16/11/2011
Local Japan: Case Studies in Place Promotion
The latest ‘Local Japan’ case study focuses 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 development’. You can read the case study here (PDF). Our earlier Local Japan case studies on place promotion through pop culture and regional […]
16/11/2011
This week staff from JLGC accompanied a delegation from Shizuoka Prefectural Government on official visits in the UK and Germany, based around their interest in renewable energy. In the UK they visited London Array, a wind farm manufacturer, while in Germany they visited Munich, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Rothenburg, looking at geothermal, solar and biomass programmes […]
08/11/2011
Visiting London Olympic Park and City Hall
This week members of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly visited London, supported by JLGC staff, inspecting progress at the Olympic Park ahead of next summer’s 2012 Olympic Games, as well as visiting officials at London City Hall to learn about London’s successful bid. They also attended a reception held at the Embassy of Japan in support of […]
07/11/2011
From skyscrapers to Saxony – JLGC in Germany
Last week JLGC staff, including Director Tanaka, visited Germany to promote the Tohoku region at Japan Week 2011, held 5-12 November in Frankfurt am Main. The city was the obvious choice for the week of Japan-themed events – over the past 20 years the Japanese community in Frankfurt has grown steadily, with 3,300 Japanese people […]
04/11/2011
Go Shinohara, Member of the Yokohama City Assembly, was one of the presenters at WaterfrontExpo 2011 in Glasgow this week. His presentation on the Yokohama waterfront (above) was one of several on how the waterfront regeneration aspirations of four international and three UK cities actually have turned out in practice and how their achievements to […]
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 […]
