This year the event was held from the 18th to 20th of July, and about 90 students participated in various workshops and discussions under the theme “Human – rights issues”.

The first activity was “Tamagawa Adventure Program (TAP)”.
Through various activities that aimed to highlight the importance of connections with other people the students were able to relieve their nervousness and connect with each other.

“When we go consider “human rights” and “human beings”, we will eventually face the question of “What is ‘myself’?”. “Do you have something you are doing to learn about yourself? Please discuss it amongst yourselves.” The students were instructed.

Students started doing activities after listening to the instructor’s explanation. As they explained what they found from looking for common ground and a game where they had to transform their own weaknesses to strengths, they began to smile and feel at ease with each other.

Through the activities during “TAP”, they discovered unexpected aspects of themselves and their friends’ personalities. Also they were able to relax and they were well-prepared to study and enjoy the next 3 days.

In the afternoon, the Model United Nations was held with an agenda of “child labor”. Students selected a country to be a representative of from 15 countries in the developing or developed worlds. They worked to come up with solutions which could benefit all countries.

“I am reviewing education to eliminate child labor, I am looking for a country who can support that. When my country develops I will supply my country’s supplies.”
“I would like you to spread knowledge on child labor problems in developing countries to developed countries.”
While expressing their views, active discussions were held to make better solutions for each country.

In the end, the different countries successfully created a proposal that was mutually beneficial and it passed. Happy with having solved the problem the students smiled in success.

On the second day, the Global Career Course and Baraza, a group discussion of the contents of the course lecture, were held.

Mr. Fumino Sugiyama was invited as a lecturer who could further understanding of sexual minorities (LGBT) and promote supporting activities. Based on his own experiences, he talked about the current situation surrounding sexual minorities.

“What is ‘sex’?” he asked. Students were quickly drawn into Mr.Sugiyama’s speech, which ｓpoke about the theory of 27 classifications of gender or sex. The students realized that issues surrounding transgender are surprisingly close to them.

Mr. Sugiyama suffered from alienation from a young age. He grew to accept himself after facing challenges in love, family, friendship, and career. Overcoming those conflicts, he was able to get people to understand himself.
Even though their situations were different, the students were able to see the humanity of Mr. Sugiyama’s position.

‘Firstly, “I” have to be happy’he said. The students learned the importance of accepting diversity and “living my way” through Mr. Sugiyama’s way of living.

In the subsequent Barraza, the students talked about “what we felt” and “what we can do” in teams.
Most of the groups had impressions like; “I did not know about LGBT.” “I was surprisingly familiar to us.”
They began thinking about what they could do from there.

In the presentation, each group proposed the idea of creating opportunities to “know” and to create a society where diverse individuals could live.
“I think it is important to continue taking action from now on, not just ending here.” Finally, the chair made a speech giving his own opinion, and the discussion ended with applause.

In the morning of the last day of the “Tamagawa Conference”, students learned about the current situation of refugees in the world and they participated in a workshop to think about what they can do through UNIQLO ‘s Sustainability Project “Let’s Deliver the power of Clothes”.

The lecture was given by from Toru Yasuda of the general affairs department and Yuusaku Tabe, Machino Tsurukawa store manager.
“Refugees are people who were originally living in the same way as you are.”

Through the familiar themes of “clothes”, students learned that “refugees”, who they thought were very distant from their lives, live in the same way as themselves and that there is a reality that life is threatened by not having clothes.

Students realized the significance of UNIQLO ‘s Sustainability Project “Let’s Deliver the power of Clothes”.
Later, they began making picture-story shows that encourage children in the kindergarten to join this project, which will be done after the “Tamagawa Conference”

What kind of people are refugees? What kind of good thing happen when we donate clothes?
They created books with various ideas so that the ideas could reach kindergarten children.

In the presentation practice before the actual show, they talked about “the power of clothes” with skits or humorous messages.

While realizing the difficulties in communicating with children, it was a fulfilling time for students to learn what they could do to combat international problems.

The afternoon session started with activities to think about “discrimination” through movies.
They watched several movies which were filmed in different eras and discussed in groups about the trends in “discrimination”, “reflecting social circumstances”, and “human rights” expressed in those movies. They noticed that the problem of “human rights” was also expressed in the movies they watch.

