On August 1, the School of Commerce and the TOKORO Yasuhiro Seminar co-hosted a public event with the Palsystem Consumers’ Co-operative Union titled “Borderless from Space: A Green and Blue Planet Sustained by the Cycle of Life.” Approximately 500 people participated either at the venue or online. H.E. Mr. César Augusto MONTAÑO Huerta, Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador to Japan, and Ms. María Elena Moreira Velásquez, Minister at the Embassy of Ecuador in Japan, also joined online to listen to the students’ presentations.
During the event, astronaut DOI Takao underscored the importance of establishing human spaceology, an academic discipline that connects humanity, space, and time. He also presented the latest research aimed at making a wooden satellite a reality.
Animator and manga artist YASUHIKO Yoshikazu then joined a panel discussion, in which the participants engaged in a lively exchange of views on space, the global environment, and the future of a sustainable society. Drawing on the space colonies depicted in Mobile Suit Gundam, YASUHIKO discussed the changes that might occur on Earth and in human society if an era of human migration into space were to arrive, as well as whether humanity could evolve.
Students from the TOKORO Seminar also gave presentations on the rights of nature and ecotourism, using Ecuador as a case study. Ambassador MONTAÑO and Minister Moreira, who listened to the presentations online, sent the following message to the students: “We are grateful to the students of Meiji University for helping to accurately convey aspects of Ecuador that are not yet widely known in Japan and to broaden understanding of the country through opportunities such as this one.”
The event provided participants with a valuable opportunity to deepen their understanding of the global environment and the SDGs from the perspective of space and to consider environmental issues as matters that directly concern them.