Reflections
Naoaki Joza

My name is Naoaki Joza. After I graduated from university, I came to KIFL for further studies. When I was a student, I became very interested in environment issues such as global warming so I wrote about global warming for my final report. Luckily, I had the perfect opportunity to study about the environment again in WIT. In this class, we were planning to study for the environment qualification test but the main purpose of the class was to increase awareness and knowledge about the environment. We had to choose a topic about the issues. The topics were pollution, ozone layer, forest deforestation and acid rain. However, my report about Fair Trade is not specifically about any of those topics. Instead, I wanted to write about environmentally responsible behavior because I thought other topics would be too complex for many of my readers.

Before I researched about Fair Trade, I had just heard of the phrase. I was not sure what it was and my research surprised me. After I researched, my awareness and knowledge increased dramatically. I now understand how much Fair Trade affects the world and supports developing countries. There are now so many products all over the world particularly in Europe and America although Fair Trade actions are still growing there. Compared to all these countries, I think Japan’s efforts are slow.

I am very happy to have more knowledge about Fair Trade actions and I have decided to make it my personal mission to show all my friends what Fair Trade is and where they can buy the goods. Also, I want to increase knowledge and awareness among people I talk to. If I have a chance I will go to any of the developing countries to see conditions there and how producers and farmers make the products.