When I was in elementary school, I thought to myself that when I grew up, I wanted to help abused children, and that was my starting point.
With this in mind, I wanted to see the situation for myself, so I went to Southeast Asia and Africa, where I worked at orphanages and helped build schools.
Barefoot or in tattered clothes, children come up to you asking for money, and you see them being taken away right in front of your eyes as they are trafficked.
There are mothers who hold their children with one leg or one arm as a spectacle and ask for money, and orphanage operators who pocket donations.
This is all the reality I have seen.
I witnessed the various problems and realities of poverty, education, medical care, infrastructure, and more, and felt overwhelmed by my own powerlessness.
On the other hand, there were also moments when I felt envious of the children's sparkling eyes and the way they all helped each other to survive despite not having much money or material possessions.
I remember receiving a lot of help there and realizing that if the situation or environment changes, you can either be the one giving help or the one receiving help.
And talking with people my age about the current situation and the future was the moment when my feelings changed from "I want to help" to "I want to work together to make the future better."
I am also interested in multicultural coexistence and want to learn more about it, so when I went to Toronto, Canada, I saw people from all over the world in this compact city and felt like I was traveling the world. However, there are also many foreigners in central Kanagawa Prefecture, where I was born and raised, so I feel that we need to adopt the wonderful things about other countries and preserve Japan's wonderful culture and spirit, while also thinking about the issues of "coexistence," "immigration issues," and "declining birthrate and aging population" in the future.


In Japan, through my work in the welfare field, I have had the opportunity to interact with a variety of elderly people, people with disabilities, and their families.
Generally, nursing care is thought of as a job that "anyone can do," but when you actually work in the field, you realize that it is not a job that "anyone can do," but rather a "specialized job."
Even when elderly people have been cured of their illnesses or completed treatment through medical care, or when people with disabilities are at school, at home, or at a workshop, they still need someone to support them and their families in their daily lives.
Caregivers work closely with patients in their daily lives and support their livelihoods, which is why they are able to notice even the smallest changes and connect them to medical care.
I have always felt that what is most important is to have specialized knowledge and perspective, and to have a compassionate attitude.
Being in the field has made me think about various social issues, and I continue to ask myself questions about true happiness and what it means to live, as I experience a sense of fulfillment in my work and the reality that things cannot be explained by nice words, and I am faced with lives at stake.
Because we live in a world where there are no right answers in either welfare or education, we want to continue to ask ourselves this question together with everyone involved, and while holding as many right answers as there are people, we want to weave together each person's potential and life in any environment or situation.
And I would be happy if hope is born in the days ahead.
I hope that, amidst a diverse range of values, we will continue to think about and develop welfare and education in Japan and around the world.



Naoki Moribayashi