During April 25-27, 2016, the 18th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM18) Youth Forum was held in Hotel Century, Shizuoka, Japan. GEP2012 student ZHAO Yibing attended the forum as a Chinese youth representative.

In the morning of 25th, youth representatives visited the natural history museum and marine science museum of Tokai University and experienced tea-picking and tasting at Nihondaira tea village. In the afternoon, the opening ceremony was held. Based on the theme – Nature’s benefit to people, youth representatives from China, Japan and Korea introduced their own activities on preserving and using nature sustainably. On 26th, after the all-day fierce discussion among all the representatives, the proposal of TEMM18 Youth Forum was formed. In the morning of 27th, the representatives attended TEMM18 and read the proposal to the ministers and the audience. Ministers from all three countries commented highly on the proposal and expressed the expectation of youth’s role on environment protection. In the afternoon, representatives had a field trip in Mihonomatsubara and visited Shizuoka Agriculture High School. Finally, the closing ceremony was proceeded in the conference center.

Through TEMM18 Youth Forum, the representatives got to know the cases of youth’s action on protecting the environment among all three countries, but also gained a lot from field trips at Nihondairaand Mihonomatsubara. What’s more, they got to know the similarities and differences of the ideas and concepts of environmental protection among youth from three countries. What impressed them most is the procedure of forming proposal. During the whole day of discussion, there are different voices, the ways of balancing different opinions, and the techniques of how to absorb others’ opinion while keeping your own points of view. Four days seem quiet short, but friendship is tightly formed through deep discussions and exchanges of views on culture. In the future, GEP students will continue to attend TEMM Youth Forum, share the stories and get inspired through discussions with Japan and Korea youth representatives.