Along with the discussion, they participated in a ‘handicapped people experience’.
They were divided into roles of a person who cannot see and a role of a person who is helping him/her, guiding them by hand, and they walked a course with obstacles. By actually holding hands together and walking together, they learned about the difficulty people with disabilities face as well as the difficulties of the people who support them.

Lastly, they discussed “discriminatory terms”. They talked about whether terms such as “half”, “communication disorder”, “homeless”, or “male and female” are discriminatory terms and how others feel when they are called those things.

“The word ‘men and women’ is not discrimination, right?” “But then, we can say ‘women and men’ and not feel weird at all, right?” “Depending on the situation of the people saying it, how we feel differs.” the discussion gradually took on heat.
The debate with “no answer” based on the feeling of the word was deepened by giving opinions from various perspectives, and it led to more understanding of “discrimination” and “human rights” for the students.

Lastly, they shared a summary and their thoughts on the workshop in the afternoon.
They linked what they learned in the last 3 days, and they conveyed that how this changed the way they think about “human rights”.

“Although I have been learning about human rights, I learned new things from hearing various new opinions, which I could not get from studying by myself.” “I got a new perspective from hearing about the issues around LGBT.”
The growth of “self” was reflected by the words they spoke, after three days of learning new things, thinking on their own, and experiencing things themselves.

This year’s “Tamagawa Conference” ended.
The students had a deeper view of a global way of living and expanded their own views on how to accept human diversity.

【Lecturer Profile】

Fumino Sugiyama
Former Japan girls fencing representative. After studying gender theory at Waseda University, he published “Double Happiness” (Kodansha) which interlaced research and the actual experience of receiving a diagnosis of gender identity disorder. The book became very popular and it was translated into Korean and also published in a comic version. Currently, he is the co-chairperson of the NPO Tokyo Rainbow Pride, Japan’s largest non-profit organization of LGBT pride parades, and a school representative of the NPO Heart-wo-Tsunagou-Gakkou (Connect our Hearts School) which supports children in sexual minorities. He also serves as a member of the Shibuya Ward Equality and Diversity Society Promotion Committee and is involved in issuing Japan’s first homosexual partnership certificate in the same area.

Toru Yasuda
After graduating from Tamagawa University Faculty of Literature in 1999, he worked as a P.E. teacher at Tokai University’s Sagami Senior High School. Then, he joined FAST RETAILING CO., LTD, and was assigned to Shizuoka City. He worked as a store manager in various cities in Japan and also worked at the Shanghai office in China in 2012. He has been in his current position since 2015.

Yuusaku Tabe
UNIQLO Machida Tsurukawa store manager. Graduated from Kyoto University law school in 2010. Joined UNIQLO CO., LTD. in 2011. He was assigned to a store in Osaka, and became the store manager after six months. One year later he was assigned to the Tokyo headquarters marketing team. Afterwards, he returned to the store, and was appointed as manager in various stores, currently in the Machida Tsurukawa store since 2016.

On the first day, participants joined “Model United Nations”, which is the discussion from the positions as ambassadors of different countries. Like every year, there were vigorous activities.

On the second day, workshop was held by Ryohei Abe and Toru Yasuda from UNIQLO, and they explained the project that they are working on; “Let’s Deliver the Power of Clothes”.

“Why do we wear clothes?”, The students learned the fundamental meaning of clothes, while be surprised to the fact that the life of refugees is threatened by the absence of clothes. They were able to realize the significance of the project.

After sharing what they felt from the lecture in teams, they created “box to collect the clothes” to cooperate in the project.
“How can we make this box to make people to donate the clothes?”, While discussing ,there was constant laughs from fun ideas.

In the afternoon, they gave presentations about the design concept of the box to collect the clothes.
“I thought children of the refugees are different from me, but I now understand that they are the same. We want to give the same pleasure to children of the refugees.” “I think “Power of Clothes” is “the smile that comes from the delivery of clothes “. They spoke what each member learned and understood what they can do for the sake of international problem-solving.

