15 Whitehall Office
明けましておめでとうございます！Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! Happy New Year！
Happy New Year to all our partners and colleagues. Thank you for your support in 2020 through a really difficult year for all of us. We look forward to working and collaborating with you in 2021 and look forward to seeing and meeting up with you throughout the coming year both online and in-person when we can.
Japan Study Tour 2021 Postponement
JLGC’s annual Japan Study Tour, which was due to take place in January 2021 with visits to Tokyo and Shizuoka, has been postponed due to the pandemic. While it was hoped the tour would go ahead and applications remained open until the deadline in November, the current Japanese government immigration rules will remain in place into the new year and make the visit unfeasible this financial year. JLGC is planning to reopen applications for another round of submissions in the second half of 2021 if possible, and details will be made public about the next tour which hopefully will be at the end of the year. For more details on the tour as they become available, as well as our other events and activities, please follows us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for updates.
New Staff Training
With this year’s full cohort of staff now in the UK, after a delay in spring due to the pandemic, JLGC continues our regular staff training and study visits for Japan’s local government officers seconded here in the UK. Along with lectures on UK local government, staff training visits over the last few months have included a trip to Waltham Forest’s ‘Mini-Holland’, as well as Epping Forest. The Mini-Holland visit focused on the increase of priority cycle lanes, traffic-calming schemes to decrease the number of cars on roads and improve air quality, as well as the increase of bike parking facilities in and around stations in the area. The Epping Forest visit looked at the ancient woodland, which has seen a huge rise in visitor numbers from the surrounding area and London as the pandemic has continued.
Tokushima Fair at the Japan Centre
JLGC is partnering with Tokushima Prefecture at London’s Japan Centre to introduce local produce from the region in Japan’s Shikoku, the smallest of the country’s four main islands. Japan Centre, established in 1976, is a well-known institution situated in Central London with an outpost in Westfield Stratford City. The centre has previously worked with municipalities on events to celebrate some of the finest cuisines in Japan such as sake, matcha, and artisan products from all over the country. Tokushima items will be available in-store and online from 18 December, with a variety of sweet potato-based foods, cooking products with yuzu and sudachi (Japanese citrus) fruit as well as miso-based ingredients, in addition to a selection of umeshu (plum wine).
Japan’s local authorities are very active in promoting local produce overseas and will see more activity in the UK after the two countries finalised the Free Trade Agreement earlier this year. The deal is expected to boost trade between the UK and Japan by about £15bn and took effect from 1 January 2021.
CLAIR Forum Articles
JLGC London staff have contributed various articles for publication in the CLAIR Forum magazine on reducing food waste, food banks and COVID 19 strategies, as well as childcare in the UK. The magazine is published widely by our HQ CLAIR Tokyo throughout Japan to introduce useful information for the regions, to promote internationalisation in local government and other related organisations. CLAIR Tokyo publishes 9,500 copies every month and distributes them to local government, related ministries, overseas embassies, and regional internationalisation associations throughout Japan. Sample articles here on reducing food waste and the management of food banks in the UK during the epidemic, as well as coronavirus strategy in UK local government (both links Japanese only) illustrate the kind of information shared by JLGC London with Japanese local government member organisations.
Japan – UK Webinar for Aichi UK-Japan Council, Nagoya Chamber of Commerce
JLGC organised an online seminar for members of the Japan-UK Association based in Nagoya Chamber of Commerce, on the current situation in the UK regarding coronavirus and its impact on relations between Japan and the UK. The event was held in collaboration with JETRO (the Japan External Trade Organisation), a government-related agency that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. Nagoya, as the capital of Aichi Prefecture, is at the centre of the most important manufacturing region in Japan for the automotive industry, being home to Toyota Motors. In addition to the impact of the virus, topics covered included business relations with Europe and issues for Japanese companies, as well as local government measures in the UK for communities in the midst of the pandemic.
Survey and Research Requests
Despite the pandemic, JLGC is still actively supporting Japan’s local authorities with their overseas research and strategy. JLGC continues to assist municipalities on the ‘Host Town’ project, despite the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games being postponed until 2021, with research on opportunities for deeper links with cities in the EU. Nobioka City in Miyazaki Prefecture will host training camps for the German Olympic Judo team and JLGC assists the city by providing information to support liaising with local authorities in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia.
Other research and activity support for Japan’s local governments has included research on the use of NHS data platforms during the pandemic for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, digitalisation strategy through the UK’s Government Digital Service for Gunma Prefectural Government, and ethical consumerism in the UK fashion industry for Tokushima Prefectural Government, as well as ongoing updates on a range of UK public policy issues.
Online events, VJ Consortium JLGC participation
JLGC is a member of the Visit Japan Consortium, a twice-annual meeting of Japanese government-related agencies in the UK, working with the private sector on destination marketing in tourism and related industry. Member organisations from airlines, train companies, exporters, and government agencies reflected on how COVID-19 is impacting industries throughout Japan which has seen a huge drop in visitors from the UK and elsewhere, unavoidable in the current situation. Despite the difficulties, Japanese member organisations have seen a huge online increase of interest in Japan, partly through shifting events like London’s Japan Matsuri onto platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
There has also been a big increase in people interested in learning Japanese language, with the Japan Foundation offering more online courses which have become increasingly popular as well as a huge unexpected increase in online purchasing of Japanese products, particularly food and drink, such as Koshu Wine from Yamanashi Prefecture. This has in turn seen an increase in the demand for seasonal foods which are traditionally paired with beverages depending on the time of year. This is also viewed as the result of the significant increase of online Japanese food and drink-related events and PR seen since the start of the pandemic, many involving Japan’s local government.
