On October 4^th, 2016, the Nippon Foundation launched "the Ocean Innovation Consortium," a platform with the aim of developing human resources for offshore development, in collaboration with industry, academia and government. The consortium is drawing interest as an All-Japan initiative for the strategic development of the offshore industry, which is expected to show great gains in the future.
Selected Papers No.22

As the Paris Agreement calling for reduction of carbon emissions enters into force, we are being called upon to make changes to the basic structures of our society that will be seen as a turning point in the history of civilization. The society we are called upon to build is one that stands solidly on the natural environment that immediately surrounds us, the forests, countryside, rivers, and sea, as well as the bounty they provide. The "Connecting and Supporting Forests, the Countryside, Rivers and Sea" project has been undertaking various efforts to promote this idea, with its main goals being the creation of a system to conserve and restore inter-linkages among the four natural aspects and the promotion of changes in lifestyles and corporate activities that are more aware of nature's bounty and the need to preserve it.

The majority of Nishinoshima Island was covered in lava following its eruptions from 2013. In October 2016, an expedition to the island was carried out for the first time since the eruptions, leading to the discovery that animals and plants including the Masked Booby and Brown Booby, and the Indian Goosegrass plant, all of which existed on the island before the eruptions, had survived. Following the expansion of the seabirds' habitats and the resulting material transport and seed dispersal, we can expect the surviving plants to also spread across the island.