Tokyo, Japan - UPF-Japan and the Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP) commemorated the International Day of Peace on September 19 by cleaning up the Wada-Nahama beach on the Miura peninsula of the Kanagawa prefecture.
On last year’s International Day of Peace, the two organizations also co-hosted a cleanup project at the Wada-Nahama beach.
The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace was “Youth, Peace and Development” and the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon called upon youth around the world to organize projects for peace during the 100-day countdown until the International Day of Peace. The cleanup project was held in concert with this call.
Including members of the Association to Protect the Nature of Wada-Nahama Beach, around 60 people participated in the project, which started at 9:00 in the morning. On the day before the project, the YFWP and UPF-Japan invited people around the Misakiguchi station of the Keikyu Line to join the project. Thanks to this, additional participants such as students from local schools also took part in the project. The “Peace Rangers,” the YFWP characters for the cleanup project, attracted the attention of the tourists who came to enjoy bathing on the beach.
Before starting the cleaning project, Deputy Secretary General of UPF-Japan Mr. Shunsuke Uotani explained the meaning of the International Day of Peace and conveyed the message of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The cleanup was carried out under the supervision of the Kanagawa Coastal Environmental Foundation, and the trash collected was separated into seven types according to the guidelines of Miura city: (1) general waste, (2) landfills, (3) bottles, (4) plastic bottles, (5) iron, (6) wood, and (7) explosives (spray cans and lighters, etc.).
The Wada-Nahama beach is a famous bathing spot, but nails and pegs left from torn-down seaside house or jagged shards of beer bottles have become buried in the sand, and bulk trash such as motorboat engines have been left abandoned on the shore.
On September 30 UPF-Japan is hosting an Ambassadors for Peace meeting in Tokyo on the theme of the Mission of Youth to Lead the Global Age.