After the presentation, they listened to the talk about “Tamagawa Adventure Program (TAP)”, which is a program to challenge a problem in teams, by Katsumi Naniwa who is the head of Tamagawa University TAP Center. the challenge to the challenges in cooperation with the team, “Tamagawa Adventure Program (TAP)”.
“Adventure is “to welcome new self”.” Everyone were excited to the lecture interspersed with examples and humor.

After the lecture they experienced the workshop, such as drawing a picture of the house with one pen by two people together, and clapping hands one by one in a circle. They learned the mechanism of the brain and the method to change perspectives. Though these activities they realized the joy from the problem-solving that corporates with their classmates.

In the morning of the third day which is the last day, the practiced the overall work of the TAP.
After the ice break, they shared “what they cherish” which they wrote on a paper petal of the cosmos to the team.

Some of the students struggled to face inner self, but they were able to notice the important things that was in themselves through talk with peers. Petals with letters gradually increased.

“Please stick your hands and leg with the person next to you, and stand up together with your own timings.” They learned the importance of cooperate with peers through the physical activities.
The students, while repeating the failures and discussions, finally achieved the challenge with innovative ideas, and shared the joy.

In the afternoon, they greeted 6 Brazilian students, and challenged to “create a dance that fits to the Japanese song”.

The concept of this work was, “knowing about Japan in order to interact with foreign people.”
When the repertoire was passed to students, even exchange students who are not good at Japanese and students who are not good at dance got involved into deciphering the lyrics together, shared images, and went to create a dance to express the view of the world of the song.

“That’s wonderful!” “That is adorable.” The venue was full of applauses from the audiences after every teams’ performances.
They were able to grasp the response that leads to the problem-solving through understanding themselves and communicating openly beyond the differences of the country and grade.

Finally, they were set in the atrium of the school center, and recalled the three days.

“By making up thigs through listening to the opinion of the exchange students, I was able to learned the power of challenging and communication”
“I was able to participate actively into discussions and gained the skill to understand the world”
“Everyone enjoyed the dance today. We were able to interact with students from different grades. We can interact with people around the world through dance. I want to enjoy not only from Round Square activity.”

After everyone shared their impressions and felt sympathy, they watched a photo slide show of the three days.
With this time spent in their heart, “Tamagawa Conference” of this year has ended.

Along with the fellow who are walking toward the future together, students gained lots of tops for success in the international community in these three days.

【Lecturer profile】

Ryohei Abe
Belongs to UNIQLO CO., LTD Sales Division, Sales Support Unit, FC · Business Cooperation Team SV.
After graduating Tamagawa University Faculty of Literature in 1996m he joined UNIQLO CO., LTD., in August, 2000. Through being a store manager in a variety of branches, he is in his current position since 2013. He is also providing a class project “Let’s Deliver the Power of Clothes” to elementary and middle schools.

Yukiko Abe
Works as a store manager of UNIQLO Sagami-Ono Station Square store. Graduating Tamagawa University Faculty of Literature in 2003, she joined UNIQLO CO., LTD. as a new graduate. Since 2006, she works as a store manager and was in charge of stores in Shizuoka, Iwate, Miyagi, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. In 2015, she was assigned to the current store.

Toru Yasuda
After graduating Tamagawa University, Faculty of Literature in 1999, he worked at Tokai University Sagami High School’s Physical Education. He joined Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., and was assigned to Shizuoka City. After working as a store manager in various places of Japan, he experienced working in China Shanghai office in 2012. He is in his current position since 2015.

Katsumi Nanba
Chair of Tamagawa University TAP Center.
Studied pedagogy and sports psychology in University of Louisville, and Springfield University. Also completed Tamagawa University PhD Graduate School of Engineering Brain Information in 2010. In 1995 he founded Project Adventure Japan and involved in the dissemination and education of leaders. He is now focusing on practical activities in the field of education and research at the university.

Participating students, wearing a uniform of the conference, introduced themselves and played “physical wire puzzle” to warm up. After the space got all warmed up, GAKKO’s members appeared, adding an international flavor, and the space was filled with an uplifting feeling. The participants greatly enjoyed a break the ice exercise in rhythm to the members’ call, and all became relaxed at once.

