The needs for SDGs initiatives are increasing in attracting and holding business events.
This page is an introduction page of the initiative of each base.
Marunouchi
Marunouchi—A wellness area where an Imperial Palace Running Program is available
The Marunouchi area is tucked between Tokyo Station, a major transport hub, and verdant Kokyo Gaien National Garden (the outer garden of the Imperial Palace). Here, visitors can not only enjoy the contrast between urban and natural landscapes but also participate in a wellness-oriented Imperial Palace Running Program*.
This program is offered in cooperation with the world-famous Japanese sportswear maker Asics, which has set up a Run Station in Marunouchi. Under the guidance of a professional coach, MICE groups can enjoy a running program at the Kokyo Gaien National Garden, which is well loved as a sanctuary for runners and where one lap is five kilometers. The coach will advise you on how to improve your running form and share the highlights of the garden. This running program is a unique experience that is also perfect for a team-building activity as it refreshes both your mind and body while you take in the beautiful scenery of the area.
*Information about this program, adopted for the Japan Incentive Travel Contents of Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) in fiscal year 2021, is available in seven languages on JNTO’s website.
https://www.japanmeetings.org/japan-incentive/contents/detail.html?id=30
Information about various other MICE-related activities conducted in this area to promote sustainability is available on the website of DMO Tokyo/Marunouchi.
https://bit.ly/3tB1ENA
Roppongi
SDGs study meetings held for members
DMO Roppongi regularly holds study meetings on various topics with a view to promoting MICE. Recently, it has hosted a series of such meetings on SDGs to share information and promote a better understanding of SDGs
Because initiatives for SDGs, which cover a wide range of topics, make some members wonder what constitutes such initiatives, the study meetings on SDGs featured member companies that are engaged in various initiatives for SDGs that go beyond MICE. The detailed and specific accounts of such initiatives provided a great opportunity for awareness and learning, with many members commenting that they could realize they had already been working on SDGs.
DMO Roppongi also invited a lecturer well-versed in MICE situations abroad to give a lecture on SDGs in other countries. It was a fruitful event that allowed the attendees to learn overseas approaches to MICE in light of SDGs, including actual examples, as well as to understand points of particular importance, such as viewpoints of SDGs that must be heeded when they host MICE tourists in the future.
Tokyo Waterfront City
Progressive initiatives for energy and resource conservation by the city as a whole and by individual facilities
Since its inception, Tokyo Waterfront City has been equipped with a district heating and cooling system. This system supplies chilled water and hot water produced at heat-producing plants in the Daiba, Aomi, and Ariake-Minami areas for space cooling and heating and for hot water supply through pipes in a utility tunnel extending across the area. Further, the plants in the Daiba and Ariake-Minami areas use exhaust heat and steam generated at local waste incineration plants to help curb global warming, reduce CO2 emissions, and conserve energy. In addition to these city-wide efforts, facility-specific initiatives are also under way.
Tokyo Big Sight, Japan’s largest convention and exhibition center, is working to help achieve SDGs. For Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), Tokyo Big Sight is shifting to LED lighting for its exhibition halls to reduce power consumption and CO2 emissions. It also promotes renewable energy use, with solar panels installed for South Exhibition Halls. To help achieve Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), Tokyo Big Sight has set waste reduction as one of its goals, working to promote the recycling of waste generated during exhibitions, to promote resource recycling such as by turning kitchen waste from its restaurants into livestock feed, and to prevent illegal waste disposal and other acts through supervision for adequate waste disposal.
Nihonbashi
Event focusing on regional revitalization, D & I, and decarbonization held
Nihonbashi Sustainable Summit 2021 was held in November 2021 by Nihonbashi Muromachi Area Management. In the Nihonbashi area, the wisdom of sustainable living from the Edo period (1603-1868) still resonates, and the spirit of mutual help has taken root along with a community of co-creation where businesses, stores, and people respect and collaborate with each other. The summit was organized as an area-wide MICE event by taking advantage of these characteristics of Nihonbashi as well as another feature: the concentration of various MICE venues in this compact area.
The summit, held under the theme of “regional revitalization, diversity & inclusion (D & I), and decarbonization,” brought together diverse businesses, just as the Nihonbashi area does. The goal was to create a new community of co-creation through an opportunity for the participants to share the challenges they were facing and the results of their initiatives. The summit provided an intense experience unique to face-to-face events that can never be experienced in events held at a single venue or online. Examples of such an experience include: collaborative events with businesses operating in Nihonbashi, where the spirit of mutual help has taken root; the use of different facilities with distinct characteristics as the venues; talks with a sense of culture and history by representatives of long-established businesses; and open-air networking parties with an approachable feel.
Shinagawa
A variety of SDGs initiatives undertaken individually by businesses and through area-wide collaboration
This area is known to have long been home to a station house (umaya) and continues to thrive as a vibrant gateway to Tokyo, with Shinagawa Station serving as the closest hub station from Haneda Airport and Takanawa Gateway Station having opened in 2020. The area also abounds with facilities with beautiful traditional Japanese gardens, Buddhist temples, and other cultural resources. Against the backdrop of a high level of public interest in transmitting traditional culture and protecting the environment, DMO Gateway Shin-Shinagawa is promoting SDGs initiatives.
