【Event Report】“Life is Connected! Myaku-Myaku Creature Quest”Event in Awaji Island

The “Details Announced!”Life is Connected! Myaku-Myaku Creature Quest” event, a joint project for the 2025 Japan International Exposition (Expo Osaka-Kansai), was held at Nijigen-no Mori on Awaji Island on Sunday, May 26th. event will be held on May 26th on Awaji Island.

The venue was Nijigen-no-mori, located in Awaji Island Park surrounded by rich nature. This facility is operated by the Pasona Group. The event was held in cooperation with the group, which exhibited the “PASONA NATUREVERSE” pavilion at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.
Mr. Masato Ito, Managing Executive Officer, CBO Regional Advantage and in charge of Natureverse, Pasona Group Inc.

The pavilion produced by Shoji Kawamori offers an immersive exhibition on the dynamism of ecosystems, allowing visitors to experience the fact that we humans live on the basis of biodiversity.
The theme of the joint project is “Nature Positive. This concept and the Pasona Group’s concept “Inochi, Arigato (Life, Thank You)” have a great affinity. That is why we asked Mr. Ito to speak on behalf of the group.
Health and bonding, and the connection between the ecosystem and our bodies. He also spoke about how he wanted to bring awareness to the fact that humans are kept alive by nature.

Also invited to speak were Mr. Noriaki Suga, Director of the Hyogo Prefectural Environment Department, Mr. Shogoro Fujiki, President of Biome Inc. and Mr. Shoji Kawamori. They held a talk session on the theme of “The Importance of Biodiversity to be Communicated at the Expo.

Small actions against climate change, such as turning off electricity frequently, are easy to see, but actions for ecosystems are not so easy to see.

Mr. Fujiki said, “Biome wants to support the conservation of living creatures even if it is not a conscious effort to protect them, but a simple action of having fun looking for living creatures, taking pictures, and posting them. He also said that he would be happy if people could think about taking care of living creatures, for example, letting them go after catching and photographing them, or only taking pictures of them without catching them.

Kawamori responded that even if people have the knowledge to protect the ecosystem, there is a hurdle to taking action. However, with Biome, when you are taking pictures, you are going to the site and taking the first step. I thought it was very innovative that we could collect data while having fun, and that this would lead to conservation. When I heard about this story, I really wanted to work with them, and this has led to our current joint project. I am very much looking forward to working together with you on this project.

Mr. Suga explained that there are four crises that threaten biodiversity due to human activities, and that he has formulated the “Hyogo Biodiversity Strategy,” which outlines specific action guidelines to solve these crises, and has been working on countermeasures.
In preparation for the Osaka-Kansai Expo, Hyogo Prefecture’s Environment Department has adopted the theme “Restoration of Satoyama and Satoumi”.
Currently, Hyogo Prefecture is promoting the cutting of trees to be used as fuel for boilers in a satoyama in the Nishitani district of Takarazuka City. This will help to care for the satoyama, and because it does not use oil, it will also help to combat global warming. We would like to promote this new satoyama initiative together with the traditional satoyama in Kurokawa, Kawanishi City, which is said to be the best satoyama in Japan.

Mr. Suga also spoke about invasive alien species, which are one of the crises that threaten biodiversity. Extermination of invasive alien species that affect conventional ecosystems is costly and difficult, and in order to exterminate them, it is necessary to know where they are. Under such circumstances, Mr. Fujiki also commented that he has been working with us on biological surveys in Hyogo Prefecture while using Biome.

In response to the discussion of satoyama in Hyogo Prefecture, Kawamori commented that there are not many places where nature and humans are so close, and he feels that they are precious. It is important to have a place where the entire cycle can be viewed as a whole. In order to preserve satoyama, we need to show the possibility that the ecosystem can be enriched by the addition of human hands, otherwise development will be all bad and human civilization will cease to exist. He commented that it is not impossible for humans and nature to coexist.

The final speaker was a representative of the Expo and a person in charge of sustainability from the Shoji Kawamori Pavilion’s partner companies, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan K.K., TOPPAN Holdings K.K., and Kura Sushi K.K.
A talk session was held on the theme of “What we want to convey through the Expo: How people and nature should relate to each other in the future.

