One island a year: Ogawa, Kakara, Madara and Takashima
Island ESD is the environmental education programme that Karatsu Farm & Food runs with the schools of the remote islands of Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, Japan. Ogawa Island in FY2023, Kakara Island in FY2024, Madara Island in FY2025 and Takashima in FY2026: as part of Saga Prefecture's "Plasma LIFE Saga" campaign, we work with one island a year. With the children, we pick up the litter that washes up on the island's beaches, sort and count it, and turn the bottle caps into tile art, island-shaped keychains and coasters.
ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) is learning that treats environmental and local issues as one's own and turns them into action. "Plasma LIFE Saga" is Saga Prefecture's campaign for a lifestyle that chooses, reduces and then recycles plastic.
🌐 日本語版（離島ESD）はこちら / Read this page in Japanese
▶ Ask about workshops, visits and island-to-island exchange
Four islands so far
It started on 8 September 2022, when we carried our Precious Plastic machines from Yobuko port to Ogawa Island for a workshop at Ogawa Elementary and Junior High School. Precious Plastic Karatsu is our recycling work: we shred and melt plastics such as bottle caps and mould them into new products.
- September 2022, Ogawa Island: SDGs workshop at the Ogawa school
- FY2023, Ogawa Island: beach litter collection and survey (28 April), presentation (10 June), tile art completed (30 September), report to the Governor of Saga (25 October)
- FY2024, Kakara Island: beach cleanup (30 May), SDGs workshop (8 June), upcycling workshop (25 September), exchange with Ogawa Island (7 October), school festival display (19 October)
- FY2025, Madara Island: special programme and beach cleanup (7 June), three-island exchange on Kakara (9 July), coaster workshop (4 September), 150th-anniversary school festival (18 October), exhibition at the Saga Prefectural Hall (19 to 24 December)
- FY2026, Takashima: beach cleanup and lessons (5 June), keychain workshop (19 June), coaster workshop (23 October), school festival (November, planned)
FY2023, Ogawa Island: marine debris becomes a whale
Ogawa Island, off Yobuko in Karatsu, has a long history of whaling. In FY2023, students of Ogawa Junior High School collected and surveyed the litter on their beaches under the theme "Share the island's situation to build support for its future." At their June presentation they reported that of the 23.07 kg they collected, 15.87 kg (about 69%) was plastic.
From a student's drawing of a whale, plastic washed up on the island and bottle caps collected on and off the island were recycled into tiles for a whale mosaic. It was completed at the Ogawa Island Festival on 30 September, reported to the Governor of Saga in October and exhibited at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum and Karatsu City Hall. This whale later became the design of our keychain "The Whale."
FY2024, Kakara Island: collect, count, and shape the island
On 30 May we held a lesson and beach cleanup at Kakara Elementary and Junior High School, together with the marine research group of Karatsu Minami High School's Niji-no-Matsubara project team. 28 people collected 79.9 kg of washed-up litter, almost all of it plastic.
At an SDGs workshop on 8 June (World Oceans Day), the students sorted the PET bottles from the cleanup by country: Japan 100, Korea 59, China 56, Malaysia 5 and other 6. They washed the caps, and on 25 September turned them into Kakara Island-shaped keychains, which they displayed and gave to everyone at the school festival on 19 October.
FY2025, Madara Island: island creatures on coasters
On 7 June we ran a special programme at Madara Elementary and Junior High School. Students and islanders made Madara Island-shaped keychains from bottle caps, and in the afternoon a beach cleanup at Tajiri beach collected two light trucks of bulky waste and 34 bags of litter.
On 4 September the children designed coasters with motifs from the island, such as goats, wild boars, kites and fish; we made moulds from their drawings and formed the coasters from bottle caps. At the school's 150th-anniversary festival on 18 October, a junior high student said: "Small things that start on a small island can change the world."
Islands meeting islands
On 7 October 2024, students of Ogawa and Kakara met for an exchange at the Ogawa school, where "The Whale" keychains born from the Ogawa students' drawing were given to the Kakara students. On 9 July 2025, junior high students from Kakara, Ogawa and Madara gathered on Kakara for a three-island exchange and presented their beach litter surveys, upcycling and what they had learned.
FY2026, Takashima: from island-shaped keychains to coasters (in progress)
On 5 June (Environment Day), all 13 pupils of Takashima Elementary School joined a beach cleanup and lessons. The 77 bottle caps they picked up were Japan 45, Korea 13, China 9 and other 10. On 19 June the children made "Takashima-shaped" keychains, and on 23 October all 14 pupils made marbled coasters reading "TAKASHIMA ISLAND" from caps they had collected. A school festival in November and an exhibition are planned.
Beyond the islands
The children's work has been shown at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum, the Saga Prefectural Hall and Karatsu City Hall. The Ogawa whale mosaic was covered by the Saga Shimbun (27 October 2023) and the Kakara litter survey by the Nishinippon Shimbun (14 December 2024). The Ogawa activities were also featured in a programme of The Nippon Foundation's "Umi to Nippon Project in Saga."
Visits, workshops and island-to-island exchange
We welcome enquiries from other islands, schools, local governments, companies and organizations, in Japan and overseas, about the work described on this page.
Workshops on your island or at your school
Beach cleanups, surveys of washed-up litter (such as sorting bottles and caps by country), making keychains and coasters from bottle caps, and exhibitions that share what children learned, arranged to fit the size of your school and your schedule. We have done this with small schools, from Takashima Elementary with 13 pupils to the Kakara beach cleanup where 28 people collected 79.9 kg.
Visiting Karatsu
In Karatsu you can see the records and works from our island schools, and how bottle caps become island-shaped pieces. We arrange dates with you.
Exchange between islands
Karatsu's island schools have already met each other (see Islands meeting islands). We are glad to talk about exchange between Karatsu's islands and island schools or groups elsewhere.
How to get in touch
Please tell us your island or school, the number of participants and the period you have in mind, through our contact page or by email. We read and write English well; for calls, an interpreter helps, so tell us your preferred language.
▶ Figures on the population, ferries and schools of Karatsu's seven islands: Remote Islands in Numbers (Karatsu Data Bank)
Related
▶ Education for Sustainable Development
▶ Precious Plastic Karatsu
▶ The Whale keychain
▶ Remote Islands in Numbers
▶ 日本語版：離島ESD
About the organization
Karatsu Farm & Food
A non-profit based in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, Japan, working on ocean-plastic solutions, the circular economy, environmental education (ESD) and the management of Saga's first OECM site. As a government-designated Regional ESD Activity Promotion Center and a partner of Karatsu Minami High School's Niji-no-Matsubara project team, we turn local restoration into hands-on learning that passes from one generation to the next. Think Locally, Act Globally.