Taking action for sustainability is crucial today. In order to do so, we need to understand what sustainability is. For example, if we think of sustainability as "the wellbeing of our planet, our society, and ourself," we will have a clearer idea of what actions we should stop, continue, and start anew. There may not be a more difficult term to agree on than sustainability, because there are so many different opinions. However, it is this diversity of perspectives that ensures that we have more options for action.

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This study tour to Estonia and other countries on the theme of "building a sustainable society" has been held every year since 2016, providing an opportunity for the youth from Japan to spend time together with the same generation of youth in Estonia, discuss sustainability, and reflect on themselves. Last academic year (2020–2021) the tour had to be canceled due to a pandemic that would go down in human history, but this academic year (2021–2022) it was conducted online.

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The best part of the study tour is that you get to experience "other cultures" with your five senses. Although it is inevitable that the dimension of participants' experience will be lower in an online situation, there was an excellent co-production between the Estonian and Japanese sides to overcome the common limitations. Fortunately, none of the participants were unfamiliar with the latest technology, and their imagination enhanced their creativity.

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This report is produced and shared by the participating students on the Sophia side. As you can clearly see by reading it, Sophia students participated in Tallinn University's practical education program during the fall semester of 2021, conducting research on on-campus sustainability and making comparisons between the two countries. In addition to President Yoshiaki Terumichi, faculty, staff, and students at Sophia University cooperated in the survey. I would like to express my deepest gratitude.

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Estonia is one of the European countries that have many "similarities in differences" to Japan. The Japanese discourse tends to regard "Europe and America" as one culture differing from Japan and does not often pay particular attention to smaller countries. In the past few years, Estonia has been featured more in the Japanese media. I would be happy if this tour report could be a catalyst for more students to take an interest in the country.

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Hideki Maruyama, Ph.D.
Professor, FGS, Sophia University

Sophian.Hideki+EeST@gmail.com