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Postcard from Japan: Hopes for a safer tomorrow

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Natsuyuki Fujimori, who works with a Tokyo based Non-Government  Organization Along the banks of Arakawa River in Tokyo, a group of people are huddled together as they listen to Minoru Igarashi's instructions on color coding for garbage separation and safety. The group, employees of a local company, gathered to clean up the banks of the river, assisted by Arakawa Clean-Aid Forum, a Tokyo-based non-government organization. "We are working for a common cause: to clean the river bank," said Natsuyuki Fujimori, a 20-year-old, who is one of the five full-time employees of the NGO. Fujimori, who chose environmental protection over a corporate job, said that their team organized 159 cleaning exercises in 2015 and collected 5,602 bags of garbage - including from PET bottles, shoes, cans, baseball and tennis balls, tires, and insulin syringes. It is a collective and community exercise. The NGO, to fund its operations, organizes cleaning exercises for companies that have environmen