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Peace as a Global Language International Conference
Shotaro Ishida is the youngest member of the Higashiyamato City Council in Tokyo, elected at the age of just 25. Prior to taking office, he managed a local tutoring school and worked as a licensed nursery teacher, gaining firsthand insight into early childhood education. As an undergraduate of Josai University, he was part of a student initiative to build a computer lab for a school in Nairobi, Kenya. Today, he pairs his background in childcare and local education with advanced studies in urban design at Rikkyo University, focusing on family support, public services, and stronger community collaboration across Higashi Yamato.
Beyond Government as Provider: Co-Creating Resilient Communities
Beyond Government as Provider: Co-Creating Resilient Communities
Shotaro Ishida
Local governments have long been viewed as the primary creators, funders, and managers of community life. Yet in an increasingly uncertain world shaped by rapid demographic shifts, economic challenges, technological change, and complex local needs, sustainable community development demands a far broader coalition of actors.
Drawing on the his background in local government, early childhood education, and community-based youth initiatives, Mr. Ishida's talk will explore how residents, municipal officials, businesses, schools, and grassroots nonprofits can move beyond traditional boundaries to co-create public value. Citizens should not be treated merely as passive consumers of municipal services; rather they are active partners possessing vital local knowledge, practical skills, social networks, and creative problem-solving capacity.
This session examines the evolving mandate of local government—transitioning from a top-down service provider into an agile connector and facilitator. Grounded in practical local case studies, including frontline youth support and cross-sector educational projects, the presenter will examine how authentic collaboration strengthens community resilience, unlocks innovative solutions, and fosters a genuine sense of shared civic ownership. Ultimately, sustainable community development must be recognized as an ongoing, collective endeavor built together.
Professor Peter Lutes, DComm is Professor of Applied Communication and Chair of the International Exchange Committee in the Faculty and Graduate School of Agriculture at Kagawa University, where he also serves as an Appointed Professor in the International Office.
For more than two decades, he has worked in international education, intercultural communication, and community development. His projects include English-language education initiatives in Cambodia and nearly a decade of collaboration with JICA supporting entrepreneurship and food-business development of entrepreneurs of Japanese ancestry in Latin America. He is also active in local international exchange in Takamatsu.
His interests include community resilience, capacity building, entrepreneurship, and experiential learning, and he is increasingly interested in how artificial intelligence might extend this work, while recognizing that technology can expand what people are capable of but cannot replace the human relationships and local ownership that sustainable development depends on.
Sharing Ownership:
Lessons from Three Communities
Sharing Ownership:
Lessons from Three Communities
Peter Lutes
Community development is often framed in terms of projects, funding, and measurable outcomes, yet sustainable communities depend on relationships, local knowledge, shared capacity, adaptability, and ownership. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in international education and community-based work, Prof. Lutes examines how such capacity develops across contexts.
Three cases provide the basis for discussion. The first is an educational development project in Cambodia that had to adapt to COVID-19. The second is a long-running JICA program at Kagawa University supporting entrepreneurs of Japanese descent from Latin America, which has evolved from reliance on a single leader toward a broader network, raising a central question: How does a project move from dependence on one person toward shared capacity and a network that can sustain itself? The third is participation in the Busshozan International Exchange Society, where development emerges through volunteer relationships and responses to local needs.
These cases suggest that community development is an evolving process of building relationships, sharing knowledge, mobilizing resources, and transferring capacity. Prof. Lutes concludes with principles for building resilient communities that can sustain themselves beyond individual projects or leaders.
Victor Kimutai is a Business Administration graduate of Josai University and currently works as a corporate administrator at Saitama Medical University Hospital Group. Originally from Kericho County, Kenya, he grew up in a farming family and came to Japan in 2021 on an athletic scholarship to Josai University.
During his four years at Josai, Kimutai competed as a member of the university's long-distance running team while studying Business Administration. His experience included competing in major Japanese university Ekiden events, where he experienced first-hand the importance of teamwork, discipline, and collective responsibility in Japanese distance running.
Since graduating, he has continued to live and work in Saitama. His experiences as a student-athlete in Japan have given him a cross-cultural perspective on education, sport, community, and youth development, and have led him to consider how some of these experiences might inform opportunities for young people in his home region of Kericho, Kenya.
From Kenya to Japan: Lessons in Resilience, Adaptation, and Community Support
From Kenya to Japan: Lessons in Resilience, Adaptation, and Community Support
Victor Kimutai
What can the experience of a Kenyan student-athlete in Japan teach us about community, collective responsibility, and youth development? Victor Kimutai reflects on his four years at Josai University, where he experienced the challenges of adapting to Japanese language and culture while competing at a high level in university distance running.
His experience of the Japanese Ekiden system provided a particularly important lesson in the relationship between individual performance and collective responsibility. Success depended not only on individual ability, but also on trust, discipline, mutual support, and a shared commitment to the team. These experiences changed how Kimutai understood leadership, teamwork, and community.
Now working in administration at Saitama Medical University Hospital Group, Kimutai looks back on these experiences from a different perspective. He considers how the lessons learned through sport and university life in Japan have influenced his thinking about youth, education, and community support in his home region of Kericho, Kenya.
Rather than presenting a simple story of personal achievement, this presentation explores how experiences of adaptation and belonging in one community can shape ideas about supporting another, and asks what young people can gain when education, sport, and community engagement are brought together.
Elisabeth Fernandes has taught English, French, and Portuguese to students of all ages and proficiency levels for over 30 years in Canada, the United States, France, Thailand, and Japan. She currently teaches at Osaka Metropolitan University and serves on several cultural and academic committees. Her areas of interest include intercultural communication, learner autonomy, neuroeducation, and environmental and global issues. She is particularly passionate about enhancing classroom learning and helping students achieve their goals.
Dr. Julia Kimura is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Mukogawa Women’s University. Her research focuses on communities of practice, gender, and research productivity among EFL instructors in Japanese higher education. She currently serves as Director of Membership for the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) and as co-editor of the Recently Received column in The Language Teacher.
[Sponsored Presentation] The General Union as Community: Solidarity and Mutual Support in a Changing Japan
[Sponsored Presentation] The General Union as Community: Solidarity and Mutual Support in a Changing Japan
Elisabeth Fernandes and Julia Kimura
Community is about sharing experiences, supporting one another, and feeling that we belong. The General Union is one such community, open to workers of all occupations and nationalities, including Japanese workers. Amid the challenging political environment for foreign workers and residents, the union plays an important role as a community of support. Beyond representing members in the workplace, it can provide a place for people to connect, share concerns and experiences, and support one another through challenges at work and beyond. In our presentation, we will show how the union can build a stronger sense of community among members, strengthen relationships, and promote solidarity in difficult times. We will illustrate these efforts through examples of union activities, including surveys and community outreach through seminars on issues affecting workers, such as pensions and maternity leave.
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