About Toyo University Progress:Yume Endo,Ai Okano

At Toyo University, many students demonstrate their outstanding talents in a wide range of fields, including scholarly and scientific research, sports, and volunteer activities.
We interviewed two students who won the encouragement award for the "SDGs Hotel"
 they proposed at the BOJ Grand-Prix and raised their awareness of SDGs through the initiative.

4th year student, Department of Law, Faculty of Law
Yume Endo (left)

4th year student, Department of Business Law, Faculty of Law
Ai Okano (right)

Both students belong to the official Toyo University club, "Hokkaido Research Group Pirika." The main activity of the club is proposing ideas for the regional revitalization of Hokkaido. Won the encouragement award at the "16th BOJ Grand-Prix: Proposals from the Campus."

*BOJ Grand-Prix
Hosted by the Bank of Japan. A contest with essays and presentations on the field of finance and economics mainly for university students

Aspiring for activities that can give us a true sense of achievement during our time as students.

Ms. Endo:
We were already aspiring to be civil servants, and we were interested in regional regeneration. When we were 1st year students, in a class by Assistant Professor Katsuhiko Akiba (Department of Law, Faculty of Law)—who is currently serving as an advisor to the club—, we became aware of the BOJ Grand-Prix, which is a competition in the field of finance and economics. As we felt that we wanted to achieve something during our time as students, we founded the "Hokkaido Research Group Pirika" with the students who came together at the time. With our application to the BOJ Grand-Prix, we learned about Hokkaido's history, culture, and economy, narrowed down the target region, and considered solutions to the issues faced by this region. During our activities, our attention was drawn to Kitahiroshima, where the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters are planning to construct a ballpark. At the BOJ Grand-Prix, we advocated for the investment and management of a distributed hotel named "SDGs Hotel."

A sustainable and multifaceted SDG-related idea that makes use of what we have learned at university.

Ms. Okano:
SDGs Hotel does not mean a hotel that is working to achieve the SDGs. It refers to investment in the entire region as an accommodation facility, with facilities and infrastructure such as lodging, dining, and bathing being distributed within the region to bring about a region where a virtuous cycle is created autonomously. Currently, investment in hotels is concentrated in urban areas, and regions such as Kitahiroshima that have tourist attractions but are lacking in accommodation facilities are not uncommon. We became focused on the idea of a distributed hotel that uses the entire region as an accommodation facility by utilizing vacant houses and former school sites, which are at the same time a serious problem for such regions. Also, to promote investment to make the distributed hotel a reality, we had to consider the idea from various economic, geographical, and legal perspectives. This included visualization of the investment environment using GIS (Geographic Information System) and the utilization of legal systems for flexibly switching away from the hotel business in the off-season.

Ms. Endo:
Our proposal is closest to SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. However, to create a sustainable city, we realized that we also had to think about how to achieve other goals such as Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Partnerships for the Goals.

This experience changed our perspective of the way forward.

Ms. Endo:
If I can work as a public servant from next year, the experiences I gained from this year's BOJ Grand-Prix will be invaluable for my future. Through handling GIS that can visualize the demand and issues of regions, I want to consider better government services through understanding the reality of what is necessary. I am particularly interested in supporting young people under 18 who are excluded from voting and government satisfaction surveys. I want to provide support that gathers the opinions that have been difficult to hear until now.

Ms. Okano:
I want to get involved in SDGs initiatives from the perspective of government. Like SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals, I would like to work on initiatives to inform local people about SDGs.

Ms. Endo:
At first, we also had only heard about SDGs but did not know much about them. Similar to as felt by many people, we may have thought that SDGs have nothing to do with us.

Ms. Okano:
When researching SDGs, I became aware that more specific goals are set for countries, local governments, companies, organizations, educational institutions, clubs like ours, and even at the individual level. You can start SDGs even with small things like not wasting water. I also noticed that the act of trying to know more is also an SDGs initiative. The SDGs can lead to the discovery of new values and can expand your horizons. First of all, I feel that it is important to be interested in and understand SDGs.

Reporting the award to Takashi Anzai, Chairman, Toyo University Incorporated Educational Institution (March 2021)

At the planned site of the ballpark in Hokkaido, visited with advisor Assistant Professor Akiba (September 2019)