Role of Youth in Implementing SDGs Future City in Tosacho, Kochi, Japan

3.1. Review of Previous Research 3.1.1. Local Government SDGs and Civic Participation The achievement of the SDGs and efforts to achieve each goal requires the active participation of citizens. However, one of the obstacles to civic participation is biased access to information and the existence of information gaps. Uneven access to information and the existence of information gaps deprive people of the opportunities to participate in decision-making and reducing their sense of ownership. Therefore, participation can be promoted by providing appropriate information. In this process, participants themselves can become generators of information, which increases their sense of ownership. Increased participation as information generators could contribute to obtaining more detailed data on the SDGs, which are currently lacking. Moreover, the achievement of the SDGs requires the participation of various stakeholders. However, biased access to information and the digital divide deprives them of the opportunity to participate in decision-making and dilute their sense of ownership. In promoting diverse citizen participation, it is particularly necessary to promote participation at the citizen level. In this case, in addition to providing information from the top down, citizens themselves may participate in survey and research activities and become disseminators of information, which may increase the sense of ownership among participants. It is also important to discuss how to create a place for diverse participants to gather, create a mechanism to increase motivation, and maintain the transparency of information. And it is technology that can promote the acquisition and generation of information through citizen participation. By developing infrastructure such as smart cities and data infrastructure, it is possible to promote the acquisition and generation of further information by making it the center of information mechanism [7]. Local governments are working to solve local issues through cooperation among governments, citizens, companies, and other related organizations around the world toward sustainable local communities. “Local Agenda 21” refers to such initiatives and action plans based on “Agenda 21”. The role of local governments working together with citizens is essential for the formulation of the policy, and citizen participation and regional cooperation in the formulation process are important. Local government plans have been expanding their scope not only to the environment but also to other fields through policy coordination with the national government and other local governments [8]. In Japan, following the enactment of the Basic Environment Law in Heisei 5 (1993) and the decision of the “Agenda 21 Action Plan”, the “Local Agenda 21 Formulation Guide” for local governments was compiled in Heisei 7 (1995). By Heisei 15 (2003), plans were formulated in all municipalities at the prefectural and ordinance-designated city levels, but the formulation rate of municipalities was only about 10%. One of the characteristics of Japan’s Local Agenda 21 is that there are many plans and projects in the environmental field such as energy, air pollution, and climate change, and there are few comprehensive plans [9]. In addition, the research of SDGs initiatives by local governments is conducted by the Cabinet Office. According to the results of a questionnaire survey conducted from October 4 to November 11, 2022, 1464 municipalities, or 81.9%, of the 1788 municipalities (47 prefectures, 1718 municipalities, and 23 special wards) responded. When asked how much they know about the SDGs, 65.4% said they knew that economic, social, and environmental integration is important in aiming for sustainable development. “I know that it consists of 17 goals and 169 targets” (26.8%). “I know that this is a goal to be achieved by 2030” (6.3%). 1.6% said they had heard of the SDGs or had seen their logos. “I don’t know it exists” 0%. In addition, when asked how much they are interested in the SDGs, 25.4% are “very interested.”, with “Interested” 64.9%, “Not very interested” 8.7%, “Not interested at all” 0.1% and “I don’t know” 0.9%. When asked whether they are promoting initiatives to achieve the SDGs, 70.6% answered “promoting”, 11.8% “We plan to do this in the future” and 15.1% “We plan to consider promoting it in the future”. 2.5% said they are not promoting it and have no plans to do so in the future. Comparing the results of the past five years, in 2018, 15% said they were “promoting initiatives to achieve the regional revitalization SDGs” or “planning to promote them in the future,” but in 2022, 83% said they were “promoting them,” an increase every year. Among the 17 goals, “11 sustainable cities and communities” was the most common issue with 467 cases, followed by “3 Good health and well-being” at 456 and “4 High-quality education for all” at 435. As for the future of SDGs in local governments, according to [10], the government is strongly promoting the SDGs. However, since there is no legal basis, it has been proposed to make it an ordinance as a means of ensuring the sustainability of the SDGs in the midst of weak sustainability. For example, Kiryu City (Gunma Prefecture) has realized an ordinance to utilize the SDGs for urban development in Kiryu City through a proposal by a council member (enacted on March 19, 2019). The purpose of the Kiryu City Ordinance is to “aim for sustainable urban development by building partnerships and solving various issues surrounding Kiryu City and the local community in an integrated and cross-sectional manner based on the principles of the SDGs, which are common goals for international society” [11]. However, some say that new concepts such as the SDGs are difficult to enact. (Makise 2020) On the other hand, each local government’s approach to the SDGs has a high affinity with the comprehensive five-year plan, and it is possible that the measures implemented so far can be reconsidered in each item of the SDGs (sustainable cities, education, health, etc.), and it is possible that more local governments will formulate medium-term plans based on the SDGs in the future [12]. 