Selection Committee Chair Mari Suzuki

As in the previous fiscal year, in the Fiscal 2025 International Grant Program, we called for proposed projects on the theme of Cultivating Empathy Through Learning from Our Neighbors: Practitioners’ Exchange on Common Issues in Asia, with the goal of enabling people who are addressing common issues in Asia to acquire new perspectives through interactions and mutual learning and to expand the possibilities of the future for the next generation.

The goal of this program is to provide grants for projects in diverse fields which address common issues faced by two or more countries or regions in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia (which has been within the scope of the grants since fiscal 2022).

It is hoped that the members of each project team will think, act, and create something new together as colleagues addressing the same issue, and further, that each project will develop into a partnership leading to the change of society through a bidirectional learning process, while also fulfilling the requirements regarding transnationality (the participation of members from multiple countries on equal footing), a cross sectoral approach (the creation of a team and collaborations involving different sectors), mutual learning (learning from each other and sharing experiences through direct interactions), and foresight (acquiring new perspectives which will lead to developments in the future).

The period for submitting proposals to the fiscal 2025 grant program was two months from April 1 to May 31, 2025. As in the previous fiscal year, the countries within the scope of the program were the countries in East Asia (including Japan), Southeast Asia, and South Asia (which has been within the scope of the grants since fiscal 2022). The amount to be granted was a maximum of 5 million yen per project for a one-year grant period and up to 10 million yen per project for a two-year grant period. The planned total amount of the grants was 80 million yen (up 10 million yen from the total planned amount of 70 million yen per year from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2024).

This fiscal year, we began to accept applications for administrative expenses whose amounts do not exceed 10% of the total budget of the project.

The following is an outline of the results of the solicitation of proposals for the 2025 grant program.

・A total of two online briefings were held in April 2025. Approx. 170 people participated in them.
・ During the application period, the secretariat consulted with potential applicants prior to their submissions of a proposal 88 times (up approx. 30% from the previous fiscal year). These consultations were conducted by email, online, or face-to-face based on the concept notes (the outline of the proposal) created by the potential applicants.
・There were 599 pre-application registrations, up 332 from fiscal 2023 and down 454 from fiscal 2024. The rapid increase in the number of registrations in fiscal 2024 was a result of the increased access from South Asia (South Asia has been within the scope of the grants since fiscal 2022).
・The number of applications increased by 49 compared to the previous fiscal year, reaching 238 (equivalent to 40% of the pre-application registrations). While applications were below 100 (98 applications) in fiscal 2022 during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they have been trending upward since fiscal 2023 (122 applications) and fiscal 2024 (189 applications), reaching a level nearly equivalent to fiscal 2018 (242 applications).

・One of the requirements of this program is that the main place of residence of the representative of the applicant organization is Japan, but the nationalities of the project representatives were wide-ranging this fiscal year. The nationalities of the project representatives represented 27 countries and regions. This fiscal year, the most common nationality among the project representatives was Japan (143 applications, 60% of applications), followed by Indonesia (30), Myanmar (7), Malaysia (6), and India (6). By region, 154 applications were from East Asia (65%), 51 were from Southeast Asia (21%), 18 were from South Asia (8%), and 15 were from other countries or regions (6%). The number of applications from Southeast Asia exceeded the number from South Asia.
・This fiscal year, 209 applications were from people who had never previously received a grant from the Toyota Foundation. *This was 88% of the total applications received. This suggests that new groups of people are learning about the program, attracting their interest.
・Japan was the most common of the countries within the scope of the program (requirement: at least two countries or regions). Japan (within the scope of182 projects, 77% of all projects) was followed by Indonesia (81 projects/34%), Thailand (51 projects/21%), Malaysia (49 projects/21%), and India (31 projects/13%). By region, Southeast Asia was the most common region (45% of projects), followed by East Asia (39%), and South Asia (15%).
・There are two project grant periods, one year and two years. 39 projects applied for a one-year grant, while 199 applied for a two-year grant.
・On the proposal form, the target field is an open-ended field that is filled by the applicant. There are no categories for applicants to choose from. Therefore, it is difficult to categorize all of the applicant projects. They have been roughly classified as being related to education, human resource development, the environment and sustainability, health, medical care, welfare, urban development, disaster control, labor and employment, culture, art, multicultural harmony, ethnic minorities, immigrants and refugees, or peacebuilding. The proposed projects were in wide-ranging fields.

