(Reported by Koki IMON)
At the 2025 Council Meeting of the Kyoto International Peacebuilding Association, Professor Miki Sugimura, President of Sophia University and Council Member of the Kyoto International Peacebuilding Center, delivered a keynote address on “The Role of International Education in Peacebuilding.” Drawing on her extensive research and practical experience, she explored how education can serve as a foundation for a sustainable and peaceful global society.
Professor Sugimura began by emphasizing the importance of Target 4.7 of the SDGs, which highlights Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). These frameworks, she explained, connect the understanding of human rights, gender equality, cultural diversity, and sustainable lifestyles to concrete social action. In Japan, especially since the “UN Decade of ESD,” educational institutions from elementary schools to universities have integrated these concepts into teaching, policy, and community engagement.
She further noted the 2023 revision of UNESCO’s 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Cooperation, Peace, and Human Rights, which now integrates ESD and GCED as core elements of international educational standards. This shift reflects the global consensus that education must advance peace, inclusion, and mutual understanding.
Turning to higher education, Professor Sugimura discussed the growing role of internationalization in peacebuilding. Over the past two decades, student mobility for degree programs has diversified globally, reducing dependence on traditional host countries like the United States. In Japan, the number of incoming international students has rapidly rebounded after the pandemic, with government policies now targeting 400,000 students. However, she cautioned that Japanese students’ outbound mobility remains short-term oriented, emphasizing the need to promote longer stays, more diverse destinations, and greater engagement within Asia and the Global South.
Programs such as CAMPUS Asia, UMAP, and AIMS were cited as successful regional frameworks that foster quality-assured academic exchange and cross-cultural collaboration. She underscored that “education must transcend divisions, fostering the wellbeing of both learners and societies to strengthen the resilience of peacebuilding.”
Concluding her address, Professor Sugimura stated, “The Kyoto International Peacebuilding Center serves as a vital hub for sharing educational practices and designing the next generation of cooperation for peace.”
Please click here for the speech from other participants and full details of the ceremony.
Summary of President Miki Sugimura’s Keynote Speech
The central theme of today’s talk is the role of international education in peacebuilding. I will discuss this topic based on my research and practical experience.
First, it is important to identify the major educational themes of our time. Within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG Target 4.7, Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) call for understanding human rights, gender equality, cultural diversity, and sustainable lifestyles — and for linking these understandings to concrete actions. In Japan, especially over the past two decades, ESD has been actively promoted at multiple levels—from schools to universities and community partnerships—through both policy and practice.
Referring to SDG 4.7, we can highlight key educational issues for the future. GCED and ESD are foundational concepts that cut across peace, human rights, environment, multicultural coexistence, and inclusion. They encourage a re-design of learning—not merely as knowledge transmission, but as the cultivation of values, attitudes, and behaviors. In Japanese education, the perspective of nurturing “creators of a sustainable society” has been incorporated into national curricula, school management, and regional collaboration.
From UNESCO’s institutional standpoint, the 1974 Recommendation on Education for International Understanding, Cooperation, and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was comprehensively revised in 2023. The new Recommendation integrates GCED and ESD into its framework, establishing an international standard that—though not legally binding—guides national education policies, teacher training, curricula, and assessment systems. Many countries and institutions are now preparing roadmaps for ESD implementation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education published Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education (2021), which redefined how education can respond to issues of peacebuilding, human security, and humanitarian aid by reconnecting relationships among people, the planet, and technology. This vision, now available in multiple languages, is being introduced into Japanese educational contexts as well.
Domestically, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) helped build a foundation for practice. The 2014 UNESCO World Conference on ESD held in Aichi–Nagoya adopted the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration, marking a transition from advocacy to implementation. Japan played a leading international role, contributing to the subsequent Global Action Programme (GAP) and beyond. Although ESD is often narrowly understood as environmental education, it actually encompasses peace, human rights, international understanding, social inclusion, labor, welfare, and cultural diversity. The expansion of the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) in Japan symbolizes this development, with a significant increase in participating schools that have institutionalized ESD/GCED through management, regional collaboration, and university linkages.
At the policy level, Japan’s Fourth Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education (2023) explicitly identifies the goal of fostering creators of a sustainable society alongside the concept of well-being. The National Implementation Plan for ESD prioritizes the following areas: policy advancement, transformation of learning environments, capacity building for educators, youth empowerment and participation, and promotion of local-level initiatives. In parallel, the ongoing review of national curriculum guidelines aims to institutionalize learner-centered, competency-based education.
From the perspective of peacebuilding, the internationalization of higher education also plays a critical role. Over the past two decades, degree-seeking international student mobility has expanded dramatically, creating a multipolar structure in global academic centers. The former dominance of the United States has declined, while Europe and the Asia-Pacific region have become major hubs. Despite geopolitical risks and changing visa regimes influencing destination preferences, cross-border learning remains a key social infrastructure for mutual understanding and cooperation.
In Japan, the number of inbound international students, after a sharp drop during the pandemic, has rebounded to record levels. The government now envisions accommodating 400,000 students, integrating pre-arrival support, learning environment improvement, regional and corporate collaboration, and post-graduation retention. However, outbound mobility among Japanese students remains limited—especially for long-term study—due to factors such as currency depreciation, security concerns, credit-transfer challenges, and financial constraints. Strengthening both the quantity and quality of overseas study opportunities is therefore essential. The majority of international students in Japan come from Asia, with diversification beyond China and South Korea to include Nepal, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Taiwan. Ensuring quality assurance, livelihood and employment support, and career development after graduation remains a critical challenge.
Programs such as CAMPUS Asia (and its expanded CAMPUS Asia Plus) exemplify quality-assured frameworks for regional academic mobility, promoting joint curricula, double degrees, and ASEAN linkages. Broader networks like the ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS) program and UMAP (University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific) further enhance inter-regional collaboration. Newer alliances, including Belt and Road university consortia, are emerging to support academic exchange, research collaboration, and mutual recognition of degrees. Yet, this path is not without challenges: differences in national education strategies, financial resources, language policies, and evaluation systems (e.g., rankings) must be carefully balanced with domestic human-resource needs and global cooperation. Japan must continue designing inclusive, quality-assured education through multilingual courses, public–private partnerships, and regional coexistence initiatives.
While long-term research stays and early-career researcher exchanges with China have declined, intergovernmental science and technology cooperation frameworks and joint university programs continue. Revitalizing these collaborations—balancing risk management and academic freedom—is key for the future.
In summary, the accumulated progress in ESD and GCED, despite growing international tensions and competition for talent, continues to underpin the reconstruction of a transnational public sphere of knowledge. Universities, research institutions, local communities, and international organizations must serve as hubs for academic networks that cultivate a culture of dialogue and cooperation. Guided by the direction outlined in UNESCO’s new Recommendation and the Futures of Education report, education should transcend divisions, enhance the resilience of peacebuilding, and foster a virtuous cycle between learners’ well-being and societal well-being. The Kyoto International Peacebuilding Center serves precisely as such a hub—for sharing practices and designing the next phase of collaborative action.