Voices of Young People Resounding in Kumamoto - New Sprouts of Social Problem Solving Summer 2025

Voices of Young People Resounding in Kumamoto - New Sprouts of Social Problem Solving Summer 2025

At the time of 2025, Japan was facing an accelerating aging society with a declining birthrate and an exodus of population from regional cities, and each region was faced with the critical issue of how to create a sustainable economy and living environment. Kumamoto, in particular, was facing environmental risks, such as reconstruction from the 2016 earthquake disaster and damage from heavy rains and red tides caused by climate change, and new initiatives were needed to bring local communities, industry, and government together.

Under these circumstances, students and entrepreneurs took the stage to decipher social issues from their own perspectives and make proposals for the future, such as disaster prevention and industrial support by analyzing regional data using AI, and red tide countermeasures using bamboo charcoal. They were not merely technological ideas. Their presentations attracted the attention of government officials and local businesses, and the discussions were like an open debate, with questions flying back and forth, providing an opportunity for dialogue that transcended generations and positions.

At the time, the government was simultaneously promoting "regional development" and "green transformation (GX)," and it was hoped that practical ideas from the local community could be connected to national policies. Such an experiment in Kumamoto was a testing ground for the search for a model originating from the local region that balances the environment and the economy, and was a symbolic scene in which the younger generation proactively spoke out about the future.