On May 4th 2025, eleven high school students participating in the “Earth Youth Summit 2025 in KYOTO” gave a presentation about “Environmental Karuta” at the Kansai Pavilion’s Meet Up Kyoto Stage.
The “Environmental Karuta” was invented during the activity of “Earth Youth Summit 2025 in KYOTO” to enable people to enjoy learning about and thinking about the environment in a casual manner by relating the traditional Japanese card game of karuta to environmental issues and their causes and countermeasures.
The picture cards were illustrated with pictures representing various environmental issues in modern society, and a brief explanation of each environmental issue was written on the reading cards.
The presenter read out the reading cards, and the audience selected the picture cards that matched the reading cards from among several picture cards presented on the stage screen. It was a simple and easy-to-understand game.
Not only people from all over Japan, but also many native English speakers around the world participate in the “Earth Youth Summit 2025 in KYOTO.”
High school students from various backgrounds from all over the world gathered and created “Environmental Karuta” in each allocated group by putting heads together.
Although there were some miscommunications and mistakes because much of the work and discussion was conducted in English, it was possible to create “Environmental Karuta” that were easily understood by non-native Japanese speakers.
All presentations on the day were made in English, and were appropriate for the Expo’s stage, to deliver “Environmental Karuta” from Kansai to the world.
In addition, “Earth Youth Summit 2025 in KYOTO” involves prior learning. Specifically, we had a chance to learn about the current state of the world and its countermeasures from various lecturers, and also worked together to find solutions to problems through role-playing games and other activities conducted online. The content of this presentation also reflected such prior learning.
High school students also took a lead in attracting audiences to the events. The day before the event, we promoted this event on our social accounts.
On the day of the event, there were active calls for the presentation in front of the stage, with flyers and posters in hand and in our own words to convey the content and merits of the presentation.
I think we were able to convey our enthusiasm to share the presentations and thoughts we had created with as many people as possible.
As one of the presenters, I would like to share my thoughts on this presentation. First of all, we had an opportunity to study carefully before creating and presenting the “Environmental Karuta,” which helped us to better grasp the essence of the environmental issues and to clarify what we truly wanted to convey to the audience.
I was also very pleased to be able to engage closely with the audience on the day, asking questions to those in the audience and to those who raised their hands.
Many people may feel that environmental issues are too difficult to understand. This is even more when it comes to learning about environmental issues.
However, environmental issues are not something that we are not concerned with, nor do they seem difficult.
There are many problems in modern society that can be improved with a little awareness on your part. Why don’t you think about environmental issues in a fun and casual way, just like “Environmental Karuta”?
Written by:
- Mayuna Fujita, Saikyo high school, Kyoto, Japan
- Yuina Fujiwara, Saikyo high school, Kyoto, Japan