*Includes representatives and leading members of all the projects that have ever received grants under any Toyota Foundation program in the past.

Program officers from the secretariat reviewed all of the 238 applications submitted this fiscal year, sorted them out based on whether the applications were incomplete, whether they met the prerequisites and other criteria, and then requested that the selection committee members evaluate the applications.

This program has a four-member selection committee, and two of its members were newly appointed. First, each member read the applications carefully, selected projects they recommended, and commented on the proposals, including their thoughts on the proposals, questions for each applicant, and their evaluations of the proposals, before the secretariat collected the information about the recommended projects. Each committee member carefully examined the applicants' answers to questions, which were obtained at a later date, and described their reasons for their evaluations of the projects, including the projects they did not recommend. This fiscal year, the number of projects that were evaluated differently by different committee members was relatively large, and this included highly evaluated projects. They therefore carefully discussed the projects and considered the balance of the projects in terms of the fields they covered and other elements, before making decisions on the projects that would be selected.

Through the above selection process, eight projects were selected in fiscal 2025 (total amount of the grants: 79,460,000 yen). These projects address pressing problems, including problems related to climate change, environment, education, health, medical care, and disasters, although the situations and environments of the projects differ according to their countries or locations. Selection committee members commented that, at a time when we are facing major social issues such as the aging society with a declining birthrate and climate change, which can be difficult to come to grips with, they were impressed with projects that still managed to propose concrete approaches, for instance involving senior citizens or disposable diapers.

An outline of the selected projects is as follows.

・Project period: two years for all eight projects
・Countries (at least two countries per project): Japan (7 projects), Indonesia (2), Thailand (2), Malaysia (2), South Korea, China, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Bangladesh, and Nepal (1 each)
・Major fields covered by the projects: the environment, climate change, health, hygiene, medical care, welfare for the disabled, education, and disaster control
・Problems and issues addressed by projects: the handling of climate change risks, support for people with developmental disabilities, the recycling of garbage, the prevention of dementia, disaster control that includes gender considerations, the improvement of access to emergency medical care, the improvement of education, etc.

To conclude, two of this fiscal year's eight winning projects are introduced below.

Project overview

The use of disposable diapers for infants and adults has been increasing around the world. While these diapers are convenient, they are made of complicated synthetic materials, and many of them are disposed of as unsanitary waste, making it difficult to recycle them. In Indonesia, diaper waste is more than 10% of landfill waste, and many of the used diapers in the country that aren't properly disposed flow into rivers, which is a serious environmental risk.

In Japan, disposable diapers can be treated hygienically by incinerating them. However, this method is costly and therefore may be unsustainable in rural areas where the population is aging and decreasing. While the situation surrounding diaper waste is different in the two countries, there is demand for low-cost treatment technology and systems in both countries.

In this project, teams from Surabaya City and Kitakyushu City, which have been linked by the long-standing Green Sister City partnership, work together and learn from each other to promote a social innovation through the optimization and local adaptation of existing technologies and systems that are appropriate for the recycling of diapers that fit into the contexts of Indonesia and the rural areas of Japan. The goal of the project is to compost disposable diapers, focusing on a simple composting method.

Surabaya (population: approx. 3.10 million people), a large city in East Java, is the home of nearly 60% of the population of Indonesia. Approx. 1,800 tons of garbage is generated there every day, and approx. 90% of this garbage is disposed of in one landfill. The landfill site has a waste gasification facility with a processing capacity of 1,000 tons of waste per day. However, other types of garbage are dumped in the landfill site. In addition to that, the dumping of disposable diapers and other garbage on empty lots and into rivers is said to be causing environmental and hygiene problems. The project planner believes that the major issue lies not in a lack of technologies or systems but in the insufficiency of the initiatives for optimizing and adapting existing technologies and systems. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the safe and efficient composting of paper diapers using the Takakura Composting Method, which was developed in Surabaya in 2004, and implement it without relying on government subsidies.

