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The 2025 Keio SDGs Student Conference has commenced. This marks the fourth year the conference is being held since it was first initiated in the 2022 academic year. The Student Conference will involve students chosen through open recruitment as well as random selection from across all of Keio’s undergraduate faculties. During the sessions, student members engage in discussions with each other while consulting with experts to propose an overall vision, specific goals, and obtainable targets for Keio University to make progress towards its SDGs.

In the Spring Semester, students will learn about the current situation surrounding the SDGs through lectures and discussions, and in the Fall Semester, students shall discuss the themes of "environment," "society," "economy," and "overall approach" in subworking groups and compile a list of recommendations addressed to the president of Keio University.

The first session was held on Thursday, May 15, which was moderated by Professor Hiromichi Kobayashi from the Faculty of Law. The session served as an introduction to this year’s Student Conference and was attended by about 80 Keio students. President Kohei Itoh began the proceedings with some words of encouragement for the students while Vice-President Akiyo Okuda provided an overview of the Student Conference, now in its fourth iteration. Professor Norichika Kanie and Guest Professor Hiroko Kuniya, both from the Graduate School of Media and Governance and serving as supervisors for the Student Conference, gave a presentation on the current state of the SDGs in a divided world, stressing the importance of transformation under the theme "Transform Our World." Their words of advice lifted the morale of the students and served as a reminder for them to keep in mind the importance of the SDGs.

Following that, Sachiko Tsukahara from the Ministry of the Environment facilitated a "2030SDGs" card game. Students were divided into 18 groups and had to negotiate with other groups by exchanging pre-distributed ‘money’ and ‘time’ cards in order to achieve the goals each group was assigned. While students recognize the current state of the world as a result of development focused on economic growth, they also sought to realize a sustainable future that also emphasizes non-economic values such as the environment and society.

During the review session at the end, students evaluated the future society they derived through this card game. One major takeaway from this activity that students were able to experience through the card game was that although each group acted to achieve their own objectives, they can effect change on the world through consensus building within their groups and negotiations with other groups, thereby realizing a world in which all groups’ goals are achieved. With this session, students have embarked on a learning journey to determine what kind of goals Keio University needs to set and what kind of reforms it needs to implement in order to realize the sustainable development goals that mankind is aspiring towards in the future. Students will be working towards the formulation of final proposals with a view of how Keio University should be like in 2050.