Sustainable Travel Japan

Sustainable Japan Topics for November in 30-min chat with JJ & Tove - two sustainability focused consultants / educators based in two different areas of Japan

Monthly chat about sustainability trends, innovation, events and issues for Japan & beyond with JJWalsh & Tove Kinooka / Topics & Updates - November 2025

LINKS

• The Conduit - Climate and Conflict https://www.theconduit.com/programme/...
• The Burning Question: Climate & Conflict   
•  • The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict  
• Talk with traditional-Japanese design expert author-architecht Azby Brown about how Humans connect to human-made things   
•  • Hand Crafted Design Appeal of Traditional ...  
• Blacksmith in Fukuyama:  
•  / akitakazuyoshi  
• Deep Travel Experience with Alex Kerr in Kagawa via ONESTORY  
•  / onestorytraveller  
• LinkedIn Univ Exeter COP30 Summary https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/exeter...
• Home- Work Village https://homeworkvillage.com/

Kominka Japan has set the date for the annual Hanase Village Minka celebration in Rural Kyoto for the weekend of April 24,25,26 2026 - save the date!

Tickets are now on sale and you can get a discount if you buy before the end of 2025

https://kominkajapan.online/events/

LINKS:

My talk with Paul & Kim Fredale about their stunning home and garden renovation: https://youtube.com/live/yjVcsFL09sU

Buy your MINKA SUMMIT 2026 tickets, dinner tickets, lunch tickets.. on Peatix:

https://minka-summit-2026.peatix.com/

Some Highlights of the event to be announced in the show:

· Speaker Presentations

· Minka and Machiya Tours!

· Hands-On Workshop Demonstrations!

· Minka Mall!

· Friday Night Meet-and-Greet

· Saturday Night Dinner & Keynote Speech

About Stuart Galbraith from KominkaJapan website

Stuart Galbraith IV is a film historian who has lived in his 1810 minka in the mountains north of Kyoto since 2016 with his wife, Yukiyo, and daughter, Sadie. He is the author of seven books, including The Emperor and the Wolf – The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune and Japanese Cinema and a co-writer of Academy Award-winner Steven Okazaki’s documentary Mifune – The Last Samurai (2015). A former archivist for Warner Bros. and MGM, Galbraith writes reviews for the website The Digital Bits and frequently does audio commentaries and produces short documentaries for DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K releases, including such films as Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Sanjuro, and Dersu Uzala, Kinji Fukasaku’s Battles without Honor and Humanity, Martin Scorsese’s Silence, and Joshua Logan’s Sayonara. His most recent credit is an audio commentary for the Powell & Pressburger classic A Matter of Life and Death. He also wrote and produced the documentary short, The Minka of Gaijin Alley (2019).

Inspiring talk from Azby Brown at MinkaCon2025 about how the beauty of hand-crafted things in traditional houses is what we as human beings respond to and NEED to have connection to in our homes and lives.

Azby Brown is a respected MINKA MASTER, educator, author, researcher, advocate and advisor based in Japan for many years.

https://azbybrown.com/about/

Watch the video here to see the images he shows and talks about on Seek Sustainable Japan YouTube

https://youtu.be/02XeH-FnOZg?si=Vb6UMOoHUkm6YwQZ

Tove & JJ chat about events and news on sustainable Japan for October

CEO Toru Muramatsu talks of the great work of Chiiori Alliance and is an inspiring designer and manager who has done great work alongside Alex Kerr to develop beautiful, high-value stays for both international and Japanese guests by renovating old traditional Japanese homes into guest houses.

Chiiori Alliance

https://www.chiiori-alliance.jp/

Kyle Holzhueter is a master plasterer in Japan and founder of Kamimomi Permaculture center in Okayama joins Seek Sustainable Japan once again to talk about their upcoming Living Earth Lab - a 7 day workshop experience in natural living and sustainable life skills- with Phil Cashman of Awa Farm and other Tokyo area permaculture projects.

Kyle Holzhueter & Phil Cashman are both long-time Japan based permaculture masters who are running a workshop in Okayama focused on Sustainable Living called LIVING EARTH LAB.

Phil is passionate about urban farming - growing your own food even in small spaces, compost toilets and founded Awa Permaculture Farm in Chiba.

Phil's Awa Permaculture farm community page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064494287906

Kyle: https://pamimomi.com/

Kyle Holzhueter on the Seek Sustainable Japan talkshow-podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh9VhKmd2_U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2cJPZa1bc8

More about Phil: https://therongolianstar.com/2013/06/29/for-permaculture-in-japan-visit-permaculture-awa-farm-dojo/

Lauren and Andrea are Minka Preservation Society founders and talk here about what we can look forward to at the MINKA CON event coming up in November 2025

https://www.minkasociety.com/

This month sustainability focused, Japan based consultants, educators and entrepreneurs Tove Kinooka and JJWalsh discuss Sustainable Japan Day event and awards featured by the Japan Times  ⁨@thejapantimes⁩  - One Young World - Sustainability in the Himalaya mountains with Carole Fuchs - Tech for Impact event in Tokyo October - Global Perspectives workshops and INTRApreneurship training programs - Digital Collage September event ICHIGO BLOOM - Responsible Finance and Investing with Morisawa Michiyo - Wooden Barrels Craft Award Yamaroku Shoyu Shodoshima - Made-in-Japan apparel - Sustainable Forestry in Wakayama - Zero-Carbon baseball stadium HANSHIN Tigers - GLIN impact capital investments in startups with social and environmental impact - Outrage & Optimism podcast  ⁨@OutrageandOptimism⁩  - HGPI Health and Environment intersection - Yamaroku Soy Sauce - Yamagata rural revival ..

