Hiromi Iwamoto

The Association of Japanese Geographers’ Social Action Program and Geography Education

The Association of Japanese Geographers (AJG) sponsors and supports activities for members as well as non-members. In this article, activities for non-members are referred to as the “social action program”. It comprises two categories: (1) activities for the general public and (2) geography education for school teachers, and students. The former, which typically takes the form of public symposia, are designed to promote the value of geography in society and the public arena, whereas the latter category includes public fora for teachers, Geography Olympiad for high school students, and Children’s Environmental Map Contest for elementary and junior high school students. Together, these outreach efforts aim to revitalize geography education in Japan. The AJG Commission on Geographical Education (AJG-CGE), established in 1998, plans many of these social action programs in collaboration with other academic societies and research groups.