Mio Nemoto: From Weather Forecaster to a Path of Researching and Communicating Environmental Issues

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics as a student in Professor Shimada's seminar, I joined Tohoku Broadcasting as an announcer. While Professor Shimada's specialty is labor economics, he also dealt with environmental issues, and I wrote a paper with my peers about the deposit system for plastic bottles. Because of that, after I joined the company, the head of the announcing department told me, "If you're knowledgeable about the environment, try doing the weather." I only knew about waste issues in detail, but I was told that if I was going to talk about the environment, I had to study, so I began studying to obtain the weather forecaster qualification.

Basically, you train to look at weather maps and make forecasts yourself. The forecaster exam has two academic sections and two specialized sections. The specialized part was quite difficult to pass, and it took me three years to succeed. In the specialized exam, you have to make detailed predictions by looking at weather maps and then be able to explain them; it was a very technical exam.

The Juku I attended to become a forecaster was in Tokyo, so at the time, I spent my days commuting back and forth between Sendai and Tokyo by Shinkansen while working. All of my salary disappeared into tuition and transportation costs.

As for work, from my first year, I was put in charge of many regular programs, including variety shows and radio, so there was a lot to learn and I was desperate. Local stations have few staff, so even as an announcer, my job included director-like roles such as making appointments for interviews and operating the camera.

That's true. So, when I left Tohoku Broadcasting and started working at a key station in Tokyo, I was surprised that everything was based on a division of labor.

As I continued my work as an announcer at Tohoku Broadcasting, I gradually began to be recognized by those around me. After a few years, following a live broadcast, a producer told me, "Today was good," and that gave me the resolve that I could go freelance and move to Tokyo. When I resigned, the head of the announcing department warmly encouraged me, saying, "It's okay, go ahead," and I was filled with gratitude.

Exactly. Also, I am who I am today thanks to Professor Shimada. When I was a seminar student, the professor often told me to do fieldwork and to "just keep moving." I think he meant not to let things become mere armchair theories, but even after I became an announcer, I kept those words in mind and ran around the field. Whenever I was lost, I feel I was guided by the words Professor Shimada gave me.

I resigned in December 2004, and fortunately, I was selected as a weather caster for TBS's "Mino Monta no Asa Zuba!" starting in March the following year, which was a turning point. It was a popular program with viewership ratings exceeding 10%, and I was in charge of weather forecasting for about five years.

You are right. Therefore, I try to communicate by assuming the worst-case scenario, but it is also a job where the impression given changes with subtle nuances of language. For example, saying "a typhoon will make a direct hit on Kyushu" has a strong impact. To soften that, expressions like "there is a possibility of making landfall" or "there is a risk of a direct hit" can be used, but both have different nuances. Choosing the method of expression is difficult. There are cases where it doesn't make landfall but still makes a direct hit, so it's necessary to strive for accurate expression.

Yes. I also provide forecasts on social media now, and I try to add information in my own way, not just saying "it will rain," but adding things like "but you can still ride a bicycle." It's important to stand in the position of the receiver.

I went to Chicago when I got married and raised my children in America. I now have two daughters and one son.

Chicago was a lush, beautiful city. There were well-maintained grassy areas between buildings, making it a very blessed environment for raising children. Children's events and the zoo were all free, and the flowerpots and flowerbeds in the city changed every month. While I thought it was wonderful, I also felt, "Why can't we do the same in Japan?"

I stayed in Chicago for about two years, and many people spoke to me; it was a very easy environment to raise children. After that life in America, I returned to Tokyo, and while waiting for a traffic light while pushing a stroller, I thought about how little greenery there was in this city.

Noticing those cultural differences, I thought about how Japan should do things more like that, or how I wanted to create a better environment for children, but there are few parks and you can't even play with a ball. Various thoughts welled up. I realized that I am now an adult and part of the generation that should change such things.

I have had the feeling that I must do something since my student days. Even in my graduation thesis about environmental issues, I ultimately wrote to the effect that environmental education is important and that Keio University should focus on environmental education through its affiliated schools.

This was because I reached the conclusion that if education is solid, the deposit system for plastic bottles should be able to function without being institutionalized. Then, environmental education becomes important. The reason I chose the mass media industry was because I thought it was necessary to take time to change people's awareness for that purpose. At the time, I even sent this graduation thesis to the head of the Yochisha Elementary School.

When I applied to Tohoku Broadcasting during my job hunt, I appealed that I wanted to do environmental education programs. That background is also why I ended up being in charge of weather forecasting. While I was in charge of "Asa Zuba!", I was doing volunteer activities traveling around schools nationwide to give lectures. At that time, the term "3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)" had not yet permeated, so I spoke mainly about environmental topics that aren't usually taught in school. Actually, I have also had the opportunity to speak at my alma maters, Keio Chutobu Junior High School and the Girls High School.

While continuing those activities, I felt the temperature rise in urban areas becoming prominent due to the heat island effect. At that time, I realized I was reaching the age where I should finally propose and realize environmental programs myself. However, on the other hand, a long time had passed since I left the world of academia, and I felt a lack of ability. I decided to relearn the environment and entered Sophia University Graduate School in 2018.

One reason was that I could commute by bicycle from home (laughs), but another was that they had a Department of Global Environmental Studies, which is a department specializing in the environment for those from a liberal arts background. I was under the guidance of Professor Toyoaki Washida, an expert in environmental economics, and wrote my master's thesis on the theme of economic evaluation of urban trees.

