20/02/2012
On 9 February 2012, at an event in Tokyo, the first national supplement to the global carbon Cities Climate Registry was inaugurated. At the event held by ICLEI Japan in conjunction with the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the British Embassy in Tokyo, 83 participants from 34 local authorities – including Leeds and Bristol […]
20/02/2012
For the third year running, producers of Koshu wine will be in London this week to promote their product to UK consumers and retailers. The event is sponsored by Koshu of Japan (KOJ), established in 2009 by 15 wine producers in Yamanashi Prefecture, with aim of marketing Koshu wines in Europe. The Koshu grape is […]
14/02/2012
Tokyo Declaration on a Partnership Between Intercultural Cities
A symposium on Intercultural City Encounters Europe-Asia was organised in Tokyo on 18-19 January by the Council of Europe and the Japan Foundation. The 200 participants included nine Mayors from European, Japanese and Korean cities, European, Japanese and Korean experts and directors of specialist integration departments of invited cities. The symposium and associated events explored […]
10/02/2012
The UK’s investment agency UKTI has this week launched its report Smart cities of the future in Asia: The opportunities for UK business as part of its Explore Asia campaign. The report analyses a number of cities, in terms of ‘smart development’, across ten high-growth markets in Asia: Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, […]
03/02/2012
Local Japan: Case Studies in Place Promotion
We’ve now expanded our ‘Using sustainability as city branding’ case study to also include Sendai, which is using its green assets to promote economic development. The earlier case study focused on the place promotion of Kitakyushu, which is making the transition ‘from grey city to green city’ and aiming to become ‘world capital of sustainable […]
02/02/2012
Update from Tohoku: Rebuilding after the Earthquake
Fukushima and Iwate Prefectures have published new details on efforts to recover from the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011. The newsletter for Fukushima Prefecture can be downloaded here, and Iwate Prefecture’s newsletters can be downloaded here and here.
01/02/2012
Japan’s Shrinking Regions in the 21st Century: Contemporary Responses to Depopulation and Socioeconomic Decline, by Peter Matanle and Anthony Rausch with the Shrinking Regions Research Group, is now available on Cambria Press. The book brings together the work of 18 international scholars to present the first comprehensive study of regional shrinkage under Japan’s national depopulation. […]
18/01/2012
JLGC’s Andrew Stevens has an article on the Guardian local government network site looking at the recent history and challenges of council twinning in the UK and assessing the economic and educational worth of UK-Japan local links, which can be read here.
13/01/2012
The research report ‘Rural Regeneration in Japan’ by Prof. Tokumi Odagiri (Professor of Rural Policy and Governance at the Meiji University, Japan and Centre for Rural Economy Visiting Fellow) is available at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne’s Centre for Rural Economy website (PDF report here).
13/01/2012
This week JLGC staff visited Liverpool to examine approaches to regeneration in port cities as part of a CLAIR report. While on Merseyside, they heard about plans for a multi-modal Super Port to assist with the regeneration of former docklands and provide economic growth and new employment opportunities. They also undertook a walking tour of […]
