G8 Summit: Send Your Virtual Tanzaku Message

One million wishes - that is the goal of the Tanzaku Action! Making a wish is a part of the tradition of making a wish to the stars on Tanabata Day on July 7, a holiday.

Now you can send a message to the G8 leaders by writing your hopes on a Virtual Tanzaku.

Tanzaku is a slip of paper on which people write their hopes or wishes and hang it on a bamboo tree. For the G8 Summit, the NGO Forum will display all the Tanzaku messages to get global leaders to take the necessary actions to change the world for better.

Alternative Summit

Hokkaido People’s Forum on G8 Summit is collaborating with the NGO Forum to respond to the official Toyako G8 Summit from the citizens’ and NGOs’ standpoint. Because it will be difficult for NGOs to access Lake Toya and its neighborhood around the time of G8 summit, their activities will take place mainly in Sapporo and Rusutsu (where the media center will be located).

These groups hold an Alternative Summit as a place for citizens to express their opinions outside G8 Summit. This will be at Sapporo Convention Center. Besides the opening symposium (July 6) and closing ceremony (July 8), they will offer sectional meetings with themes of environment, peace and human rights, development and poverty, and workshops and seminars featuring NGO Forum participating organizations and guests from overseas.