Concept note
Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Japanese-French Oceanographic Society of Japan
The 18th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium
Oceanography for the future we want: transformation of our society for sustainable development under the changing sea
The Japanese-French Oceanographic Society (JFOS) was established at Maison franco-japonaise de Tokyo in 1960. The year 2020 is the 60th anniversary of the Society. The Society members have started cooperative studies on deep sea with French scientists using cutting-edge submersible at that time called Bathyscaphe since late 1950s. While Japanese-French deep-sea researches have continued till now, cooperative studies have been extended to fisheries science, which has advanced in Japan, since late 1960s by sending oyster seeds from Japan to France suffering from massive death of oysters. The French-Japanese Oceanographic Society of France, a sister society of the JFOS was established in 1984. Since then, the two Societies have organized Japanese-French Oceanography Symposia in Japan and France alternatively at intervals of two to several years. Because marine pollution, reclamation and overuse of marine resources have been prominent in the world since 2000s, the Symposia have focused on coastal managements together with advances in marine sciences and technologies in oceanography.
United Nations Earth Summit was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012 to articulate the UN's commitment to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations. The declaration of the Summit was entitled "Future we want." The sea is the definitive component controlling the climate and the planetary system on which human being live. Human society has obtained many goods and services from marine environments and ecosystems. While the declaration of the UN Earth Summit was made in 2012, human activities are still impacting oceans and threatening marine ecosystems through greenhouse gas emissions resulting in seawater temperature rise etc., and land-based, coastal and marine activities resulting in eutrophication, destructive fishing, decrease in marine biodiversity and so on.
Given these facts, we need to enforce our understanding of oceans, particularly coasts as the interface between land and sea, in order to better prepare countermeasures against irreversible change in the planetary system through measuring the effects of human and natural impacts on the sea and its ecosystems. Equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the sea based on not only natural and technological sciences but also human and social sciences, we will have better ideas of keeping the future state of the sea healthy. Thus, we had decided to have the 18th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium entitled "Oceanography for future we want: transformation of our society for sustainable development under the changing sea" in 2020 in Tokyo and Hiroshima as the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the JFOS. The Symposium aims to share new findings obtained by advanced oceanographic researches among participants from Japan and France for serving to better transform a human society for sustainable development and better adapt it to the current changes in marine and coastal environments. The Symposium will invite communications not only on physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, sociology and human science concerning the sea but also on inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches for coastal and marine sustainable development such as following issues: the sea under global warming, marine pollution including microplastic, harmful algal bloom, sustainable use of the sea including marine protected area, sustainable aquaculture and fisheries, biodiversity conservations, land and sea interaction, negative and positive human impacts on the sea, valorization of marine products for sustainable development.
The symposium was originally scheduled to take place in October 2020 as mentioned above. However, it was postponed to 2021 due to restrictions on the movement of people between France and Japan following the coronavirus pandemic disaster. The coronavirus pandemic has not been ameliorated till now. In this situation, we decided to organize this symposium, although it is the 60th anniversary plus one year, using the Internet, as we now have a system in place at our society and the Maison Franco-Japonaise that allows French and Japanese researchers to participate in the symposium. As 2021 marks the beginning of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this symposium will make an important contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and eventually to UN Sustainable Goals, especially SDG14 targeting "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development".
Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Sasakawa Franco-Japonaise Foundation for supporting this symposium.
Enfin, nous tenons à exprimer notre sincère gratitude à la Fondation franco-japonaise Sasakawa pour son soutien à ce symposium.
最後に、本シンポジウムは、笹川日仏財団の後援を得て開催できました。心より感謝いたします。
The 18th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium
Oceanography for the future we want: transformation of our society for sustainable development under the changing sea
The Japanese-French Oceanographic Society (JFOS) was established at Maison franco-japonaise de Tokyo in 1960. The year 2020 is the 60th anniversary of the Society. The Society members have started cooperative studies on deep sea with French scientists using cutting-edge submersible at that time called Bathyscaphe since late 1950s. While Japanese-French deep-sea researches have continued till now, cooperative studies have been extended to fisheries science, which has advanced in Japan, since late 1960s by sending oyster seeds from Japan to France suffering from massive death of oysters. The French-Japanese Oceanographic Society of France, a sister society of the JFOS was established in 1984. Since then, the two Societies have organized Japanese-French Oceanography Symposia in Japan and France alternatively at intervals of two to several years. Because marine pollution, reclamation and overuse of marine resources have been prominent in the world since 2000s, the Symposia have focused on coastal managements together with advances in marine sciences and technologies in oceanography.
United Nations Earth Summit was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012 to articulate the UN's commitment to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations. The declaration of the Summit was entitled "Future we want." The sea is the definitive component controlling the climate and the planetary system on which human being live. Human society has obtained many goods and services from marine environments and ecosystems. While the declaration of the UN Earth Summit was made in 2012, human activities are still impacting oceans and threatening marine ecosystems through greenhouse gas emissions resulting in seawater temperature rise etc., and land-based, coastal and marine activities resulting in eutrophication, destructive fishing, decrease in marine biodiversity and so on.
Given these facts, we need to enforce our understanding of oceans, particularly coasts as the interface between land and sea, in order to better prepare countermeasures against irreversible change in the planetary system through measuring the effects of human and natural impacts on the sea and its ecosystems. Equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the sea based on not only natural and technological sciences but also human and social sciences, we will have better ideas of keeping the future state of the sea healthy. Thus, we had decided to have the 18th Japanese-French Oceanography Symposium entitled "Oceanography for future we want: transformation of our society for sustainable development under the changing sea" in 2020 in Tokyo and Hiroshima as the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the JFOS. The Symposium aims to share new findings obtained by advanced oceanographic researches among participants from Japan and France for serving to better transform a human society for sustainable development and better adapt it to the current changes in marine and coastal environments. The Symposium will invite communications not only on physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, sociology and human science concerning the sea but also on inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches for coastal and marine sustainable development such as following issues: the sea under global warming, marine pollution including microplastic, harmful algal bloom, sustainable use of the sea including marine protected area, sustainable aquaculture and fisheries, biodiversity conservations, land and sea interaction, negative and positive human impacts on the sea, valorization of marine products for sustainable development.
The symposium was originally scheduled to take place in October 2020 as mentioned above. However, it was postponed to 2021 due to restrictions on the movement of people between France and Japan following the coronavirus pandemic disaster. The coronavirus pandemic has not been ameliorated till now. In this situation, we decided to organize this symposium, although it is the 60th anniversary plus one year, using the Internet, as we now have a system in place at our society and the Maison Franco-Japonaise that allows French and Japanese researchers to participate in the symposium. As 2021 marks the beginning of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this symposium will make an important contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and eventually to UN Sustainable Goals, especially SDG14 targeting "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development".
Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Sasakawa Franco-Japonaise Foundation for supporting this symposium.
Enfin, nous tenons à exprimer notre sincère gratitude à la Fondation franco-japonaise Sasakawa pour son soutien à ce symposium.
最後に、本シンポジウムは、笹川日仏財団の後援を得て開催できました。心より感謝いたします。