In contrast, most waste is combusted in incineration facilities in Japan. This is true for Kitakyushu City, the Green Sister City of Surabaya City. Diapers can be disposed of hygienically by incinerating them. While there appears to be a demonstration project related to horizontal material recycling in which some collected and treated materials are reused for the manufacturing of new disposable diapers, the cost of treating waste is high and access is limited, especially in rural areas. The garbage treatment environments of the two cities are different, but both cities need a practical and accessible method and system for composting disposable diapers. The two cities have been working together as Green Sister Cities for many years, including on a joint food waste composting project and other initiatives. It is hoped that studies of the possibilities of a demonstration model project that has been adapted to the environment and the introduction of a system will result in progress in this project as well.

The members of the selection committee evaluated this project highly, mainly because its focus is clear, local researchers, experts, etc. are included as advisors, the social background (of Indonesia) is considered, sufficient preliminary research has been done, a member of a civil society organization is included in the project, and a mechanism for independent operation that does not rely on subsidies has been considered.

Project overview

In elementary school education in Cambodia and Laos, the curriculum is shifting to emphasize 21st century skills and proactive learning. According to an international survey, however, arithmetic abilities are remarkably low, and the principles of the new curriculum are not implemented in regular classes, which is an issue.

In this project, Lesson Study will be launched at elementary schools affiliated with teacher training colleges in Cambodia and Laos. Lesson Study is a bottom-up class improvement system originated in Japan that supports teachers' mutual learning, knowledge sharing, updating of shared knowledge, and the ongoing creation of new knowledge.  It is rapidly becoming popular in other countries. Unlike traditional teacher training workshops, which start from an answer to a question, Lesson Study starts from a question from teachers. It is therefore continued and keeps developing by nature. In other countries, however, there are many reports that the continuation and development of Lesson Study are difficult. In response to this, the sustainable development potential of Lesson Study will be increased by referencing the experience gained through the implementation of Lesson Study at a school in the United States.

Through this initiative, the project will not only improve teachers' expertise but also strengthen the alignment of the curriculum, textbooks, and classes to ensure the sustainable development potential of the improvements to classes. It is hoped that the sharing of practices through open Lesson Study will have ripple effects on the front lines of education in the two countries and contribute to the future revision of textbooks.
 

The point of focus of this project will be to pursue and create roles for teachers in the teaching of classes that AI cannot teach, anticipating that teachers will be replaced by AI in the communication of knowledge and the teaching of classes that can be taught using streaming video, a major change on the front lines of education that will happen in the near future.

The intention of the revision of the curriculum in Cambodia in 2018 is to improve critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills, particularly through arithmetic classes. However, (in 2022) the country was ranked the lowest of the countries that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international survey on educational achievement. While the necessity to develop and train teachers is recognized, a specific plan for revising textbooks has yet to be announced. In contrast, active learning is emphasized in Laos in the new curriculum that began to be introduced in 2019. The goal is to enable students to learn proactively and acquire practical skills. It is said, however, that the textbooks revised in 2022 are very different from the old ones, resulting in confusion among teachers. In light of the fact that frontline teachers in the two countries have never seen classes taught using textbooks in contrast with classes for teaching what is written in the textbooks, the project planner wants to use Lesson Study, in which teachers ask questions and learn from each other, to drive the improvement of the textbooks and teaching materials in Cambodia and the realization of classes aligned with the new curriculum in Laos.

The selection committee pointed out strategic design issues, such as the method for selecting teachers and the capabilities the project wants to improve, but they highly evaluated the project for it being focused on arithmetic, which facilitates the evaluation of the effects of the project on learning, for it having set specific common tools for mutual learning, including translation of textbooks, and other points.