The value of clean air

That year, I was posted to Malawi, a country located in the southeast of the African continent that is by no means wealthy, with my wife and our eldest son, who was then one year old, to take part in an international airport construction project. Our family lived in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, at an altitude of 1,000 meters. At the time, the cleanliness of the air there was incredibly high, as evidenced by the various data, and the beauty of the sky moving day and night was so fascinating that it made me lose track of time, and the wild animals that lived there were also magnificently brilliant. In that natural environment, my eldest son's asthma and atopy were cured without a trace within a few weeks.

When he returned home to Tokyo after completing his three-year assignment, his eldest son and his eldest daughter, who had been born in Tokyo, were again afflicted by the same illness. However, two years later, he was given the opportunity to be posted to Portland, Oregon, USA, where the air is very clean, and after basking in the blessings of nature, his children's illnesses were quickly cured.

According to Professor Shuzo Murakami of the University of Tokyo, humans take in 83% of environmental chemicals through the air (lungs), 7% through food, and about 8% through drinks. Food and water have the ability to detoxify harmful substances through the liver, but the trachea and lungs do not have a detoxifying function, and harmful substances enter the blood directly from the lungs. In this way, clean air is an essential element for a healthy life.

I had the opportunity to visit Shanghai and Singapore recently. Even on a clear day in Shanghai, the sun looks like a blurred moon in the sky. I saw the suffering of the world's manufacturing bases, and the world air pollution map, with China and the rest of the world painted in deep red, reminded me of the sacrifices the Earth has made for economic development.
In contrast, Singapore, a developed country in Asia, maintains clean air and is blessed with history, climate, transportation, public safety, hospitality, water and greenery. Under strong political leadership to carve out a path for the future, the city is filled with attractive design and I felt a dynamism in its growing presence as a leading runner in the competition between global cities.

Meanwhile, Japan is in a trying time, being buffeted by radioactive contamination of the air and water systems from nuclear power plants. Air quality will inevitably become an important indicator as a major factor in future international city competition, and in order for Japan to make further progress in the future, it is hoped that the country will quickly overcome the radioactive contamination from nuclear power plants with new technology and turn this crisis into an opportunity.

Furthermore, in order to communicate to the world the link to sustainable, stable growth for tomorrow, Japan needs to further develop the smart energy technologies, smart transportation systems, clean industrial production technologies that place less stress on the atmosphere and water systems, and various environmental purification systems that it has accumulated since the era of high economic growth, and steadily play its role in filling the earth with clean air, one step at a time, and strongly promote the results to the world.
The message to the world should be to create Tokyo and Osaka as some of the cleanest cities in the world, cities where everyone wants to visit, live, gather and work.