04/11/2011
In cooperation with local authorities and the relevant government offices, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will to carry out various domestic projects to advance the idea of the “construction of creative hubs”, suggested by the public-private expert panel on creative industries, as a part of the ‘Cool Japan Promotion Strategy Project’. These […]
28/10/2011
Future outlook for PPP in Japan
As part of an on-going study into the use of transport public-private partnerships in the UK, this week JLGC staff visited the Department for Transport Private Finance Unit, HM Treasury/Infrastructure UK, House of Commons Library, London Underground and Local Partnerships. The revised Private Finance Initiatives Act became law in Japan earlier this year, extending the […]
17/10/2011
JLGC staff accompanied Masahiro Terada, Paralympic Swimming National Coach and Atsushi Miyamoto, Paralympic Swimming Mental Disability team leader on a visit to Basildon Sporting Village this weekend, where they met Contracts Manager Frank Palmer. The purpose of the visit was to look at accessibility — Basildon Sporting Village has already been designated as the training […]
14/10/2011
The road to recovery in Tohoku, reports from Iwate Prefecture
With the recovery under way in Tohoku, seven months after the Great North East Earthquake, Iwate Prefecture is sending out regular English updates on reconstruction and rebuilding of communities in the region. Information on donating, communities and the current conditions can be found here and here.
12/10/2011
Lessons from Japan: local economies
JLGC’s Andrew Stevens has an article at the Guardian‘s Local Government Network site, looking at the lessons English cities could learn from Japan in terms of devolution of economic development powers. The article looks at the designated cities system of Japan, where cities of 500,000 or more residents have enjoyed a greater degree of autonomy […]
11/10/2011
Japan’s urban future: Hello Kitakyushu
In addition to being selected as the first green growth model city in Asia for policy assessment by the OECD, this week sees the city of Kitakyushu host the Asian Environmental Cities Summit to discuss Japanese cooperation for other Asian cities to resolve their environmental problems, such as air and water pollution. The summit sees […]
07/10/2011
Tokyo and Kawasaki February 5-15 Local environment policy and supporting eco-tech business Applications are now open for the Japan Local Government Centre’s Japan Study Tour 2012. The tour aims to foster a deeper understanding of Japan’s system of local government as well as encourage the exchange of ideas and information. Participants take part in exchange […]
06/10/2011
The city of Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture, which was devestated by the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, has created a multilingual Facebook account to share stories and pictures of the disaster and its reconstruction efforts with people around the world. The city is the first disaster-hit municipality to provide such information in foreign languages on the […]
05/10/2011
Japan Society Event, Report from Tohoku: Christopher and Phillida Purvis
Seven months after The Great East Japan Earthquake, Christopher and Phillida Purvis will report on a recent visit to Tohoku. During this trip they visited towns and villages throughout the region from Soma in the south to Kamaishi in the north. They spoke at length with government officials, staff from charitable and voluntary agencies, people […]
23/09/2011
One of the special projects of the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21) is the Asian Human Databank Network run by Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), aimed at officials of ANMC21 cities training and living in Tokyo, as well as students of Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU). The latest edition of its newsletter Interaction Asia is […]
