The event, taking place at Tokyo International School and live-streamed online here, will see a huge variety of speakers and performers take to the stage.

Behind the scenes, a group of volunteer students will be responsible for all aspects of the event, making it truly for youth, by youth.

Monica Brova is one such member of the organizing team:

“I’m a Youth Reporter for TEDxYouth@Tokyo, and I’ll be sharing the details of the event as they happen over our social media networks.

I became involved in TEDxYouthDay because I have been a fan of TED for years and, having been inspired by many TED talks I’ve seen (in particular Adora Svitak’s “What adults can learn from kids” talk, and Randy Pausch’s “Really achieving your childhood dreams“), I had always wanted to be part of a TED event and get to learn more from such amazing and creative minds. When I heard about TEDxYouthDay, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do this!

I’m most looking forward to seeing the tremendous diversity in the lineup of speakers and entertainers that make up TEDxYouth@Tokyo this year! We have some fantastic youth and adult speakers, with performances ranging from graffiti, original piano composition, and a performance dedicated to raising self-esteem, to speeches about how youth can be empowered to help other children in need, the importance of teaching morality in schools, bullying, and how someone has used their passion and photography, to raise awareness about the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Also, many of the speakers and performers are fellow students from my school, so it will be exciting for me to watch them unleash their talents and passions on the TED stage.

This diversity is just one of the reasons to join us on the day or watch the live stream! It will also be the opportunity to see the culmination of months of hard work invested to put together this event, by youth, for youth. Also, the energy and enthusiasm with which the speakers and performers are approaching this year’s theme of “Learn, Play, Build and Share” will leave youth and adults alike, feeling inspired and empowered!

If you’re 18 or under, join us on the day by signing up on our Facebook page.
If you’re over 18 or outside of Tokyo we invite you to join us live online here!

Looking forward to seeing you!

The program for the day:

Session One (10:00am – 11:00am JST)
A performance and talk on the Ainu;
A talk by McKenzie Miller on why Change is Good;
A performance by scientist Shigeo Wada;
The showing of a TED Talk on your Weekday Veg;
A rocking performance by TIS students!

Session Two (11:30am – 12:30pm JST)
A talk by a Burmese refugee in Tokyo;
A talk by Faith Amano of Free the Children Japan;
A talk on team building by Jiyoo Kim;
A talk by Maya Reyes on Bullying;
A talk by Atsuyoshi Adachi – (SIFE);
A talk by Chinatsu Yajima on the theme of morality;
A magical acoustical performance by Yu and Airi

Session Three (14:00pm – 15:00pm JST)
A talk by AZI;
A piano performance by Miri Gono;
A presentation by entrepreneur and TV personality John Daub;
A talk by Aileen Smith on Nuclear Energy;
A talk by Firdaus Anuar entitled ‘Sustainability and Butt-warmers’;
A presentation by Rika Ochi on Train Crossings;
A rocking finale!

TEDxKids@Tokyo took place at Carato71 in Daikanyama on Saturday 1st October. It was a big success, and we’d like to thank everyone who played a part in it.

Below is the video that we used for the opening of the event.

We look forward to welcoming even more children and parents next year.

How can we better involve our children in creating a new Japan, and a new world?

This is the question we’re hoping to answer through TedxKids@Tokyo. In association with progressive thinkers and doers in a number of fields, we’re creating an event though which 8-12 year old children and their primary educators – their parents – will experience TED’s “Ideas Worth Spreading”, “A trip to the future”, and “the festival of knowledge”

TEDxKids@Tokyo is a part of the TEDxTokyo program, created by TEDxTokyo co-founder Patrick Newell and TEDxTokyo yz co-curator, Ryuta Aoki. The launch event will be held on October 1, 2011. Leading up to and following this we’ll be supporting the creation of a number of other TEDxKids communities throughout Japan and beyond.

For more information please visit www.tedxkidstokyo.com.

On May 21, something extraordinary happened at Tokyo’s Miraikan, The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. In light of the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear crisis, TEDxTokyo 2011: Enter the Unknown focused on lifting Japan’s spirits, providing practical solutions to the problems we face, inspiring others through extraordinary stories of courage and ingenuity, and engaging hearts with powerful musical and artistic performances.

Presentations ranged from Akinori’s Ito’s demonstration of his pioneering technology for turning waste plastic into usable oil, to Kathy Matsui’s powerful call for businesses to invest in their female employees, to a riveting performance by world yo-yo champion Black (see all videos here).

A total of 33 presenters took to the stage to share deep insights, ignite ideas and delight and surprise a live audience of 350 participants from Japan and overseas. Over 50,000 virtual viewers joined them online, clocking up almost 100,000 views of the three live video streams (including simultaneous interpretation in English and Japanese). We also received over 5,000 comments and questions for speakers via Twitter, and within hours of the final curtain coming down our stellar technical crew had posted all 60 videos on YouTube. With approximately 90 percent of online views coming from within Japan, there is clearly a great thirst here for Ideas Worth Sharing.

The engagement and support the wider community showed for this year’s TEDxTokyo event both humbled and delighted the more than 120 of us who comprised the all-volunteer team. We’d like to thank them, as well as express our gratitude to our teammates and many partners and other supporting organizations for their energy, talents and long days of work and cooperation. Together we achieved something quite amazing. We will continue to work together to bolster Japan as the country overcomes current challenges and heads for a brighter, happier, more sustainable future.

