We will achieve Planetary Health, which is the well-being of this entire planetary system, including people, through a major transformation of science, technology, economy and society through a major transformation of people.
We will achieve true local development by creating the economic and social infrastructure to achieve the international goal of Planetary Health.
Background
Despite the development of science and technology, it is clear from various statistics that the physical and mental health of people, as well as the economic, social and natural environment around them, are breaking down simply because people are living.
In this era, known geologically as the Anthropocene, when humans are seriously affecting the geology (soil) of the Earth, global environmental challenges are becoming apparent due to the increase in human economic activity.
In such an environment, young people in Japan and around the world are becoming anxious and losing hope in an age of difficult predictability of the future, known as VUCA. In Japan, we are facing malignant tumours, dementia, developmental disorders in children, rising suicide rates, economic disparity due to the concentration of people in overcrowded cities and the decline of rural areas, degradation of nature, degradation of satoyama and rural areas, and a decline in food self-sufficiency. Mass production and mass consumption since the Industrial Revolution have led to the global averaging of individual land features, the degradation of satoyama and the disintegration of the natural landscape. Modern science has divided the interconnected world into elements and specialised in specialised fields, while the connections between the human body and mind, between humans and humans, and between humans and nature have been diluted, and humanity has become selfish in its isolation, building a society optimised for humans alone. It is a great pity that in our efficiency-oriented society the invisible riches and connections that modern science and technology cannot handle are being neglected, and that activities based on traditional views of nature, spirituality and historical culture are also being lost.
We now need a Great Transition that will fundamentally change the way we are, change our perceptions, change the way we relate to the world, and change society’s plates with the latest science and technology.
Planetary Health
If we are to achieve human health and well-being, we need to reintegrate our own fragmented world and take a global macroscopic view of the entire global system, including the interconnected systems – community, society, economy and ecosystem.
This is Planetary Health.
It was proposed internationally in 2015, and is a major goal for humanity in light of the SDGs and the transition to a nature-positive economy.
It is impossible to achieve this goal with a superficial approach based on a conventional, elemental and partial understanding, and requires research promotion and societal implementation through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration.
(1) Regional Development 2.0 by building economic and social infrastructure
We will build an economic and social infrastructure of planetary health, where people and the earth continue to regenerate through human life, and spread it throughout the country and the world as a model of local development 2.0.
We will redefine the value of rural areas, connect cities and regions, and build a glocal economic model based on the transition to a nature-positive economy, using the natural capital of rural areas and the richness of people’s hearts and morals towards the earth, which until now could not be valued only by GDP based on financial capitalism, with the watershed as a single circulating unit. We will do it.
We have always strived to create a better society for humanity. But from now on, we must think and act not only for the sake of people and their societies, but also with a global morality at the centre that can respect, care for and benefit the whole planet, including people.
We will lay the foundations for a global moral economy, where people and companies with high global morality, whose actions and businesses contribute to planetary health, are valued.
(2) Developing human resources with a global moral compass
Based on the liberal arts, which integrate all systems of knowledge, we will cultivate trans-boundary human resources who can think and act with a global moral compass at the centre, who can exercise imagination and creativity, who can perceive the whole in an integrated manner through dynamic sensitivity based on physical knowledge through practical learning, who can acquire a global macroscopic perspective, and who can respect, care for and benefit the whole Earth, including human beings. Such human resources will bring about a major transformation in science, technology and society and promote planetary health.
(3) Transdisciplinary platforms
Interdisciplinary and cross-cutting platforms will enable us to break through conventional boundaries and build an ecosystem that rapidly implements essential and fundamental actions.
The following actions will be taken to reinvigorate the activities of local centres.
We will deepen our relationships with the regions and cities that will serve as demonstration and implementation sites.
The aim is to achieve a simultaneous impact on human health and ecosystems through cooperation between agriculture, food, dentistry and medicine (Agri-Dent-Medicine), linked by ecosystems, and to establish microbiological cycle studies.
The project will promote industry-government-academia-industry collaboration and global cooperation for rapid and high-impact societal translation.
(4) Fostering science, philosophy and technological innovation
Integrative science that captures the wholeness of an increasingly diverse world, philosophical reflection that gives meaning to it, and technological innovation based on it are essential to achieving planetary health.
We support research, smooth demonstration experiments linking companies and rural areas, and social implementation, and realise social change through scientific, philosophical and technological innovation.
We are proud of our Japanese view of nature and spirituality, backed up by the latest science and technology, and envision a global connection of Japanese-style planetary health based on historical culture and climate.
We’re sure that by striving for planetary health through human activity, humanity will become the joy and hope of this world.
Join us and make the great transition.
