At the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, we are developing a program to nurture the next generation of marine leaders who will be active after 2030 in order to realize the sustainable use of the ocean. The program aims to support 100 young people over a five-year period starting in 2022. Through practical training on cruise ships and sailing ships, as well as participation in international ocean-related conferences, we aim to develop ocean leaders who can discover and share the issues facing the ocean, design methods to solve these issues, and promote consensus building among stakeholders.

GLOBE collaborates with scientists and educators internationally to create opportunities for people of all ages to collect, submit and analyze data about Earth’s environment. As one of the instructors trained in the GLOBE program, I boarded the MIRAIE, a companion ship for the Japan-Palau Friendship Yacht Race 2024, and instructed young people in ocean literacy, leadership and collecting GLOBE data. The trainees and I were able to grow through this Tall Ship voyage while learning to sail and conducting meteorological observations and marine environmental surveys.

I was fortunate to participate in a marine education program on the sailing ship MIRAIE, organized by the Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. As part of our hands-on training during the voyage, we collected data and samples that will contribute to the database of GLOBE, an international science and education program. Analyzing seawater temperature and dissolved oxygen data was an experience that will be beneficial for our future research. I also learned the important lesson that the global solidarity we cultivated on the MIRAIE has great potential to contribute to ocean sustainability.