Seiei Tōyama

(April 21, 1906 – February 25, 2004) is a Japanese environmentalist. He received the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding for his two-decade-long effort to combat desertification in China, promoting solidarity and peace. Early life and education He was born in Shinkura, Mizuho Village, Minamitsuru County (now part of Fujiyoshida City). Toyama was the third of six children in a family that lived in the Taisho-Ji temple of the Jodo Shinshu Hongan-Ji sect. He attended Yamanashi Prefectural Hikawa Junior High School (now Hikawa High School) and graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyoto Imperial University. In 1962, Toyama earned a doctorate in agriculture from Kyoto University with a thesis titled “Study on the Special Environment of Sand Dune Areas and Adapted Crops.” He retired in 1971. Desertification efforts In 1972, after Japan and China normalized diplomatic relations, Toyama traveled to China alone, funding the trip himself. He targeted a desert as large as Shikoku, known as the “land of death,” which had displaced over 20 million people. Walking dozens of kilometers daily in temperatures exceeding 40°C, he discovered a water source. Inspired by the Tottori Sand Dunes, he raised funds in Japan and collected 70 million kudzu seeds, suitable for desert growth, over eight years.

Toyama died of pneumonia on February 25, 2004, at age 97 in Tottori City. In November 2005, the Toyama Masaaki Memorial Room opened at Kodomo no Kuni in the Tottori Sand Dunes.

His son, Masao Toyama, continued his legacy with a reforestation project in Zambia starting in 1989.