The Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund
Introduction to Grant Projects
Toyama Prefectural University
Creating a place where hikikomori can receive job training through the establishment of a wood fuel production and supply service that uses driftwood
Activity grant
- Project Description
The majority driftwood generated by rivers and dams is incinerated (generating heat equivalent to that of about 230,000 households each year). Driftwood can be used as an inexpensive fuel, but the problem is that no one is willing to work on it as a business due to the inconsistency in quality and low profits. As a separate issue, it is estimated that there are more than one million people in Japan who are withdrawn from society. In order for them to reintegrate into society, places for employment training are indispensable, but they are currently insufficient in both quantity and quality. The production and supply of wood fuel (firewood) provides excellent conditions for employment training, and because it is for employment training purposes, it does not need to be highly profitable. This project will aim to bring together these two issues - the conversion of driftwood into wood fuel and employment training for socially withdrawn people - to create a sustainable, win-win situation for both parties. [No. K19-0086]
Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund FY2019 Activity Grants List (PDF 470KB)
- Fields
- Relationship between People and Society
- Grant year
- FY2019 Activity Grants
- Grant term
- 3 years (April 2020 - March 2023)
- Grant amount
- ¥2,751,000
- Activity region
- Kurobe city, Toyama

Overview of the Organization

- Project organization
- Toyama Prefectural University
- Representative
- Lecturer, Department of Environmental and Social Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Toyama Prefectural University: Junzo Tachibana
- WEB site
- https://www.pu-toyama.ac.jp/
- Voice of Representative
- We wish to help people with employment training as part of self-independence, and to implement a system to utilize driftwood - normally discarded as waste - as a resource.