20/12/2010
The Japan Local Government Centre will be closed from Tuesday 21 December 2010 to Tuesday 4 January 2011. We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Don’t forget to sign up to our e-newsletter in our absence, and get updates straight to your phone or PC via our […]
20/12/2010
Tokyo Assembly Members to try out Boris Bikes
Members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly will visit Transport for London this week to learn first hand about the operation of the Mayor of London’s Cycle Hire scheme. The six-strong delegation will hear from TfL officials about the fundamentals and operation of the scheme, and how it benefits London’s sense of place and aims of […]
20/12/2010
Lessons from Japan: Local Government Efficiency
In the New Year, Japan Local Government Centre is honoured to be the latest participant in the Local Government Improvement and Development Efficiency Exchange international learning programme. From 17 January, we will be participating in a week-long ‘warmseat’ (as opposed to hotseat, because of the time difference) to set out to and receive questions from […]
17/12/2010
JLGC’s Andrew Stevens and Marie Yoshikawa visited the North West Regional Resilience Team in Liverpool this week as part of preparation for a CLAIR report. The report will detail for the Japanese audience how the UK plans for and copes with risk scenarios in emergency planning, including threats to the built environment.
15/12/2010
Following the long awaited publication of the UK Government’s Localism Bill, the Department for Communities and Local Government have issued a short guide to the Bill and the Big Society thinking behind it. Interestingly (for us) the guide states that as part of the case for decentralisation (from the UK perspective): “In nations as diverse […]
14/12/2010
Jo Lavan, Manager for International Trade and Relations at Creativesheffield spoke to Japanese officials at JLGC this week about ‘Creativesheffield – transforming Sheffield’s economy and looking forward with the LEPs’. The talk addressed the economic challenges faced by the UK’s first ever city development company, particularly in light of the new government’s agenda around Local […]
14/12/2010
Assistant Director Yoshihisa Ogawa and Research Manager Andrew Stevens visited the Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART) in Norwich yesterday for a CLAIR report on local authority policies for tourism promotion as part of local economic development. HEART is a charitable trust which develops the city’s tourist offer through better use of heritage assets and […]
09/12/2010
London-Tokyo Training Programme
In 2010 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) resumed its training programme for posting its staff overseas on short study-focused placements. Our office received four delegates from TMG this autumn, posted from the Bureau of Urban Development (Mr Shirai and Mr Matsunuma), Bureau of Construction (Mr Fujisaki) and the Bureau of Waterworks (Ms Takahashi). As part […]
08/12/2010
Assistant Director Yoshihisa Ogawa, Research Manager Andrew Stevens and Researcher Marie Yoshikawa visited Newcastle and Gateshead this week for CLAIR reports on local authority policies for tourism promotion as part of local economic development and emergency planning. Visits took place to the North East of England Regional Resilience Team in Newcastle, the NewcastleGateshead Initiative and […]
07/12/2010
Mitsubishi invests in Scottish green energy centre
The Scottish Government announced on December 3 plans by Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe Ltd (MPSE) to invest up to £100m in an engineering facility to carry out research and development into offshore wind turbine technology. First Minister Alex Salmond said: “I am delighted that Mitsubishi is establishing a presence in Scotland through the creation […]
