Departments
Departments
The membership at Sanshiro is diverse and ranges from college students to graduates. We have created departments, which act as a group unit for various kinds of activities. Each department performs its own activities, and members can choose which department to take part in.
Currently there are three departments: "Komaba", "Hongo", and "Research Center". Many members belong to more than one department.

Starting from Komaba
The Komaba department mainly consists of freshmen and sophomores at Komaba campus. Environmental issues they are concerned with include both hands-on, local ones and global ones. Members are engaged in various activities, from initiatives for an environmnetally friendly campus to a research project on a socially important issue.

At Komaba department, members basically choose a project, and each project meets on a different day of the week. In FY 2008, we have the following projects: leaf composting project, omnibus lecture series (Century of Environment), campus ecology, cooperation for environment project at a student festival. There are some one-time projects for the Environment Week, which takes place in June here in Japan.

Freshers first join the Komaba department. But they can choose their style in participating in Sanshiro. Some choose to get involved in many projects, while others show up at events. Nevertheless, we are bonded by our common concern about the environment. With a diverse membership of this group, we are trying to achieve what cannot be done by individuals.
At Hongo - Making use of expertise
The Hongo department is composed of juniors, seniors, and graduate students.There are no permanent projects, and each year members come up with new projects.


At Hongo, members build on their knowledge and experience, and begin to apply their expertise to activities. Sometimes there is a joint activity between Komaba and Hongo.

Recently, there have been projects on environmental education at a local level, cooperation with a company on their CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities, and a clean-up project for bicycles left around the campus.
We hope that our projects will contribute to the betterment of the society.
Research by a wide range of generations.
Now that we are in the Century of the Environment , we have members with doctoral degrees and who are working for universities. Sanshiro Research Center (RC) was launched in January 2001 to enable these members to perform long-lasting, public projects.

Its activities include investigation, research, and public outreach regarding environmental issues, and assistance with the other departments.It is intended as "preparatory activities" for 10 or 20 years in the future, when Sanshiro establishes itself as a research-oriented NGO (non-governmental organization) in Japan.

For the initial few years, we aimed at writing a "textbook on the environment for citizens". As a first step, we had study sessions on the Minamata problem (severe mercury poisoning that occurred in the Minamata city, Kumamoto Prefecture), which is considered to be one of the original environmental problems in Japan, from January through April 2001. We reviewed the major literature and complied the history, and drew general lessons for the environmental problems.


We reported on the results at a workshop in late April 2001.
Initial report on the Minamata problem (Japanese only)
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