From June 22 to 25, Tsinghua University, Waseda University, and Fuji City in Japan co-hosted an international sustainable development cooperation project. The goal of this initiative is to create a platform for shared vision and co-creation of Fuji City’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aimed at uncovering the city's local DNA. By leveraging sustainable development and participatory design, the project seeks to create local products and services while fostering new models of sustainable governance through interdisciplinary innovation.

This cross-border sustainability project marks Fuji City’s first international collaboration after the pandemic, designed to explore new models or creative approaches for the city’s sustainable development through a public call for project proposals. Fuji Mayor Yoshimasa Konagai and Deputy Mayor Masaka Morita invited Tsinghua University's delegation, led by Department of Environmental and Cultural Resources Director Zheng Guotai and Professor Zhang Weiqi, along with undergraduate students. Waseda University’s team, consisting of 12 students, was led by Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sai Hayata. The students formed three groups, each tasked with presenting a sustainable development project proposal to Fuji City.

According to Sai Hayata, towns currently facing issues like industrial relocation, labor force migration, aging populations, and insufficient local infrastructure must also contend with the need to prevent excessive population concentration in urban centers. He emphasized the importance of creating incentives for businesses to invest locally, attracting younger people to return and work in their hometowns, with local governments assisting in building basic living environments and closing the digital divide to balance regional development disparities. These longstanding urban-rural imbalances have been overlooked for too long.

Zheng Guotai added that the convenience of modern transportation and communication technologies has intensified the magnetic effect of urban areas, exacerbating issues such as aging governance, declining birth rates, and labor shortages in rural regions. The availability of urban public resources and the diversity of job opportunities have accelerated population migration, transforming rural areas into "bedroom communities" used mainly for rest by those who commute to urban centers for work. Reflecting on the evolution of urban-rural spaces, he noted that urban planning has primarily focused on improving the physical environment of cities, often neglecting the role and voices of local communities in planning from the top down.

The teams visited the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center in Shizuoka Prefecture and engaged with local businesses and NGOs involved in advancing Fuji City’s SDGs, including organizations such as Fuji Community FM Radio Co., Ltd., which promotes food waste reduction, the Homeless Vocational Education Center, and the Shizuoka Prefecture Industrial Research Institute, which focuses on circular recycling technology in the paper industry. After exchanging views with local stakeholders, the student groups will present their "Next SDGs" proposals for the future of sustainable development.