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Today, hundreds of people gathered at the port of Yokohama to say goodbye to the Peace Boat's 99th Global Voyage, the first to sail in collaboration with the UN SDG Action Campaign. The ship is departing from Japan with the purpose of inspiring and mobilizing people to take action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In collaboration with the UN SDG Action Campaign, Peace Boat's Global Voyages will conduct education, advocacy, capacity building and awareness raising for the SDGs.

Japan is often mistakenly cited, by both foreigners and nationals alike, as an example of a monocultural country. This not only neglects the experiences of the many Japanese people with mixed heritage, but also the experiences of ethnic minorities indigenous to Japan, such as the Ainu people of the northern part of the country. The Ainu people have a distinct culture, religion, language and historical trajectory, and have historically suffered great marginalization due to the idea that they are not "Japanese".

Peace Boat is proud to be a member of ICAN, the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, a group of NGOs dedicated to achieving a nuclear-free world, and the recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Joining Peace Boat for his third time, former Australian Senator Scott Ludlam gives an overview of ICAN, the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and the talks he's given on the 98th voyage.

Small Island Big Song, a music project created by Tim Cole and BaoBao Chen, joined Peace Boat for the second time on its 98th global voyage. Inspired by the history of indigenous seafarers who set out from Taiwan 5,000 years ago to explore and settle the islands around them, Cole and Chen conceived the idea for a collective experiment uniting musicians in the region over a love of the ocean, islands, and traditional cultures.

In the modern world, people in cities tend to live lives quite removed from nature. Many people in urban spaces have never had the experience of growing their own food, or tending to a garden at all. Yet as the movement to counteract climate change and build more sustainable living spaces grows, some people are seeking ways to rekindle their communities' relationships with the environment.

Peace Boat will visit the Port of Seattle, Washington for the first time on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 as part of its 98th Global Voyage. To celebrate the inaugural visit of the Peace Boat to the one of the most sustainable cities in the United States, Peace Boat will host a special event onboard the ship entitled "Sailing for Sustainability", in collaboration with the Impact Travel Greater Seattle, Adventure Travel Trade Association and the Port of Seattle.

From June 25 to July 13, Peace Boat organized the second edition of the Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassador Programme. With this programme, Peace Boat brings young people from the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean to travel onboard its ship to engage in capacity training and raise awareness about the impact of ocean degradation and climate change issues affecting their regions, spreading their messages to civil society organizations and governments across the world. 

Though the seven Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassadors remained onboard for a relatively short portion of Peace Boat's 98th Global Voyage, they made quite an impact while they were on the ship. The group kept busy with discussions and lectures on climate change, attending social and artistic events, and of course, getting to know each other better through their shared commitment to fighting for a safer and more sustainable future for their countries and the world.

On 26 June, a special feature of Peace Boat's 98th Global Voyage oyage officially began: the Ocean and Climate Youth Ambassador Programme.

Peace Boat welcomes the agreements made at the US-DPRK Summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018, by the leaders of both states to move away from hostile relations and towards cooperation for the permanent peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Education has been at the core of Peace Boat's mission since inception. Peace Boat began in 1983, in the midst of a controversy about how Japanese textbooks should cover Japan's WWII-era actions. When a newly developed national curriculum deeply upset many of Japan's neighbors, a group of Japanese university students decided to travel by sea to learn from people there about how they understood the war and Japan's military activities of the time.

Peace Boat and the Global Challenges Foundation will hold a symposium onboard Peace Boat's vessel in Stockholm, on June 26. The event, ‘Ocean Degradation and Climate Change: Perspectives from the Global to the Local', will bring together young leaders from Small Island States, experts, and activists to consider the dual crises of ocean degradation and climate change.