<Comments>
■Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Co.
Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan K.K.
EXPO Sales Promotion Dept.
Ms. Sarie Selph
We would like to convey the importance of protecting and nurturing water, which is irreplaceable for our business, and the importance of forest conservation, which is indispensable for this purpose. As a business that uses water, it is very important for us to conserve forests, grasslands, and other water source areas and ecosystems, and to pass on the global environment to the next generation in a sustainable manner. Forests have the function of recharging water sources, which nurture high-quality water essential for our daily lives, and of preserving biodiversity, which maintains connections among various living organisms.
We are engaged in forest conservation activities in the water source areas of all of our 17 plants by thinning trees and planting trees to nurture abundant groundwater and create a habitable environment for a variety of organisms. In addition, in the watersheds surrounding our plants, we hold the “Coca-Cola ‘Let’s Learn from the Forest’ Project,” an environmental experience program, to provide many people with opportunities to learn about forests, water, and biodiversity conservation, and to convey the importance of protecting and nurturing local nature and living creatures.
With your cooperation, the joint project will provide a more detailed and in-depth view of the ecosystems of plants and insects living in “forests,” and we would like to utilize this ecosystem data to further promote biodiversity conservation.
Another important initiative in our business is to replace PET bottles with sustainable materials and contribute to the recycling of PET bottles. We hope to use the Osaka-Kansai Expo as an opportunity to communicate these efforts.

■TOPPAN Holdings Co.
EXPO2025 Business Promotion Group, Expo Promotion Office
Mr. Toride Sumiya
TOPPAN removed the word “printing” from its company name last year, and being a printing company, it will be a company that handles a lot of paper. The company is working on environmental protection while setting goals as a company on how to coexist with trees, which are the raw materials for paper, and nature.
One of these efforts is the creation of biotopes in some of the company’s mills and laboratories, where plants and other living creatures that originally inhabited the land can be preserved. In some cases, they have biotopes in their factories and laboratories as an environment where plants and creatures that originally inhabited the land can be preserved as they are.
At “Window of the Universe,” one of the exhibits where visitors can feel life, visitors can experience the workings of life through overwhelming images on a huge, high-definition screen. The company is working on the production of this exhibit by utilizing the realistic visual expression technology it has cultivated through printing.
In addition, the company is cooperating to reproduce the roots of the cycle of life in a virtual way so that visitors can feel the roots of the cycle of life.

■KURAZUKI Co.
Public Relations & Investor Relations Division
Mr. Yuichiro Koyama
As a company that handles fish, we have a great responsibility to preserve the precious blessings of the oceans and marine resources.
Of the approximately 15,000 species of fish in the world, we actually eat only about 500. We purchase natural fish directly from fishermen all over Japan and sell them as sushi. Some of them are low-use fish that are rarely seen in everyday life. For example, shira is said to be a fast fish and is not widely distributed in Japan. Also, nizadai is a hard-to-priced fish because it eats a lot of seaweed and its meat has a distinctive rocky scent. However, this unique rocky flavor can be reduced by feeding cabbage for a certain period of time, which makes the fish more palatable to everyone. In this way, the company also purchases low-use fish for commercialization.
Rather than purchasing only fish that are in high demand, it is important to make the best use of the fish caught by fishermen, and we believe that these efforts will lead to biodiversity.
The company also conducts on-site SDGs classes for elementary schools. We hope that children, who will be responsible for the future, will start by doing what they can do on a day-to-day basis to make the conservation of marine diversity a personal matter for them.
The revolving belt brings the world together. The revolving belt has no beginning and no end. The revolving belt has no beginning and no end. I believe that this concept is in line with the philosophy of the Expo, and I believe that we can contribute to the deepening of exchanges among people from around the world who will gather at the Osaka-Kansai Expo through the conveyor-belt sushi business.

After listening to the passion of the three companies, Shoji Kawamori said, “We are blessed to have the support of our partners. Diversity is not simply the presence of a variety of people; it is the expression of each person’s own strengths and the establishment of a cycle. I believe that life shines brightly when people are able to express what they are good at. This is true not only for humans but for all living things. This is true not only for human beings but for all living things.

＜The video of the press conference can be viewed here.＞

＜Searching for Living Things＞
After the press announcement, participants searched for living creatures and plants using the free app “Biome.
The creatures discovered on Awaji Island were posted on a special page for the joint project on the official Shoji Kawamori website. Please take a look.