If you’ve been inspired by this year’s event and have something awesome to share with the TEDxTokyo community, please contact us at action@tedxtokyo.com.

All photos from TEDxTokyo 2011 can be viewed at www.flickr.com/tedxtokyo

The floor management team held a meeting at 10:30 am, during which they checked the operation manual and the lines of flow of participants.

The registration booth is set up using desks and chairs carried out from the conference rooms – the conference rooms become the exhibition and communication space, complete with new furniture brought in for the day.

Since some floors of Miraikan are still under repair following the earthquake, team members are required to wear helmets as they bring the furniture in!

There’s a real feeling of excitement in the air, with over 300 participants expected tomorrow – Registration begins at 8:00 am, May 21st – and for those without a ticket the livestream will start at 9am at http://www.tedxtokyo.com/live

Text by Satoshi Iritani (@irritantis)

He should know. A reluctant freedom fighter imprisoned and tortured by South Africa’s apartheid regime, Patrick eventually retaliated for the horrors inflicted on his family and society by blowing up the energy plant where he worked. The 2006 feature film Catch a Fire depicted that desperate act, and his realization that only through forgiveness would he truly be free.

That was then. Now the only uprising that interests Patrick is to persuade the world to help him build meaningful lives for the hundreds of children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic that live in his care center, called Two Sisters.

My current focus is twofold,” he says. “One goal is to gather enough resources and establish the most optimal and sustainable ways to provide continued help for all the children who need me across South Africa. The other is to engage the world into fighting and one day eliminating AIDS.”

An ordinary man? I don’t think so.

Doug Jackson
TEDxTokyo Storyteller

In his second TEDxTokyo appearance, Gunter will talk about moving beyond the unexpectedly harmful “green economy” to what he calls the “blue economy,” where consumption is good and what’s necessary is free. The blue economy is based on cascading systems, and its initiatives are inspired by processes that occur in nature, where nothing goes to waste.

In this wide-ranging 2009 keynote address at the Lift Conference, Gunter explains why we should use bamboo to build and silk to shave, and why “the wisdom of the past is going to get us into trouble.”

For more on Gunter’s Blue Economy business proposals, follow this link:

http://www.community.blueeconomy.de/m/news/index/

Sandra Barron
TEDxTokyo Storyteller-at-Large

Care for a peek at some practical 21st-century alchemy? Akinori Ito has come up with the neatest transmutation since brilliant minds were attempting to turn lead into gold–a simple way to convert waste plastic into oil. The machine that he and Blest Company developed uses an electric heater at 400-450 C to turn polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene into liquid. One kilogram of plastics yields about one liter of crude oil, Akinori says. The potentially harmful hydrocarbon gases released during the process are absorbed by a filter and converted into water and carbon.

While most of Blest’s machines are large industrial models being used at factories and farms, here their creator demonstrates how a small tabletop model can turn everyday plastic scraps like food containers and plastic shopping bags into burnable oil that can be refined into fuel for cars, scooters or heating.

• Plastic-to-oil conversion
• TEDxTokyo Profile

Sandra Barron
TEDxTokyo Storyteller-at-Large

Photos of KEEN fans in action

James Curleigh and his company, KEEN Footwear, want us all to create more, play more and care more—which adds up to what they’ve dubbed the HybridLife. Hey, you know you really should be outside right now, don’t you, not slumped in front of some computer screen? (Yeah, we saw you straighten up. Read the rest of this and then get outdoors!)

While lots of companies talk the sustainable, environmental and social responsibility talk, KEEN walks, runs and clambers all over those concepts. Their products—like footwear that incorporates natural, renewable cork, and a special microbe shield that controls stinky, rotten bacteria and fungi, and canvas shoes made using no adhesives—are built to make the world a healthier, more pleasant place.

Then there’s KEEN’s Hybridcare program, which supports essential environmental and community projects and has distributed more than $4.5 million to nonprofit organizations globally. KEEN also turns over five dollars from every pair of shoes it sells to Kiva.org, a nonprofit that lets individuals lend as little as twenty-five dollars to create opportunities around the world via the internet and a global network of microfinance institutions.

Fans of the brand—and there are plenty—follow KEEN and contribute to the conversation on the company’s blog , and through HybridLife Radio, Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Curleigh’s ultimate goal? “My dream is to look back over my shoulder in fifty years and be able to say ‘I made a difference in peoples’ lives and in the progress of the planet’ through my ability to provide insight and inspire action.” Along the way, he lives by the motto “Don’t take yourself too seriously . . . but take what you do very seriously!”

Doug Jackson
TEDxTokyo Storyteller

What did they discover? For one thing, people who carried out five acts of kindness a day over six weeks experienced an impressive 40 percent increase in positive well-being. What’s more, happiness spreads in a social network among people up to three degrees removed from one another. That means when you feel happy, a friend of a friend of a friend has a slightly higher likelihood of feeling happy, too. Nice, eh?

“Beyond the messages we put in the film for the world, I am practicing what I’ve learned to increase my own happiness,” Eiji says. “I’ve gotten actively involved in volunteerism, community building, meditation, exercise, and finding more meaning in my work, which are scientifically proven as happiness enhancers.”

Since its release, HAPPY has received the Audience Award for favorite feature at the 2011 Arizona international Film Festival and the Director’s Choice Best Documentary prize in the Feature Film Category at the Rincon International Film Festival. Want to see what HAPPY is all about? Here’s where to look:

http://www.thehappymovie.com/

Doug Jackson
TEDxTokyo Storyteller