The Tamagawa International Conference, hosted by Round Square`s Executive Committee was held over three days. On the second day, a group discussion called Barazza convened, in which the participants openly expressed their ideas, and at the end they concluded that they shared similar values.
After listening to the speech by the guest speaker Izawa Tomohiro, the president of Junior United Nations Eco, the students were divided into four groups for discussion.
In the morning, Mr. Izawa spoke on the theme “Sustainability.” The content was about imagining futures from various angles and then examining them. Using photographs, Mr. Izawa illustrated and raised a range of topics and questions such as the relation between meat production and the environment, changing values brought on by technical advancement, work and jobs now and the future, and what is happening to human lives on earth. In the middle of the speech, the students formed discussion groups and took turns sharing their ideas with the class. Overall, they felt that global issues were more connected to their lives than they had originally thought.
Following the morning speech, the Barazza took place in the afternoon. The four groups held their discussions privately in different rooms. After the discussions the groups took turns sharing their ideas and everyone benefited from their newly acquired knowledge. They felt a sense of unity over their agreement regarding the importance of water for drinking and environmental problems.
The students took turns expressing their ideas during discussions, which included such topics as, “People not only create problems but also can head in a good direction”, “People make progress with new technologies to solve problems”, and “First we have to take care of our own problems as well as other countries’.” A group also talked about their future careers. These discussions motivated students to examine their future careers and they gained a lot of wisdom from them.
*Round Square
Round Square is an international school federation that works based on the six pillars called IDEALS (Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership, Service). A Round Square world conference is held once a year, and about 300 high school students attend it from around the world.