The Asian Students Environment Platform（ASEP）was held from August 17 to 23, 2012 in Tokyo, Saitama, Iwate and Kyoto by the AEON Environmental Foundation.  60 Students of Waseda University (Japan), Tsinghua University (China), and Korea University (South Korea) were invited to the ASEP to discuss and develop their ideas about the environmental conservation and the society co-existing with nature.

The Foundation will host the ASEP for the next 10 years, and the year 2012 is the first year for them to host the Platform. 

At the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) held in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, the Foundation exchanged the memorandum of understanding with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in which it pledged cooperation in promoting environmental education for young people as well as tree-planting projects.  The aims of the MOU are to promote the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity and to foster young people who will become future leaders in the area of environmental conservation.  The Foundation hosts the ASEP as part of its contribution outlined in the MOU.

Based on the theme of “Thinking about the Environment through Culture,” students from Japan, China, and South Korea discussed about the environmental conservation and symbiosis with nature through visiting the environmental load-reducing facilities of the AEON Lake Town, attending lectures given by experts in specific fields, experiencing Japanese culture, and taking a field trip to learn about AEON’s forestation programs.

Also, the students visited Tanohata Village of Iwate Prefecture where devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and learnt about the disaster experience through dialogue with the sufferers.  In Kyoto, they visited some historical places such as Kibune Shirine and Kuramadera Temple, and encountered traditional Japanese aesthetics and nature-views.  At the end of the ASEP, they compiled a report on their experiences.

In the future, the Foundation plans to open up participation in the ASEP to youths in other Asian countries to enable university students to freely exchange their views beyond borders and expand their thinking on environmental issues from a global perspective.

(The 2^nd photo) Field trip to the for electric car station, AEON Lake Town, Saitama Prefecture