NEWS

Director of the UN Information Centre in Tokyo Kaoru Nemoto gives a lecture

Update: June 18, 2018

An open lecture by Ms. Kaoru Nemoto a part of Distinguished Professor Motohide Yoshikawa's class.

The title of Ms. Nemoto's presentation was "Your UNITED NATIONS: transforming our world through SDGs as CHANGEMAKER". The lecture was conducted in English. The presenter explained the significance of the SDGs, which stands for "Sustainable Development Goals" and adopted at the UN in 2015, and the differences from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

She highlighted that the main theme of SDGs is "leave no one behind." Also, she emphasized the fact that no country is a developed country in terms of SDGs. As possible solution toward this problem, she emphasized that there are various ways to achieve SDGs and that everyone can be a "CHANGEMAKER" by making a small action, such as carrying your own bottles and bags instead of consuming PET bottles and plastic bags. It is important to recognize that anyone can make a difference. Ms. Nemoto introduced UNIC Tokyo's unique activities to make SDGs more familiar to people, such as collaboration with Japanese comedians. She demonstrated with concrete example the importance of involving the private sectors.

At the end of the lecture, she commented that Tokyo Olympics in 2020 would be a great opportunity to review how much Japan could accomplish the SDGs such as gender equality. The lecture was followed by lively Q and A session with questions such as the problems of SDGs and how to overcome them, raised by students and professors. In the audience were, in addition to students who are taking the course on "International Organization and United Nations Studies" of Professor Yoshikawa, faculty members and ICU students. It was an inspiring experience to think about the SDGs and how we can act to contribute to the solution of the global problems defined by SDGs.

（Written by Minori Teramoto, Saya Takizawa and Risa Kogure, 2nd year students of College of Liberal Arts)