Education towards Urban Sustainability: Lessons Learned from the Welfare Business Models of Kanazawa City, Japan

Education is considered a driving force for urban sustainable development and there is an urgent need to use different approaches to increase the awareness level in younger generations. Teaching about sustainability requires an integrated approach due to its complex concept, and in this study to show the interconnection of the social, environmental and economic sectors of the city the author decided to conduct fieldwork activities in the welfare business sectors, which is one of the leading practices used in the aging Japanese population. Japan’s population is aging with a declining birth rate, and the country is becoming a “super-aging” society with one out of every four persons aged above 65 years. There are crucial issues to provide social services, such as care for the elderly, child support programmes to reduce the child-raising anxieties, care for mentally and physically disabled people and others. In this study, the objectives were 1) to provide the fieldwork in small-scaled private and town-scaled business sectors and 2) to observe the interconnection of urban sustainability practices through the welfare with environmental, social and economic sectors. Private and public sectors were visited by 15 international students with different educational backgrounds, who had no idea about urban sustainability. In total, four welfare business sectors were visited by the students: two sectors were related to the farming activates together with care for disabled people, and the other two field trips were related to urban community-development business sectors. After the field trips, students evaluated a linkage among social, environmental and business sectors related with welfare practices. The awareness level of the students increased (85 %) towards the issue of sustainable urban development, and they were able to provide the recommendations for the inclusive, safe and resilient cities. These field trips showed very positive feedback, to educate the youth. In this study, the author presents the qualitative transdisciplinary field trip approach. However, to improve the methodology a cohort analysis with a quantitative data analysis will be performed in the further study.