After divided into groups and exchanging greetings, the participants started activities, communicating in English. Each group worked on a mission—keep the position of a piece of marshmallow as high as possible—with scotch tape, scissors, strings, spaghetti and marshmallows.

Discussion among group members, building a high tower through trial and error, the measurement of the height, and the result presentation—from first to last, the space was filled with laughter. To think and work together built a strong sense of camaraderie, and the look-back meeting was very lively.

During lunch time, all seated around pizza and sushi that the committee arranged, and deepened exchanges, talking about oneself and student life in university.

In the afternoon the participants moved to the atrium and did various activities. each activity required gestures and words to communicate, and as doing the activities, they showed more natural expressions and faces. Taking enough time to discuss and look back, they talked about their thoughts again and again.

To end the workshop, A GAKKO’s member who went abroad from Japan told its purpose that was based on his own experience, and expected that it would be useful for younger students. “When I was in Japan, I had no practice opportunity to express my thoughts. But, in other countries, I have a lot of occasions to express my opinions. So, I’ve realized that it is important to develop self-expression ability, and I encouraged you to practice a lot expressing yourselves.”

The last activity was to take each group photos. They expressed themselves with various compositions, poses and faces, and spent their last minutes, exchanging messages and addresses.

After totally finishing the three days program, led by the Round Square Committee, the participants looked back on all the activities during the Tamagawa International Conference.
“I could build and deepen a relationship with many others, and I’m really happy I could plan the program.” “I’m glad that all the students could work together. This conference was accomplished by all.

A student from another school, Hosei University Girls’ High School, gave feedback, “All of Tamagawa students are friendly, and it was easy to work with them. I learned a lot.”

For about seven months, the students had been preparing for the conference on their own initiative. Based on the achievements of two previous conferences, they tried new initiatives, and have marked an important step toward the next conference. The participants got a lot of opportunities to improve themselves—language skills to communicate in English, the skills to organize and express thoughts, and the skills to find and understand one’s own self—and derived “priceless relationships” from the meeting and interchange with those who came from outside school.

The lecture themes were poverty, environment, and international cooperation. The students felt familiar to UNIQLO’s clothes and have worn them at least once. Therefore, it was easy for them to imagine the clothes, and they were very interested in the project.

First, Mr. Yoshida described UNIQLO as a “whole-clothing-related company” that delivers pleasure, happiness and satisfaction to people around the world with clothes. “Why we wear clothes?”—he explained the role of them that we routinely wear every day. Then, he talked about needs of refugees who were suddenly deprived of all their havings. He gave the students a moment to think about the necessity of clothes.

Mr. Yoshida showed pictures that tells the real state of refugees, and videos in which they are smiling and wearing the delivered clothes. The students understood the fact that the activity makes them feel alive.

Mr. Yoshida introduced some specific activities to collect clothes such as the recycle box for clothes at each UNIQLO shop, and cooperative efforts with schools and local governments. There are the fact that enough children’s clothing aren’t raised though they are needed a lot—he asked the students the solution and expected them to think what they could do on their own.

“Can we request you to send clothes to a specific country?” “Does every shop in each country conduct the activity in the same way?” “Does UNIQLO directly deliver clothes to countries?”—in the question and answer session, the student asked straightforward questions, and it meant that they were very interested in the topic.

In the baraza on this speech, each group planned a way to collect clothes. The chairperson of the conference announced that the plan that obtained the largest number of approval would be implemented in school, and the presentations should be delivered with more effective expression such as a playlet. Then, they immediately began discussion.

Each group presented a plan in their own way. A group performed a sketch in which someone puts clothes in the recycle box, takes a selfie and upload it to Instagram. A group made a model of the recycle box that was shaped like a T-shirt, and invented a device—an Earth picture on the box becomes colored as clothes are put into the box. A group made a CM to convey the project’s message in a natural way.

As a result of the vote, the plan of a group that suggested focusing communication between clothes-senders and clothes-receivers, having the concept “Turn cloth to wealth,” was elected. However, each plan had advantages, and eventually, all were adopted.