In addition to implementing progressive initiatives, such as introducing digital transformation (DX) into MICE events and conducting verification tests for the Green Slow Mobility (GSM) initiative, businesses in the area are also engaged in various other activities. These include their respective efforts to minimize food loss, their inter-regional collaboration to utilize fruits and other farm products sourced from other prefectures that cannot be sold in the market due to their deviation from standards, and their activities to preserve traditional culture through local elementary school lessons.
Along with initiatives undertaken individually by businesses, Hops Community Activities were launched as a community initiative in 2021. This initiative aims to bring together businesses, school operators, and residents in the Takanawa Gateway Station area to grow hops, an ingredient of beer, to promote exchanges and cooperation through greenery. DMO Gateway Shin-Shinagawa is committed to promoting sustainable MICE activities by making the most of the characteristics of businesses in the area while strengthening initiatives that involve the local community and beyond.
Hachioji
Final round of the 19th AXA Brave Cup Blind Football Japan Championships held
The Hachioji area played host to the final round of the 19th AXA Brave Cup Blind Football Japan Championships in January 2022. The Japan Blind Football Association, which served as the organizer of the championships, upholds the guiding principle of realizing a society where the visually impaired and the able-bodied can interact with each other naturally, and the event became a microcosm of such a society. The Hachioji City Government and the Hachioji Visitors & Convention Association jointly supported this event attended by the city mayor, and worked to promote social inclusion and equality for people with disabilities.
The Hachioji Visitors & Convention Association calls on participants at such events to take all garbage home with them, and participants at MICE events are also asked to contribute to the city’s initiatives for SDGs as members of the local community. Hachioji has been ranked as the city generating the least waste in Japan for three consecutive years (as of April 1, 2021) among all cities with 500,000 or more residents. Industry groups, private businesses, and residents, including students, have been working closely to tackle environmental issues with positive results.
Tachikawa
Tama River Cleanup Activity for the protection of a Tokyo water supply source
The Tachikawa area holds the Tama River Cleanup Activity, a new type of activity program in which participants pick up waste discarded in the water and along the banks while rafting down the Tama River amidst the natural splendor of Okutama. People can easily participate in the program with nothing more than a change of clothes. Out on the river, those picking up waste are often greeted with shouts of “Nice find!” from other participants. Organizers encourage participants to rethink the global environment and their lifestyles while unwittingly competing with other teams over the amount of waste collected. First-time rafters and non-swimmers can also participate with peace of mind because the rafting is preceded by a lecture by an instructor who was once a member of Japan’s national team and took second place in a World Rafting Championship. After the river cleanup, a lecture is given about efforts to conserve the environment and preserve the water conservation forests in Okutama, which are managed to protect this Tokyo water supply source. The program reminds the participants of the significance of keeping the Tama River clean and the great contribution the river cleanup activity in which they participated makes to protect the global environment.
Website: https://mice.tokyo-tachikawa.org/experience/1162/
Shibuya
Japan’s most progressive diversity & inclusion initiatives
In line with its basic concept of “Shibuya, a city that turns differences into strength,” Shibuya City promotes Japan’s most progressive diversity & inclusion* initiatives based on cooperation among industry, government, and the private sector.
Such initiatives include the annual organization of Tokyo Rainbow Pride, Japan’s largest awareness event for the LGBTQ community, in Yoyogi Park since 2012; the establishment in 2015 of the Ordinance to Promote a Society That Respects Gender Equality and Diversity in Shibuya City; and the issuance of certificates recognizing same-sex partnerships as equivalent to marriage.
The Shibuya MICE Association has become a member of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA), a global organization for LGBTQ tourism, and engages in awareness activities to ensure that business events held in Shibuya are free from discrimination and prejudice.
*Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity & Inclusion is a term referring to the concept of creating an environment where people can demonstrate their abilities while respecting each other’s differences in gender, nationality, age, physical characteristics, religion, and beliefs.
SHIBA, Tokyo Bay
Takeshiba's New Eight Sceneries and Takeshiba Tidal Flat:
Initiatives for biodiversity conservation
DMO SHIBA, Tokyo Bay covers an area encompassing Hamamatsucho, Takeshiba, and Shibaura, an area acclaimed for its environmental diversity, including places for cruises and tidal flats. Many of its members are keenly interested in the environment and work to promote environmental sustainability.
The Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba building is known for its initiative for biodiversity conservation in the form of Takeshiba's New Eight Sceneries,which comprise the eight views of sky, bees, rice paddy, vegetable garden, smell, water, island, and rain. Visitors can experience biodiversity that is in harmony with aspects of Japanese culture through hands-on experiences of planting and harvesting rice, vegetables, and herbs in the rice paddy and the vegetable garden, as well as through workshops on environmental conservation. Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba Port Hall and Port Studio have participated in the CO2 Zero MICE initiative advocated by JTB Communication Design, Inc. The initiative attracts the attention of MICE organizers as it enables the replacement of electricity used at a venue during an event with renewable energy, thereby reducing the net carbon emissions of the event to practically zero.
Takeshiba Tidal Flat developed in WATERS takeshiba represents an initiative aimed at restoring and preserving the environment where shellfish, crustaceans, and various other creatures that once inhabited Tokyo Bay can thrive. The tidal flat offers visitors an opportunity to observe creatures there and enjoy fishing. Together with cruises to and from Takeshiba, the tidal flat is also available for MICE programs that trace the history of the area that has developed along with the waterfront environment.