3.1.2. Challenges for Young People to Achieve the SDG 11 Analyzing the correlation between the potential of young people to achieve SDG 11 and the challenges they face to support it, three phenomena are currently occurring. (1) Governments tend to rely mainly on older groups in policy and decision-making. (2) Young people around the world do not have equal access to the same tools, resources, and opportunities. (3) Young people around the world do not have equal access to the same means, resources, and opportunities to promote local ownership to make their cities more sustainable. As a result of actually conducting a questionnaire survey of young people in 19 cities in 17 countries, four issues were revealed. First, half of the respondents cited lack of access to economic resources in the form of poverty, difficulties in accessing funds and grants to develop projects, lack of donor engagement, lack of financial support, lack of access to data, and lack of networks. It shows a lack of paid opportunities to raise funds and for youth to work on any of the SDGs, especially SDG 11. Next, lack of opportunities for cooperation with decision-makers, limited access to government institutions, lack of access and representation of young people in decision-making positions, lack of desire and openness to the participation of young people in institutional spaces, lack of opportunities for co-creation, the power to influence fragility policymaking, and bureaucracy limit opportunities. As for the third point, one-fifth of respondents say they lack access to knowledge in the form of illiteracy. These include a poor education system, inconsistent capacity-building training, and a lack of awareness of the demands of 21st century social conditions. Nearly one-fifth of respondents cited a lack of access to data formats, including a lack of local-level data availability, a lack of government access to data or data in general, the financial cost of accessing data, and a lack of transparency [6]. From this, it was found that the following four issues are concerned. (1) Economic resources: Difficulty in obtaining funds and grants for project development, lack of financial support (2) Decision-making: There are no opportunities to exchange opinions and collaborate with decision-makers, and young people cannot participate in decision-making (3) Data: Inability to access data (4) Knowledge: Lack of knowledge to correctly judge information, etc. 3.2. Tosa Town Tosa Town in Kochi Prefecture is located in the northern part of Kochi Prefecture, almost in the center of Shikoku at an altitude of 300~500m. It is a mountain town located in the current basin of the Yoshino River. It covers an area of 20 km from east to west and 19 km from north to south, with a total area of 212.11 km². 87% of the area is occupied by mountain forests (Figure 1). The Yoshino River flows east and west of the town, and there is the Sameoura Dam, one of the largest dams in the western Japan, which is said to be the life of Shikoku, and sends water to the other three prefectures of Shikoku. With an average annual rainfall of 2700 mm, it is a city with a very rainy water source, and in recent years it has been developed into a town based on the concept of “living with water.” In order to protect these water sources, it boasts one of the highest sewerage development rates in the prefecture, which is rare in mountainous areas [13].Mori Village and Jizoji Village in Tosa District, which were formed under the town and village system in Meiji 22 (1889), and Tai Village in Nagaoka District merged in March of Showa 30 (1955) to form Tosa Village. Furthermore, in April of Showa 36 (1961), the five districts of Obuchi, Furumi, Ijiri, Shimokawa, and Kamitsugawa, which were part of Motoyama Town at that time, were incorporated and merged. With the construction of the Sameoura Dam, the urban area was opened around the Tai district, and the town system was enforced on April 1, Showa 45 (1970) [14]. The population of the town, which was about 8500 in 1965, will be 3807 in 2020 and is expected to be about 3000 by 2030, and the population is rapidly decreasing in the face of a significant natural decline with an aging population exceeding 45%. On the other hand, since 2011, social changes have improved. This is because the total number of immigrants in Kochi Prefecture in terms of population ratio to 163 people from 2014 to 2019 has boosted social growth. There is still a lot of social decline centered on higher education and employment, and although it does not lead to a permanent increase in society, the demographic composition is improving. Furthermore, as a result of efforts to support child-rearing from a relatively early stage, such as making medical expenses and childcare fees free, the working generation is small in proportion of the population, but the number of marriages is high, and the number of births is 25 to 25 per year on average. About 35 people, which is quite a lot. The total fertility rate (1.61), which was still one of the top in Kochi Prefecture as of 2014, has improved further in recent years, and if the same fertility can be maintained in the future, it is expected that the population by generation aged 0 to 60 will be close to flat (the same number of generational populations) will be close to flat around 2045, and stable town development will be possible. On the other hand, since the number of women in the generation that gives birth to children itself is small, the high Total Fertility Rate has not sufficiently contributed to the natural increase in the population, and more than 90% of the female graduates of local prefectural high schools since the 28th academic year have gone on to education outside the region. Based on these trends, in recent years in addition to child-rearing support, the local government have been actively working to enhance the educational environment [15]. However, the current population of young people (15~39 years old) in 2021 is 642, and the proportion of young people is about 16.8%, and the decline of the young people who are responsible for Tosa Town has not stopped [16].