JST Feedback 2017 1
JLGC welcomed back public sector professionals to the office in Whitehall in June for a feedback meeting looking back over the last Japan Study Tour which was hosted by Iwaki City Council in Fukushima Prefecture. The tour looked at local public policy and municipal initiatives in practice, as well as lectures at JLGC’s Tokyo HQ, the Council of Local Authorities on International Relations (CLAIR) where talks were given on Japan’s system of local government.
The visit to Iwaki City in January looked at the city’s action in the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, which the region is still recovering from. As a result of the massive Tohoku earthquake in east Japan of March 2011, around 400 people in Iwaki City lost their lives, with significant damage to around 91,000 buildings.
20,000 evacuees were relocated from the nuclear evacuation area and specific support was required by the evacuees, as well as existing city residents who were also hit by the tsunami damage. This included managing and ensuring the provision of public housing and emergency accommodation for those whose houses had been badly affected by the disaster, dealing with significant damage to the coast and built up area of the city, redevelopment of residential land in conjunction with green spaces used for disaster prevention as well as the maintenance of roads. Further to this, reputational damage from the nuclear incident had a major impact on the agricultural and tourism industries of Iwaki City.
JST 2017 participants looked back over witnessing policies in action, including using local resources in and around Iwaki City; the city has over 2,000 annual hours of sunlight per year as well as 70% of its area being made up of wooded land, and biomass and other renewable energy related industries are being supported by the municipality.
JST Feedback 2017 2
Other issues discussed by the group included how to capitalise on taking part of the tour, using the Japan experience to see how what had been learnt could be used here in the UK. Another point of discussion was how to facilitate an active JST Alumni community of local government professionals looking to use their experience of Japanese local government initiatives for use in their own communities, as well as maintain an active community of public sector professionals with an interest in intentional learning and sharing best practice. Around 300 UK and European local government and public sector staff across a range of fields have taken part in JST which has now been going for over twenty years.
There is also an online community of JST alumni working a wide range of public sector roles, with a dedicated group for alumni to discuss tours and outcomes on the professional networking website LinkedIn, to share job information and opinions. JST alumni who have yet to sign up can request to join the group by searching for the group on the LinkedIn website (previous registration required).
The details of the next JST, which will visit Shizuoka City to look at policies for urban living design with a focus on healthy lifestyles is now on the JLGC website HERE. Application forms can be downloaded and submitted by public sector professionals following the instructions as per the web page above.
JLGC would like to that all those JST alumni from the 2016 tour to Iwaki for taking part in the feedback meeting, as well as all those alumni who have taken part over the years and continue to have a strong relationship and support JLGC as well as our local government partners in Japan.
