On June 6th at the JICA Global Plaza, a panel discussion was held titled ' Hiroshi Nakada & Habitat Japan: How Young People Can Help Craft the Future of Japan through Grassroots International Development ', welcoming Hiroshi Nakada, the former mayor of Yokohama who is spearheading the cause of regional decentralisation reform in Japan.
Joining him in the discussion were seven representatives of the 1,500 students (17 groups) who volunteer through the Habitat Japan Global Village (GV) program. The panel members were joined by around 100 members of the public, former Habitat participants and other interested parties.

The discussion was split into two parts. The first focused on the title, ' What important lessons can be learned through participation in grassroots development work? ' The student representatives were asked to summarise the Global Village program in one word. They came up with expressions like, 'Opportunity', 'Support', 'Happiness', 'Fellowship' and 'Communication', while sharing more of their experiences with Habitat. They spoke about how their own lives had been changed through the experience of building, leadership and responsibility.
"We were only there for two weeks, but had such a powerful experience that we were reduced to tears when we returned a year later", "By sweating alongside the local people who would live in the house we were building, I understood the true meaning of the Global Village", "My image of volunteer work was that it required great sacrifice, but my experience was pure enjoyment", "The enjoyable experience led me to continue to volunteer and organise." These opinions and more were exchanged at the event. Mr Nakada brought all of this together, saying that, "The GV program teaches happiness and enjoyment, confidence, empathy and maturity. But in Japan, there are still too many people who lack the motivation and opportunity to put good intentions into action. GV is one way to realize those goals."

The second half of the discussion was titled, 'How can these experiences be applied to the recovery and development of Japan in the future? '. As in the first part, the panelists were asked to summarise their responses to the question, ' What is the biggest problem facing Japanese society? ' They came up with answers like, 'Wealth', 'Isolation', 'Excess' and 'Lack of Leadership', as part of a wider discussion on the key issues and challenges facing modern society. Some of the key points that emerged were, "In experiencing extremely rapid development, Japan may have also forgotten important things. Looking around us, we see people passing one another without truly interacting", and, "What has happened to the bonds of trust and warmth that should bind people together?". The conversation moved on to the subject of One Piece; this is a popular manga cartoon that portrays a group of adventurers who follow their dreams. While this is seen as a simple piece of entertainment, it can also be seen as a pastiche on the Japanese people that lack such dreams in reality. In response to this, Mr Nakada said, "In the absence of individual dreams, what we need is strong leaders with the vision to recognize these problems and do what is necessary to solve them".
In closing, Mr Nakada gave the following comments: "Japan today is crying out for strong Japanese people to lead it, and those needs can be filled through the young people who have shared with us today, through international volunteering and the GV experience. Mother Teresa once said that the opposite of love is not hatred, or dislike, but apathy. In order to build a brighter future for Japan, we need to combat apathy by sharing the GV experience with as many people as possible."

After Mr Nakada departed, the event continued with an open forum. With a cup of fairtrade coffee in one hand, the panelists continued to introduce more about their experiences with GV while everyone had an opportunity to meet and exchange with one another.