar to bringing up a foster child with love and commitment." Currently, as many as 293 groups are taking part in such activities, bringing the total amount of trash collected in the previous fiscal year to approximately 31 tons. Just recently, 3,000 participants took part in the "Tsurikawa Cleaning Mission." Thanks to the day-to-day beautification efforts, it was so hard for the participants to find trash to pick up to the extent that made us feel sorry for them.

- Ozawa:

I saw the news footage on this. It is indeed wonderful to be litter-free.
The "Munakata Eco-100 International Symposium" made me think again about the problem of marine plastic wastes. At the same time, I was also impressed that Munakata City was among the first to start engaging in the 3R initiative of "Reduce" to cut down on the amount of wastes, "Reuse" and "Recycle."

- Izu:

Munakata City was one of the first in Japan to start separating garbage collection, and now our garbage is sorted into 21 different types. While this is a time-consuming task, it has been widely accepted and put into practice by the residents of our City, including the children. As Mr. Ozawa has mentioned just now, the entire city is working together on educational activities to promote 3R, and we also provide support to the public and business operators for them in engage in voluntary efforts to reduce the amount of garbage and recycle them.

There are as many as about 260 garbage sorting centers in the City. Similar to garbage separation, waster processing facilities are also promoting the use of cardboard composting for their own operation. By placing a machine inside a corrugated box, food wastes can be decomposed into compost by the microorganisms. Each machine unit is capable of processing about 50kg of food wastes in three to six months. Each year, about 70 lectures on cardboard composting of food wastes are conducted by civic groups, which are attended by close to a total of 1,000 residents per year. Reducing the weight of garbage as a result of food waste composting has made it easier for elderly people to carry the trash bags, and helps to "Reduce" the total amount of garbage.

Yet another new initiative which we have embarked on this year is support for food drives. This is done by donating food items to welfare facilities or those who are in need of food through food banks by reducing "food loss," that is, disposal of food that is still edible.

- Ozawa:

In addition to separating the collection of used PET bottles at our offices, we have also gone the extra mile to "reuse" instead of discarding the plastic "network termination units" that were installed during the introduction of Flet's Hikari services at our customers' homes after they have undergone cleaning and inspection, followed by the "recycling" process.

Environmental Management of NTT West Group

- Host:

Next, I would also like to hear about the initiatives of NTT West Group in Environmental Management.

- Ozawa:

Aiming to contribute to a reduction in the burden imposed by the entire society on the environment, NTT West Group plans to make use of leverage our strengths in ICT not only for solutions to lighten the environmental load, but also solutions to resolve social issues.

- Izu:

The environmental consciousness of each company will contribute significantly to the building of a sustainable society. Considering the extent of the outcry from the earth today, I feel that it is a common issue that concerns both individuals as well as the companies with regard to how we should respond to this SOS from the earth.

- Hara:

In the past, NTT West Group has been engaging in efforts to reduce paper use, wastes and power consumption to help lighten our company's burden on the environment. NTT Group is a corporate group that consumes an extremely large amount of power, which is close to 1% of the commercial power consumption in the entire country.

In order to address global warming and climate change, we have made substantial revision to the reduction targets for paper wastes and power consumption at our company, and established reduction targets on total CO₂ emission to move toward a carbon-free society. In addition to greenhouse gas emission from our company, we will also strive to suppress global warming by cutting down CO₂ emission from our customers and the entire supply chain. While NTT West Group is a company that offers ICT services to our users, cloud services and those to facilitate remote working, among all the ICT technologies, can particularly help to reduce CO₂ emission. We see it as our mission to offer ICT services that can be expected to lower CO₂ emission by the entire society.

- Izu:

It is reassuring to learn that companies are engaging in environmental conservation efforts and those to lighten load the environmental burden by setting concrete numerical targets.

Efforts for Achieving a Sustainable Society and Resolving Social Issues of the Local Community

- Ozawa:

With "Social ICT Pioneer" as a catch-phrase, NTT West Group is a company that is capable of using ICT to help resolve a diverse array of problems faced by different regions.
We engage in our business activities while maintaining a close relationship with the local community, and this is why our employees as well as our company also tackle environmental issues seriously as a member of the local community. As you can see from the badge we are wearing today, we also agree with the concept of SDGs by the UN.

- Izu:

It will be difficult for a city to survive by relying solely on initiatives by the government. In the wake of the threat posed by the torrential rains last year, although the fundamental role of the government to "protect the lives and property of the residents" also applies to the context of disaster response, I believe what is most crucial is for everyone to unite their effort and "put into practice what everyone is capable of" instead of the mentality that "someone else will help."

- Ozawa:

There have been frequent occurrence of natural disasters last year and this year, which have inflicted immense damages. As a company in the infrastructure business, our corporate mission is to focus all our efforts on relief activities should our customers be impacted by a disaster that has occurred. However, from the perspective of utilizing ICT, it is also possible for us to discuss and propose solutions suited for the respective regions, such as solutions that help to prevent or reduce disasters.

- Hara:

We also offer communication solutions for sending out notifications via local emergency radio systems to the media devices at the same time, as well as solutions to send out weather information to a broad range of recipients in place of emergency radios.

- Izu:

Lately, the accuracy of weather information has been increasing. I would check the weather forecast in the morning without fail after waking up and before leaving home. Japan has always been prone to typhoons which are also known as Asian monsoon as well as disasters, so I am glad to be able to receive information that is accurate.

Urban Development in Cooperation with the Private Sector

- Host:

Lastly, I would like to hear from the Mayor.
I understand that the City is also cooperating with the private sector in your urban development efforts. Can you share more details with us?

- Izu:

We worked jointly with Koikeya to develop a potato chip product named "Japan Pride Potato Munakata," which uses soy sauce and sea eels originated from Munakata as ingredients. By scanning the QR code printed on the package, you can have access to information on the charm of Munakata as a World Heritage site. 1 yen will be donated to activities to conserve the maritime environment whenever a pack of the potato chips product is sold. Thanks to the support of everyone, total sales have hit 1 million packs.

Additionally, there is a large number of remote islands in Munakata, and we are at a loss of how to deal with bird and animal damage. We hope to cooperate with you on our bird and animal prevention measures with the use of ICT.

Ending Remarks

- Host:

Thank you for sharing information on the different wonderful efforts with us.
Last but not least, I would like to ask each of you about your impression of the talk today.

- Ozawa:

Recalling what the Mayor said at the recent "Munakata Eco-100 International Symposium," you mentioned that the reason for the inscription on the World Heritage List is because of the remarkable attitude of the fishermen and the local residents, who have been showing reverence for the sea and diligently preserving the bountiful nature of the shrine precincts. I believe what is most important in the endeavors of a company to tackle environmental problems is the mindset. We hope to move gradually toward such a mindset when carrying out our business activities to make our efforts more sustainable.

- Hara:

After learning that Munakata City abounds in nature and marine resources and that these are preserved by both the residents and companies, we at NTT West Group feel motivated to continue our efforts to contribute to the local community as a company.

- Izu:

We are deeply thankful too for your participation in the "Munakata Eco-100 International Symposium."
Forests are a companion to the sea, and thus we need to take care of the forests, villages, rivers and the sea. In order to protect the irreplaceable earth, and for the sake of the earth which seems to be crying for help lately, it is time now for everyone in the world to seriously consider what each of us can do with the aid of ICT and other means.

- Host:

Thank you everyone for sharing the useful information today.