Yes. In my thesis, I used CVM (Contingent Valuation Method) and conjoint analysis, which is used for strategic planning in product development, to conduct research that converts people's intentions and such into monetary value. For example, I conducted a fact-finding survey by distributing questionnaires asking, "How much would you pay to create a row of trees at an intersection without shade?"

Trees have various values, such as transpiration effects and aesthetic beauty, in addition to blocking heat. I chose economic evaluation because I wanted to clarify those benefits. While conducting this research, I began to feel the need to remove biases such as my own values and approach the evaluation of trees more physically, so I started thinking about switching to a science field.

Therefore, after completing my master's course, I decided to continue my research in Doctoral Programs under Professor Tomohiko Ihara at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, who specializes in environmental systems science. It was also just the right timing with my television work as I was moving programs. I had hesitations about continuing research, but I recalled the words Professor Shimada gave me during my Keio days: "Life is only once. Let's take the challenge." At the turning points of my life, I have always been pushed forward by the professor's words.

Since the University of Tokyo had September enrollment, this October marks my third year in the doctoral program. Actually, I took my first in-person class in July this year. Until then, it had been all online lectures, but Professor Ihara is also raising children, so we can empathize with each other, and I feel blessed with the research environment. I am currently in the middle of writing my doctoral dissertation.

I struggle every day, but I am also helped by the fact that my children are energetic. All three of them love baseball and belong to a youth baseball team, and my eldest daughter, who is in 6th grade, serves as the captain. To provide environmental education to my children, we recently went to Sado to see crested ibises and to Yakushima to see the Jomon Sugi cedar trees.

I didn't know that!

Yakushima is a truly wonderful place where nature remains as it is. In our family, we go to such places and think about the environment together, but having actually tried environmental education for my own children, I sometimes find it difficult. My eldest daughter seems to have researched various things about the feminization of sea turtles and wrote about it in a school report.

It has been about 15 years since I became a weather forecaster, and there are changes I can feel firsthand, such as the morning cold in winter not being as severe as before, or the number of times it rains more than 50mm increasing significantly.

Global warming is a global issue. Countermeasures include mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is about reducing CO2, and adaptation is about thinking what to do to adapt to rising temperatures; I am researching adaptation measures. Within that, I focused on the heat island phenomenon, but the current situation is that it hasn't been solved at all.

I wrote about urban trees in my master's thesis, but conversely, in Tokyo, trees don't increase unless urban development takes place. To begin with, opportunities for tree planting are limited. I believe that companies have no choice but to consciously increase greenery. However, such ideas are lacking in current cities, and I believe we should create natural shade even within development.

I think young people have a greater sense of crisis than we do. They probably feel anxious about what will happen to their generation if things continue like this. Since we are in an era where we can connect online, I hope children all over the world can create connections, and people with the same awareness can expand their circles and share values through conversation. I want to tell children not to stick to Japanese values at any cost. I want them to see the world and thoroughly absorb things they haven't noticed yet.

Within that, what can they do themselves? I also tell my own children, "Why don't you start a business?" If there's something you want to do, try doing it yourself. Creating something that solves a problem and helps people becomes a business and also becomes your own strength. When I talk about such things, my children also seem to turn their eyes toward environmental issues. My eldest daughter is interested in poverty issues and says she wants to do work that helps poor children.

Many of the students in the seminar I belong to are international students from China, but the two Japanese women have both started businesses and are developing businesses related to the global environment. Both are married and have children, but they are very enthusiastic. I feel a high level of awareness to look at environmental issues and do something about them.

Right now, I'm busy raising children and can't think that far, but my second daughter is interested in entrepreneurship, so I'm thinking I'd like to do something together by the time she becomes a high school student. I am currently teaching classes as a part-time lecturer at Sophia, and I want to start by communicating from such places. I hope to be able to give back to Keio someday, but for that, I need to refine myself a bit more and gain confidence.

I am who I am today because the teachers at Keio University guided me toward my areas of expertise. A memorable episode is from my Yochisha days; I wanted to join the basketball club, but my homeroom teacher, Mr. Asajiro Yatabe, told me, "You're in the drama club!" and I joined the drama club. At the time, I thought, "Eh?", but that was my first place for vocal practice. I was also in charge of the broadcasting committee, and in the collection of essays, he even wrote, "Will you be an announcer in the future?"

At the recommendation of the music teacher, Mr. Sanshiro Umeno, I also joined the choir, and after that, I worked in singing until I graduated from university. The fact that I now have a job speaking in front of people might be largely due to the experiences I had at Yochisha.

During my Chutobu Junior High School days, I have the impression that the teachers listened to my stories slowly. Also, I strongly remember that the Girls High School had an atmosphere of respecting each other's individuality. For example, there was a so-called "literary girl" among my classmates, and she could have proper discussions with the teachers. It was a place that gave me the opportunity to look at that with envy and think about what I could do.

And it was during my university days that I met Professor Shimada. Professor Shimada's words, "Life is only once," are an education derived from Yukichi Fukuzawa to try things to the limit. I think I am who I am today precisely because of the culture Keio has of thoroughly pursuing things.

Exactly. The belief that I am myself. That way of thinking is very important when you become an announcer. Some people get depressed by comparing themselves with others, but I often told my juniors that everyone is different and has their own personality. I think that is exactly what I learned at Keio University.