Geographical location
	City of Yamato Koriyama Lat. 34° 40' N Long. 135° 50' E Access from Tokyo about 2 1/4 hours by bullet train to Kyoto from Kyoto about 45 minutes by train from Osaka about 35 minutes by train
	Related links Nara Prefecture Nara City Tourism Section's Home Page

Several years ago, children in the city of Yamato Koriyama, in Nara Prefecture, formed an organization called Kids' Eco Club "Peace." It currently has 17 members, who range from nursery-school to middle-school age. Kids Web first featured this club in July 1998. Now we're taking a look at the club's current activities.

Kids' Eco Club "Peace," now in its sixth year, was originally formed by fourth-grade students at Heiwa Elementary School. (Heiwa is the Japanese word for peace). In the beginning, their activities consisted mainly of doing clean-up projects in the city and making posters about the importance of volunteer work and the environment.

Looking back on the early days of their club, the children admit that at first, they weren't sure which ideas they should promote or how to go about promoting them. But camping trips and other educational experiences brought them into close contact with nature, and through these experiences, they learned first-hand that the natural environment is beautiful and irreplaceable. As the club went about its activities, the children's enthusiasm proved contagious, and their friends, parents, sisters, and brothers became interested in what they were doing.

One thing that distinguishes Kids' Eco Club "Peace" from other environmentally oriented clubs is that it stages theatrical performances, both to showcase its activities and to emphasize, in a form readily understandable to people from many different walks of life, the importance of environmental activities. The kids believe that putting on plays makes the ideas easy for people from all walks of life to understand. The club has produced and staged plays once a year for the past three years. Last year the kids performed at an environmental event hosted by Nara Prefecture; the theme of the play was "The Future."

The children's play had the following story line: A girl comes to school with a present for a boy she likes. The present is wrapped in several layers of wrapping paper. The other students notice that the amount of packaging material used is excessive. This in turn leads them to the realization that the Earth's natural resources are limited and gets them thinking about Earth-friendly energy sources.

"It feels good to perform, and presenting our activities in the form of a play is fun," says one club member.

The kids who watched the play got a lot out of it too. One audience member commented, "It's fun to watch your friends perform. Also, I always thought environmental topics were complicated, but when they're presented in this form, they're easy to understand."

One of the club's adult supporters is Mihoko Sakai, a teacher at Ayame Ike Elementary School. "I want to get the kids thinking about what true abundance means," she says. "The point is to get them thinking, through the process of presenting real-life environmental issues in a play, about what they themselves can do to help. By putting on plays, the kids also develop their abilities to express their ideas."

Another major club activity is creating woodblock prints with environmental themes. In 1997 the kids produced a large print titled "The Anger of the Earth," which won first prize in an environmental artwork contest. In 1998 they created a 50-page book, "Poems of the Earth," containing both prints and text. This work, which addresses a variety of global environmental problems and emphasizes the importance of nature, won an award from the Environment Agency.

This April the students who have formed the core of the club up to this point entered their third and final year of middle school. Because these students have to begin studying for their high-school entrance exams, they won't be able to participate as actively in the club as they have up until now.

However, this does not mean they will give up their environmental activities entirely. "Even after I'm in high school, I want to keep thinking about the environment and spreading environmental messages," says one of the students.

The junior members of Kids' Eco Club "Peace" are feeling positive about moving into the leadership role they will have to assume once the senior members have gone on to high school. As one elementary-school member puts it, "We'll miss the older members, but we'll recruit new members, and we'll keep taking on new challenges just as we have in the past."


Photos: (From top) Planting seeds to grow kenaf, a valunable renewable plant; club members take the stage in a play; raising awareness with environmental signs; club representatives accept an award from Nara Prefecture. (Mihoko Sakai)