Courtesy Call from Children Participating in the Symposium ‘TEENS SQUARE TOKYO PROJECT 2025’

Governor Koike received a courtesy call on August 21 from children representing the cities of Tokyo, Brussels, Dublin, Surabaya and Taipei at the Tokyo Forum of Young Minds “TEENS SQUARE TOKYO PROJECT 2025.”

This symposium was aimed at enabling children in Tokyo to think about “child-friendly cities” by themselves and communicate their thoughts through exchanges with children from cities overseas.

“Bringing together teenagers from Asia and Europe—beyond national and regional boundaries—and engaging them in discussions at a symposium is a rare and epoch-making initiative even by global standards,” the governor told the visitors.

“Children will be the key players in the coming era,” she said. “Guided by the Children-First spirit, which places utmost importance on children’s happiness, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is moving forward with a variety of policies from the perspective of children.”

“I hope you will engage in active discussions towards creating ‘child-friendly cities.’ I expect all of you to gain many insights, expand your horizons and feed them back into your future activities.”

“At the same time, we the grownups will carefully listen to your voices,” the governor promised. “I hope children will have more opportunities to express their opinions as members of society, and the circle of efforts based on the perspective of children will spread on a global scale.”