Announcing the results of the "#ThingsICanDoForTheFuture" submission contest held by Bungeishunju and note!
We held the #ThingsICanDoForTheFuture submission contest for about two months starting July 25, 2023, to talk about things people want to do or are actually doing for a better future. During the period (7/25-9/20), we received 9,740 entries! Thank you for submitting such wonderful works that give readers a chance to think and gain new insights.
For a list of entries on note, please see here.
At the judging committee, the three judges, Dai Tamesue, Mitsuyo Kakuta, and Manabu Shintani, along with the Bungeishunju note team, have selected the winners as follows.
The winning entries are published in full in the Bungeishunju magazine January 2024 issue (on sale December 8), Bunshun Online, and Bungeishunju Digital Edition.
Grand Prix
We just keep placing grass on the soil #ThingsICanDoForTheFuture
The Grand Prix was awarded to a piece written by KODO about "grass mulching," a natural farming method practiced as part of "agriculture-welfare collaboration," an initiative where people with disabilities and others work in the agricultural sector to achieve social participation.
The judges commented: "I didn't know about grass mulching, so I learned a lot. It was also very thought-provoking to see it being done together with people with disabilities (Kakuta)," "I felt this was truly diversity (Shintani)," and "The alternating text and photos made it very realistic. It is excellent in how it depicts things calmly from a perspective close to the reader (Dai Tamesue)." The appeal of the subject matter of grass mulching and the effective use of photos to express reality were key points in the evaluation.
I am humbled by this undeserved award. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who read and selected my article, as well as to everyone involved in agriculture-welfare collaboration who supports me daily. Thank you very much. I feel that things we can do for the future are scattered throughout our ordinary daily lives. I would be overjoyed if this article encourages many people to try sustainable grass mulching.
Excellence Award
Mending, connecting, and dancing a prayer.
Hiromi Takechi, who works in dress repair, wanted to learn about the "mending" techniques passed down across Japan, so she went to Akita to see the "Hanui" costumes of the Nishimonai Bon Odori. This Bon Odori is for mourning the dead, and since the day she visited was the anniversary of the atomic bombing, she was moved by the local people dancing with prayers for peace. It is a work that reaffirms that mending is connecting to the future and that one's actions have meaning.
The sentence, 'Mending is also mourning, and I think it is connecting to the future,' was extremely good and resonated with me. I think this work truly conveys the essence of the SDGs.
Spinning the globe
"Where is Cape Verde?" From a casual question, Mimi's child slowly spun the globe to the right. At the basketball world tournament held in Okinawa, "Cape Verde" was Japan's opponent. This is a work that gives us the courage to start with what we can, as it did for Mimi, who realized once again that the world is connected by spinning the globe.
The content reminded me of my own life, thinking, 'It was exactly like this.' I also traveled to many places looking for answers while wondering what the world was like. It is written based on personal experience, and I think it is a highly relatable work.
Connecting dining tables
Last autumn, Maho Ikeda dug sweet potatoes at her grandmother's farm with her 4-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew, and made sweet potato treats. Through this experience, she felt the importance of seasonal changes in ingredients, trust in food, tradition, and farm work. Her work, which re-recognized how people connect through the dining table and considered what can be done for the future, garnered much empathy.
The theme of SDGs tends to become preachy, but I felt this work was tuned and written very skillfully.
Learning from nature as a parent and child - Mountain development full of failures
The Kuromochi family lives in the city on weekdays and visits their own mountain land on weekends. While interacting with nature and realizing their own helplessness, they increase the things they can do with their own hands. They took on the challenge of beekeeping, which they say is particularly educational, and by creating an environment where honeybees can come, their interest expanded to the entire ecosystem. It is a work that reminds us of the feeling that we are a part of the Earth.
It is nice that instead of a grand cause like teaching children the importance of the Earth, they are deepening the realization that they themselves are part of the Earth. I thought it was very important to be able to realize that with one's own body, even if it is a small thing.
Miso passed down slowly to the future
Masumi Watanabe says that every August, she looked forward to going to Sado Island with her family to spend time with her paternal grandfather and her uncle and aunt. She could not forget the miso soup made with the miso her aunt used to prepare, and she began to make her own miso every year. In this work, she expresses her desire to pass on the tradition of making miso to the next generation, just as her aunt taught her.
I felt a reality in this essay that made me want to try the miso soup. It is a work that taught me the importance of taking a long time to slowly pass things on to the next generation.
General comments from each judge
The theme of SDGs tends to have an atmosphere like answering homework assigned by a school teacher, but my impression this time is that "works that are not like that remained." If I were to compare it to a competition, would it be works that strictly follow the form versus works that perform a free routine? If you try too hard, it won't be sustainable, so I wanted everyone to express themselves more freely. I often write in an academic style, so it was fun to encounter essays like these.
■Mitsuyo Kakuta
My impression of the collected works is a question: are SDGs synonymous with "good deeds"? I think it is because there were many moving, good stories. If you think of them as good deeds, you get tense thinking you have to do your best, but I thought that if you perceive them as small things you can do in your daily life, they might naturally last longer. This time, I chose works that are based on such daily life.
■Manabu Shintani
This time, I mainly chose works that had the author's own actions regarding SDGs. In other words, action rather than philosophy. Perhaps because we held a contest with a similar theme last year, I had the impression that many people understood the purpose and applied. There were many works that evoked empathy, and I felt once again that it was a very good project. I hope that as each person continues their actions for the SDGs, some new movement will be born again.
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Although the submission period has ended, I hope this will be an opportunity for you to think again about what you can do for the future.
Please be sure to check out the other submitted works at the URL below.
Looking back on the contest
The following is a comment from the Bungeishunju note team.
Lately, I have felt that the term SDGs has been taking on a life of its own. While awareness has spread, I suspect many people do not know the 17 goals in detail or are unsure of what they can actually do.
In that sense, I believe the theme "#ThingsICanDoForTheFuture" strikes at the essence of the SDGs while bringing their existence much closer to us. As I read through the various entries, I myself learned a lot, thinking, "Is this also an SDG!"
I would be happy if this contest serves as an opportunity for people to think about something or provides a push to take some small action.