LINKS

- Sustainable Japan day event 2025 on September 18 https://sustainable.japantimes.com/sjd-2025

- UNICHARM circularity in diaper business for babies and elderly - recycled pulp & recycle used https://www.unicharm.co.jp/en/csr-eco/education.html

- One Young World https://www.oneyoungworld.com/  ⁨@OneYoungWorld⁩ 

- Global Perspectives workshops & Intra-preneurship training https://www.globalperspectives.biz/intrapreneurship

- Tech 4 Impact Summit https://tech4impactsummit.com/

- Digital Collage event in Sept 2025 Ichigo Bloom Tokyo https://ichigobloom.jp/digital-collage-explore-the-hidden-footprint-of-our-digital-lives-tokyo-21-september-2025/

- Morisawa Michiyo feature about Responsible Investing https://sustainable.japantimes.com/unraveling/25

- Yamaroku Shoyu SHODOSHIMA island https://yama-roku.net/en

- Factelier made-in-japan clothing apparel https://factelier.com/aboutus/

- WAKAYAMA sustainable forestry https://nakagawa-forestry.com/about

- Hanshin Tigers Zero Carbon Baseball Stadium https://zerocarbon-bp.hanshin.co.jp/park/map.html

- GLIN social and environmental impact funding, startups and investing https://glinimpact.com/en/insight/insight-investment20231017

- Japan Health and Environmental policy intersection advising and diplomacy https://hgpi.org/en/

- Netchu Rural Revitalization in Yamagata - reusing abandoned schools to create community spaces https://www.takahata.necchu-shogakkou.com/

- Outrage and Optimism podcast https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/

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JJWalsh's Inbound Ambassador Website: https://inboundambassador.com/

JOIN

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjRdeieOLGes008y_I9y5Q/join

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jjwalsh

BuyMeACoffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jjwalsh

UK actor and playwright Michael Mears joins Seek Sustainable Japan to

share insights about his latest play called THE MISTAKE - a two person

performance telling stories connected to the nuclear bombings of

Hiroshima 80 years ago.

https://michaelmears.org/

Arcola theatre about THE MISTAKE: A powerful reflection on the decisions

that changed the course of history and the human cost that followed.

In the 80th anniversary year of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings,

this is urgent, unforgettable theatre.

https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/themistake2025/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6_szLiCp5s

An important play about nuclear weapons and the nuclear bombing of

Hiroshima.

play description:

"Shigeko Nomura is a young woman living in war-time Hiroshima.

Leo Szilard is a Hungarian scientist and ‘father of the atomic bomb’.

Paul Tibbets is the American pilot chosen to fly the plane that drops

the bomb.

At 8.15am on a Monday morning in August, their lives become fatally and

forever entangled."

https://michaelmears.org/the-mistake-a-new-play-about-the-day-the-world-changed-forever/

Michel Mears will be performing a bilingual version of THE MISTAKE in

Tokyo, Hiroshima and Tottori in September this year.

Contribute to their crowdfunding campaign.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/taking-my-play-the-mistake-to-japan-in-september

• Welcome
• Vegan-Friendly London
• Vegan LUNA Burger
• Hiroshima Nagasaki 80th
• Noto Recovery Trip BCCJ
• Wajima Lacquerware Recovery
• Alex Kerr talks Wajima in Hidden Japan book
• Benton Homestead Rural Entrepreneurs
• Write Public Response about Manager Visa Changes
• GTN Working with Foreign Residents as positive opportunity not risk
• Circular System Tokyo includes Worm Composting
• Fukuoka Clean Energy & Drinking Water Project
• Michael Mears actor playwright THE MISTAKE

LINKS

Talking with Michael Mears about THE MISTAKE play on Hiroshima Nuclear Weapons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d2jaraQyuY

LUNA Vegan Burger in HASE Kamakura area outside Tokyo #veganfood #japan https://maps.app.goo.gl/BM8ZRHaTN57oy1R78

No More Hiroshima Nagasaki 80th Commemorations  @medium  #peace #travel

https://medium.com/@jjwalsh/no-more-hiroshima-nagasaki-80th-8d4c808638b7

Staying in NOTO after the quake talking with Bernd & Mitsue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIFqBe-0f4

Alex Kerr book Hidden Japan mentions Noto peninsula and Wajima

https://www.youtube.com/live/plqAlGpCCvU?si=UWw12L1xdpuKLKmx

Benton Homestead  @bentonhomestead 

https://bentonhomesteadjapan.myshopify.com/

Please write in about the sudden changes to the Business Manager Visa

system- we don't want to lose businesses doing good like Benton

Homestead:

https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&Mode=0&id=315000115

 @theGuardian 

Fukuoka OSMOTIC Clean Energy and Drinking Water Project featured by

the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/25/japan-osmotic-power-plant-fukuoka?fbclid=IwY2xjawMaiu5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEwYWVwQjBzTk1KbFBrcnVrAR4NOapoCche5jHIsRTLksPSU699Acv72IxtqSpuTL0HCncHqOUM-Yvq19ooYA_aem_yaIjHbOaqJ0jl34TyKdZDA

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Sustainably focused consultants JJWalsh & Tove Kinooka monthly

30-min Short Takes Chat about sustainable strategy, news, events and

innovation in Japan and beyond.

#sustainablejapan #seeksustainablejapan #shorttakes #japan #sustainability