News Japan's SDG obsession

[thomas]

The NYT on Japan's obsession with the 17-point United Nations framework known as the Sustainable Development Goals. S.D.G.s, as they are called, encourage every nation on earth to become a better place, with such hard-to-argue-against aspirations as ending poverty, improving education and reducing inequality.

I didn't know they were seen as a "radical socialist plot" by certain circles in the US.

Today, there are S.D.G.s board games in Japan. S.D.G.s comic books. Children can play on S.D.G.s playgrounds, and travel companies offer S.D.G.s trips, where travelers learn about how Japan is working toward achieving the goals. An animated music video about S.D.G.s by the public broadcaster, NHK, has over 930,000 views on YouTube. In the United States, when people have heard of the development goals at all, it is often from right-wing media portraying them as part of a radical socialist plot. A less polarized, more community-oriented (and perhaps less cynical) Japan has coalesced around the goals as a feel-good, and in theory do-good, endeavor. [...] The goals became official national policy in 2016, when the government established a task force on them under the prime minister. But it wasn't until the next year — when Japan's biggest business federation, Keidanren, added them to its charter — that they started appearing on suit jackets nationwide.

Why Is This Colorful Little Wheel Suddenly Everywhere in Japan?

It’s the logo of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. And Japan is all in.

www.nytimes.com

Links:

What is the SDGs? ｜ JAPAN SDGs Action Platform

Sustainable Development Report 2022

The Sustainable Development Report 2022 tracks the performance of all 193 UN Member States on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

dashboards.sdgindex.org

 

[mdchachi]

"reducing inequality" is pure socialism is it not? How can we differentiate the Haves from the Haves Nots if everybody are Haves?