In the wrap-up time on the conference, each baraza group conveyed their ideas—what field of the concept “IDEALS” (International understanding, Democracy, Environmental understanding, Adventure, Leadership and Spontaneity) was the activity that they engaged in on the day related to?—with the reason why they thought that. They gained a lot of things in the process.

ed to cooperate with others in nature, and a Model United Nations in which students discussed an agenda as each country’s ambassador.
Today, the second day, each of two guest speakers gave a speech in the morning or in the afternoon, and barazas, which were a discussion on the speech, were carried.
The first guest speaker was Ms. Eriko Suzuki, who was director of Millennium Promise Japan (MPJ), a Japan-based NPO. She talked about its activities.

Ms. Suzuki explained “Millennium Development Goals,” which was based on the United Nations Millennium Declaration and aims for the elimination of poverty and starvation, and she introduced MPJ’s activities to achieve the goals. Then, she energetically talked about their achievements, worldwide problems, poverty, the education divide, gender discrimination and conflicts.

Ms. Suzuki showed videos of their local activities and talked with humor about her experiences, events in the equatorial region and a conversation with a taxi driver in Malawi. The students were drawn to those local episodes at once.

“What was the most memorable country?” “When you visited a country again, what difference did you notice as compared with the last visit?” After listening to her speech, the students threw questions at her one after another. Ms. Suzuki friendly answered them, explaining the concrete situations.

After the lecture, the baraza was held. The students were divided into six groups, and each group discussed “what they had felt and learned” from the speech, and “what they could do.” Then, they summarized their ideas on a poster paper.

“We, people in developed countries, have to think more how we can help people in developing countries.” “I think that insufficient education is the main cause of discrimination and poverty, so it is important to improve school enrollment.” “Not blindly accepting media information, I’d like to tell others what I actually experience.”

The poster papers were being filled with various opinions and ideas speedily. There were differences on the point of view and the way of summarizing them between the groups, and each poster adequately described them.

As walking around each group and asking, “Do you have new questions? Or, as a result of your discussion, do you have follow-up questions?”, Ms. Suzuki heartily supported their discussions.

At the end, each group clearly delivered their opinions and ideas that the group members worked up together.

The students didn’t only “feel and learn” from the speech, but also specifically thought of “what they could do.” As expected in this conference holding the theme “Act today, change tomorrow,” they obtained an important experience that would lead them to take first action to change tomorrow.

The theme titled, “Question Learning” included about 50 participants, including 15 GAKKO members, who seemed to enjoy talking to each other in a relaxed mood before the workshop. This created a positive atmosphere in the hall.

First, to break the ice, the participants made six groups and played a gesture game with pictures. The entire communication was delivered in English, and the participants were able to freely and actively talk to each other.

In a very warm and congenial atmosphere the mission, “The Development of a Protector Against Drop Impact” was announced. Groups had 60 minutes and were given various items to protect their egg, such as sheets of paper, straws, pens and sheets of origami paper to explain their method of protecting their egg. Within each group its members formed two sub-groups called Public Relations Department and Development Department, and each group completed the work by sharing their ideas.

Each group`s Public Relations Department presented their “The Egg Protector Against Drop Impact” experiments at the Atrium. All of the six groups received cheers and applause from the audience, and all the participants enjoyed it very much.

Finally, the students reflected on what they learned, took a commemorative picture together, and the conference came to a close.

Junya Igarashi, a former executive committee chairperson of Tamagawa`s Round Square, is now a GAKKO staff member. He was heartily pleased that this conference was held, that it had improved from the previous the year, and was impressed by the increase in participants.

Taisei Kobayashi, this year’s executive committee chairperson, said, “Mr. Igarashi and I have been friends since elementary school, and he is a person who I respect. I am grateful for the fortune and chance of having this learning opportunity. My dream has come true. That is, the conference would be more improved over last year’s.”

Saki Nagao, who is an executive committee member, and Round Square member for three years, said with a smile “building on my experience in each Round Square’s activity, I’ve found myself being able to do a lot of things. And I already have a lot of ideas for the next year!”

The Round Square Tamagawa International Conference offers the chance for students to exercise their sensibility, expression skills and language skills. It is based on thoughts passed on from seniors to juniors and their passion for better learning. This all-hands activity will continue to improve.

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.