Japanese senior citizens have experienced not only poverty after the war but also mass-production, mass-consumption, and environmental pollution. Through these experiences, they are very concerned about the waste and environmental destruction we see today. A number of senior citizens are involved in environmental protection activities, such as waste management and conserving energy in daily living as well as tree-planting activities.
Japan NGO Council on Ageing (JANCA) is a network organization consisting of over 60 member organizations which work on aging-related issues. In 2006, JANCA conducted a survey with JANCA opinion members on environmental problems, resulting in 1,241 responses (response rate: 70.3%). The results show that over 80% of senior citizens are involved in energy-saving activities in their daily living. In addition, the majority of them are interested in environmental protection activities such as tree-planting and energy conservation. Based on these results, JANCA made “Seniors’ Action Plans to Tackle Environmental Problems” and announced it on June 30th, 2006, at Nippon Press Center.
Since the announcement mentioned above, the interests in environmental protection, such as prevention of global warming, has grown. We now see various efforts by senior citizens in environmental protection. Considering these recent trends, JANCA organized a symposium to further enhance senior citizens’ activities in issues related to aged society and environmental problems. The international symposium “Senior’s Go Green” was held in March, 2008, at Yurakucho Asahi Hall, located at the central part of Tokyo.
The symposium was very fruitful thank to our international panelists: Mr. and Mrs. Cars from Sweden; Dr. Ann Pil-Joon from South Korea; and Dr. Ma Li-Zhang and Dr. Sun Minglei from Shanghai, China; as well as the leaders of Japanese senior citizens: Ms. Keiko Higuchi and Mr. Tsutomu Hotta (JANCA co-chairs).
Environmental problems and aged society are considered the global issues in this century. As citizens of the most aged society, what are Japanese senior citizens doing and about to do regarding population aging and environmental protection as their own issues? We hope the following symposium summary will have some answers.
This symposium summary was made by JARC editorial staff.
