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About 60% of young people worldwide experience ecoanxiety, feeling powerless and depressed about climate change, making it a significant public health issue globally. To address the challenges of the Anthropocene, including ecoanxiety, we need to rethink the human-nature relationship that is central to modernity. However, imagining a world that isn’t solely centred on humans is difficult because we have limited references to help us envision an alternative relationship with nature. In this international symposium, we explore how Japanese Studies and art can contribute to reimagining nature and their importance in shaping a sustainable future.

The keynote speaker is an internationally renowned contemporary artist from Tokyo, Tomoko Konoike, who has challenged the anthropocentric human-nature relationship through her art. The symposium provides a rare opportunity to hear her views on the connection between humans and nature, her portrayal of this relationship, and what she aims to communicate through her artwork. Among other speakers is Yoshiyuki Nagata, also from Tokyo (online), who has worked extensively with UNESCO on its Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative. He will discuss the importance of UNESCO's flagship report: Reimagining Our Futures Together (2021), with a particular focus on how it envisions the relationship between human and nonhuman.