In parallel with the ASEM Workshop on Community-Level Actions for Global Environmental Agenda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Government of Sweden and JICA, held an Open ASEM Panel Discussion on February 27 at the JICA Institute for International Cooperation in Ichigaya, Tokyo. The panel discussion was open to the public.

The workshop is an ASEM initiative endorsed at the 7th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (ASEM FMM7) last May in Kyoto, following the FMM7 decision to give priority to the issue of sustainable development as an area of future Asia-Europe cooperation. During the five-day workshop, environmental policy experts from the governments and the local authorities in ASEM partners exchanged views on how to build a “Sound Material-Cycle Society” through the promotion of the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) Initiative, and on the role of local governments in curbing global warming.

The panel discussion was attended by 19 overseas participants of the workshop and the public audience. It aimed to exchange experiences, knowledge, and good environmental management practices taken in ASEM countries and communities.

1) Keynote speakers

Ms. Asa Andersson　
Science and Technology Office, the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo

Mr. Kazuyuki Shimamura　
Policy Planning Division, Waste Management and Recycling Department, Japan Ministry of the Environment

2) Panellists

Ms. Asa Andersson
Science and Technology Office, the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo

Dr. Kunitoshi Sakurai
President of Okinawa University

Ms. Junko Edahiro
An independent environmental journalist, Joint Managing Director of NPO group ?Japan for Sustainability?

Mr. Kazuyuki Shimamura
Policy Planning Division, Waste Management and Recycling Department, Japan?s Ministry of the Environment

Mr. Nagao Yamada
Global Warming Prevention Unit, Department of Environment and Forestry, Mie Prefectural Government

Mr. Mikio Matsumoto
Environmental Policy Division, Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture