Please tell us about the regional characteristics of Tokorozawa City, the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the center, and its organizational structure.

Tokorozawa City is located in the Greater Tokyo Area, 30 km from central Tokyo, in southwestern Saitama Prefecture, close to the center of the Musashino Plateau, and bordering the Northern Tama area. In addition to boasting a highly convenient urban environment as a core city of southwestern Saitama Prefecture, Tokorozawa is known affectionately as Yoki Furusato Tokorozawa (Good Hometown Tokorozawa) on account of its abundant greenery, which includes small woodlands, extensive forested areas, and parks and green spaces in the city center.

Over the two-year period of FY 2022 and 2023, Tokorozawa City is proceeding with an interim revision of its basic environmental plan, the Tokorozawa City "Machigoto Ecotown" Promotion Plan (the 3rd Tokorozawa City Basic Environmental Plan). Concurrent with this interim revision, the city is in the process of formulating the Tokorozawa City Climate Change Adaptation Plan (tentative name), and in order to promote further adaptation measures after the plan is adopted, the Tokorozawa City Climate Change Adaptation Center was established jointly with Saitama Prefecture on April 1, 2022. Although the center is operational, it is a very small adaptation center where several staff of the "Machigoto Ecotown"　Promotion　Section work concurrently. We are hoping to achieve significant growth in cooperation with the respective sections in charge of adaptation measures.

Please tell us about the activities that your Local Climate Change Adaptation Center is currently working on or planning to undertake in the future.

Currently, we are mainly working on the formulation of the city’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Although coordination with the various divisions is a major challenge in terms of what adaptation measures to include in the plan and how to promote them, we feel that it is very important to establish firm links with the various divisions involved as we work together in the years ahead, and we are aware of the importance of carefully proceeding with the formulation process, which will lead us onto the next stage.

In addition, we held an exhibition on adaptation at the Tokorozawa Citizens Festival, a large-scale annual event in the city. People visiting the exhibition were asked to give a written answer to the question “What changes to the climate have you noticed?” while being shown projections of the average temperature increase in the city area and what climate change impacts are likely, and given information on adaptation measures they can implement by themselves, presented in the form of diagrams and illustrations. I think the content was a little difficult for the children, but I believe it was a good opportunity for them to learn about the concept of adaptation and become familiar with it.

In the future, we would like to focus on public relations activities through our website and social networking services, while continuing to work on the planning process. Many people are still unfamiliar with the term “climate change adaptation,” and when we explain it to them, they sometimes tell us they have formed a negative impression that “global warming can no longer be halted, so we have no choice but to adapt to it.” While "adaptation measures" are important efforts by people to protect their own lives and livelihoods, at the same time, we would like to actively distribute positive information, such as about potential business opportunities.

Please tell us about any points or challenges you are working on in cooperation with related departments within the city government or in promoting adaptation by the city or business operators.

As we prepare to conduct interviews with each section in the course of formulating the city’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan, we are consciously gathering information so that we can carefully study the projects being conducted by each section with a view to presenting potential adaptation measures. Upon examining the situation, we found that in many cases basic efforts that can be regarded as adaptive measures, such as the creation of hazard maps and public messaging around heat stroke prevention, were already in place. I believe that the really important thing is to promote adaptation measures through interdepartmental cooperation after the plan is formulated. To this end, I think it is necessary for the various departments to share a common understanding in order to further promote adaptation measures and to create open relationships in order to facilitate their implementation, and we are currently in the process of laying the groundwork for achieving this.

In addition, as an action to promote adaptation aimed at businesses, we conducted an awareness survey for businesses as part of our basic research for revising the plan, and we included questions on climate change adaptation in the survey. Although detailed analysis has not yet been completed, I get the impression that there is a high level of awareness with regard to the risks associated with power supply and demand constraints, torrential rains, and other issues. We believe that it is important for businesses to create an environment in which they can secure the elements that will enable them to continue their business activities, and we feel that a major role of the city’s adaptation measures is to develop policies that protect the city’s most important industries and the economic activities of its citizens. Furthermore, as we were conducting this awareness survey for businesses, it seemed to attract the natural interest of the staff of the city’s Industry and Economic Affairs Department. In the future, while we continue to assess the needs of businesses as much as possible; our goal and our expectation is to work with the city’s Industry and Economic Affairs Department to expand collaboration with businesses.

Please tell us about the rewards you find in your current work and also about your outlook for the future.

Adaptation measures are not something that can be completed in the environmental field alone, so I think we have to promote them while engaging in dialogue with various other departments, but to this end I find it rewarding to be able to network with different departments, organizations, and people. I expect that the more people I become involved with, the more I will learn from them and that this will help me in my own personal development.

In our efforts to develop future initiatives, we would like to proceed carefully with each step, such as gathering information that should be communicated to citizens and businesses, disseminating information in an easy-to-understand manner, and promoting adaptation measures in cooperation with other departments. We are also aiming to grow into a center that is familiar to the staff of other departments, as well as to local citizens and businesses, so that they will think, “If we’re struggling with the effects of climate change, we can always ask the Climate Change Adaptation Center!”