JFS on its Third Anniversary--Current Status and Future Prospects

Our organization, Japan for Sustainability (JFS), celebrates its third anniversary this summer, having been established in August 2002. We would like to express our appreciation for your cooperation so far and look forward to your continuing support. Read on for an update on JFS's current status and future challenges.

Our organization has two missions: the first is to send out to the rest of the world information about sustainability-related initiatives, ideas and technologies in Japan, and the second is to offer a platform where a wide variety of people from different sectors and levels can discuss their visions for a sustainable Japan, in the hope that a leading force towards sustainability in Japan will be generated. We like to think that our organization's name - Japan for Sustainability - expresses these two concepts depending on the interpretation of "for." That is, in the sense of "what Japan can do for the sake of sustainable world," and in the sense of "Japan moving in the direction of sustainability."

To achieve the first mission, we collect information on developments and activities that have originated in Japan and lead toward sustainability. We select 30 short articles per month and put them on our website database in both English and Japanese. We also send out a monthly newsletter to several thousand opinion leaders in 174 countries. In this way, we are making efforts to strengthen our relationship with people in countries outside Japan.

To achieve the second mission, we are promoting an "indicator project" that addresses a sustainable vision for Japan and sustainability indicators. More details about this project will be forthcoming in future newsletters. We also hold around 10 events per year, such as meetings to introduce our activities to Japanese people and to explore issues with the cooperation of experts from overseas.

Currently, JFS is run by four core staff members, including our two co-chief executives; four directors oversee our activities, which are supported financially by 60 corporate/organizational members and about 250 individual members. Two full-time and 10 part-time staff members together with three interns help carry out the work.

In Japan, many NGOs have financial and human resource difficulties due to the short history of NGOs in Japan relative to Western countries and their resulting fledgling status in the society. Another important factor is the absence of tax deductions for contributions to non-profit organizations,

JFS is no exception. Membership fees cover our secretariat expenses, but we depend on about 300 volunteer members to post our 30 articles per month and carry out other projects. The secret of our strength lies in our organization of volunteers. We believe that this 21st century-style organization makes it possible for JFS to send out information from Japan to the world on a scale heretofore unknown.

JFS is an amoeba-like organization with no solid structure. Project teams are created when necessary and dissolved when their mission is completed. Sometimes two teams work as one or one team is split into two in a flexible manner according to the situation and needs at the time.

The organization is basically a flat platform on which members can move on and off stage like freelance jazz players. Those interested in a certain issue get together to plan and implement a project, dissolving themselves once the objective is accomplished. All teams are "in development" and nothing is pre-set or established. Team members are welcome and encouraged to take charge in order to modify and improve team activities relevant to the shared mission. In addition, each team operates independently and autonomously, with internally assigned responsibilities and authority.

JFS presently has nearly ten teams that support its fundamental activity of disseminating 30 English articles per month on environmental initiatives going on in Japan. Adding ad hoc teams set up for specific purposes, such as the sustainability indicator and other projects and events, brings the total number of teams to about 30.

When JFS launches a new project, volunteers are invited to join through the email listserve to which all of them subscribe. Those who want to participate then create a team and work on the project. JFS sends out a list of currently operating teams to prospective volunteers so he or she can select a team that matches his or her interests.

How does JFS write and disseminate 30 articles in both Japanese and English every month? The system is based on organic links among several teams. First, one team collects interesting information from local and industry sources. From the nearly 200 story ideas collected per month by this team, a second team selects those relevant to a sustainable society or that might be useful to international readers.

In the next step, one team writes the articles in Japanese after searching for further relevant information and conducting email and telephone interviews. Then the articles are translated into English by another team. Native English-speaking checkers correct the English to improve readability for international readers before the articles are put up on the website. Native checkers use a function that tracks editing changes as an educational reference for the English translation team of Japanese speakers. Many of the volunteer translators are experiencing drastic improvement in their English ability as a result of studying the native English checkers' edits.

Other teams develop overseas JFS newsletter subscribers, manage the website database, respond to feedback from overseas, and conduct research in response to inquiries from overseas, reporting their findings through newsletter articles.

The following ad hoc teams are presently active: The "indicator team" works on creating a vision and indicators for sustainable Japan; the "Japan-U.S. Environmental Forum team" is a student-centered team that considers the two countries and the world at large through discussions and exchanges with Kansas University students; the "biomimicry team" sends out information on biomimicry concepts and technologies that are based on learning from nature, with grants from the Hitachi Environment Foundation; the "Edo Period Project team" provides English-language information about the sustainable society that once existed in Japan back in the Edo period; the "publishing team" publishes books on JFS; the "kids' team" is now paving the way to a children's website, and the "Eco Products Exhibition team" prepares for Japan's largest environmental exhibition, held in December every year.

The fact that most of JFS's activities are done through email exchanges permits participation by many volunteers not only from all over Japan but also from overseas. Volunteers can participate whenever they find time. One of the features of JFS is that many volunteers are company employees and housewives with young children.

At JFS, we are conscious about "managing our aspirations," in other words, we place value on the passion to make a difference, on a sense of accomplishment, and on the processes of self-development for everyone involved. Specifically, we try to constantly review our mission and vision to attain clarity, identify and re-use methods that resulted in changes in the world, and maintain the awareness that by working with others one can also develop oneself.

"There is a stimulating source of information in Japan that imparts energy through their inexhaustible wellspring of 30 monthly articles fully loaded with wisdom and technology," says an enthusiastic supporter. Not only does JFS provide information content, but by being a constant wellspring of hope and future directions, we hope to benefit a world that is about to enter harsher times. These beliefs fuel many of our volunteers who are active in collecting information, writing one article after another, translating them into English, uploading information and links on our website, expanding our information receivers, and advancing other projects.

JFS so far sent out 953 articles and 35 issues of our newsletter as of July 31, 2005. Three years since its inauguration, JFS has come to a turning point. JFS plans to keep up with its present activities, while aiming at improvements for better efficiency. At the same time we will be looking for leverage points that will be effective in leading Japan and the world towards sustainability. We are definitely looking forward to your ideas and feedback. We would also be more than happy if you would pass on the word about our activities and JFS as an information source on Japan.

(Junko Edahiro)

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