By Makoto Hattori

8:00 JST, April 12, 2025

You have probably heard the term SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). You may even recall specific goals, accompanied by colorful pictograms. The SDGs are initiatives set forth globally to ensure that everyone can live safely and securely on this planet into the future. The SDGs also form a fundamental framework for the education of the next generation.

The SDGs refer to the 17 goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted at a U.N. summit in 2015. The goals encompass a wide range of issues, from basic human rights such as food, clothing, shelter and education to socioeconomic and environmental challenges. For example, Goal 1 is “no poverty,” Goal 2 is “zero hunger,” Goal 3 is “good health and well-being,” and Goal 4 is “quality education.” The initiative calls not only on national and local governments, but also on corporations and individuals, to take action.

On Dec. 22 of last year, I visited a Michi-no-Eki roadside rest area in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, to observe an SDG-themed educational initiative. There, students from Chiba University of Commerce and its attached high school were holding a Christmas event at which they sold products they had developed themselves. While local residents performed music on an outdoor stage, students enthusiastically called out, “How about trying the products we created?” from the sales area near the entrance, selling a variety of products.

The products include various flavored dressings made with locally grown vegetables such as leeks, spinach and daikon radish, traditional Japanese and Western sweets developed in collaboration with local confectionery stores, and instant seaweed miso soups developed with seaweed processors. All were developed during seminars and classes with a mission to “solve social issues through product development,” using the SDGs as a guiding framework.

One example of how product development began was a request from a farmer to the university: “Sixty percent of our garlic harvest is discarded because it doesn’t meet size........

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