[ISSUE19] Regional

• In 2018, the Ministry of the Environment introduced the concept of Circulating and Ecological Economy in response to global environmental, economic, and societal trends such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The concept is to create a self-sustaining, decentralized society in which local resources are circulated within that region, while regions support and supplement each other's resources. This approach aims to put local SDGs into practice, ultimately leading to the achievement of global SDGs. The importance of regional communities is also growing due to the increasing frequency of large-scale natural disasters caused by climate change and the need for sustainable and resilient regional development. With Regional as its theme, in this issue we will introduce research that captures various aspects of regions in Japan and abroad.