Investing in People and Places

Japan Day Seminar July 29th 2011

Japan and the North East of England – Investing in People and Places

Gateshead Civic Centre, 14.30-17.00, followed by reception

Join us for this year’s Japan Day Seminar. Featuring a series of presentations focusing on economic links between the UK and Japan and how future regional growth could be promoted through global business partnerships, the following speakers and panel members will be joining us on July 29th:

Chair: Professor Marie Conte-Helm, Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Opening Speech: Masataka Tarahara, Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh

- Councillor Mick Henry, Leader of Gateshead Council
- Peter Howe, Managing Director of Komatsu UK Ltd
- Jun Arima, Director General of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), London
- Councillor Dave Wilcox, Chairman of European and International Programme Board of Local Government Association
- Dr. Sierk Horn, University of Leeds Department of East Asian Studies

The event follows recent announcements regarding new Japanese investment in the region by Hitachi Trains and will also commemorate 20 years of civic links between Gateshead and Komatsu City in Japan. Hosted in one of the UK’s leading city regions for innovation, retailing and the visitor economy, come and hear how Japanese investment in the UK has and will shape economic growth for the benefit of people and places.

To book your place at the event (free) please register at our mailbox with ‘Japan Day Seminar’ in the subject line.

From Shipbuilding to Software

Participants from around the UK gathered at our 2010/11 Japan Day Seminar and Local Links Conference event held in Rochester, Kent. The event combined both the Japan Local Government Centre’s annual seminar and the Local Links Conference commenced during the Japan-UK 150 year of events organised by the Embassy of Japan in the UK. The event was actually the first time that the three historic place links celebrated during the Japan-UK 150 celebrations had come together under the same auspices.

Professor Conte-Helm (Director, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation) presented on the historic but very live links between the North East of England and Japan, noting the apt connection between the shipyards of Tyneside which built the early Japanese Imperial Navy and Rochester’s own longstanding association with shipbuilding through the nearby Royal Dockyard at Chatham. In the more recent period however, Japan’s connections to the region had been forged around economic links, beginning with the NSK factory in Peterlee in the 1960s through to Nissan and Komatsu plants in nearby Sunderland and Gateshead in the 1980s. Since then the character of the links made continues to be largely economic but focusing on emerging technologies and knowledge transfer, for instance the academic partnership between Teesside University and Chuo and Osaka universities in Japan around virtual reality applications for infrastructure projects, although the Hitachi Trains announcement made earlier in the week for a new plant at Newton Aycliffe demonstrated that large-scale investment in the region by Japan continues to be as strong as ever.

Kenji Ikeda (Secretary General, CLAIR) spoke on the health of Japan’s place partnerships with the rest of the world, focusing on the changing nature of the relationship from the post-war common sister city twinning to the more value-added economic and cultural links being generated and the role of local government in this. Such links had taken on unusual forms, for instance the partnership between Nerima ward in Tokyo and Annecy in France around their common recent histories in the production and hosting of animation. However, in a climate of reduced public spending, local government had to ensure that such links were defendable and transparent in the value they brought to local communities and here he cited the role of international links in the intercultural work of city governments around community cohesion. As such CLAIR was well disposed to further this work on behalf of local government in Japan and their global partners.

Joanna Lavan (Creative Sheffield) addressed Sheffield’s city development company and its global profile and work, particularly its international strategy to secure the regeneration of England’s fourth largest city through inward investment and city marketing (the ‘three t’s’ of trade, talent and tourism). While she felt that Sheffield had not made the most of international opportunities in the past, it was trying to shore up capacity for SMEs to access advice around cultural, legal and language barriers to enable them to access new markets. As well as promoting trade and investment, international connections would also encourage local people to understand different languages and cultures to enrich the city’s own fabric. Links now existed between Sheffield and Kawasaki and Sapporo in Japan, with clear emerging work underway between Sheffield and Kawasaki around low carbon technologies ahead of Kawasaki’s eco-tech fair next year.

Aberdeen’s historic link with Nagasaki, as expressed through the life of Thomas Blake Glover (founder of the early Mitsubishi and Kirin companies), was also celebrated at the event with a presentation by Dr Peter Smart (Aberdeen Business School), while Medway Council’s Ashley Davis and Cllr Susan Haydock discussed the council’s links to Yokosuka and Ito through it being the birthplace of ‘blue-eyed samurai’ William Adams. Cllr Haydock, who has presided over the Medway-Yokosuka link (the UK’s first with Japan), concluded the event in saying that under the economic reality of public finances, it was incumbent on all involved in local links and international relations to raise their game by making their partnerships more meaningful and innovative.

At a reception hosted by the Embassy of Japan, the academic partnership between the University for the Creative Arts (based in Medway) and UEDA College of Fashion in Osaka was commemorated. The schools have collaborated on joint student shows in 2006 and 2008, and 250 UEDA students visited the UK for the 2010 show in London’s Spitalfields.

The next Japan Day Seminar will take place in Gateshead in July, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the council’s partnership with Komatsu City, and will focus on economic partnerships between the UK and Japan and local government’s role in this.

The event was co-hosted by Medway Council and the Embassy of Japan, with the assistance of the University for the Creative Arts, and sponsored by the Japan External Trade Organisation, Japan Foundation and the Japan National Tourist Organisation.

Creating value through partnerships: Japan Day Seminar

The Japan Day Seminar: Local Links Conference will be held on Friday March 4 2011 at the Corn Exchange, Rochester in Kent. Featuring presentations from British local authorities and Anglo-Japanese organisations, the event will focus on how local bodies have been able to use their international partnerships with counterparts in Japan in new ways to adapt to the current financial climate.

Featuring presentations from Professor Marie Conte-Helm of the Daiwa Foundation, Creativesheffield and representatives from Aberdeen, Derbyshire and Medway, the seminar will introduce case studies of Japan-UK links which have been changing the way international partnerships are being approached by councils, including both economic and citizens’ group-led exchanges.

13.00: Registration
13.30: Start and welcome
13.45-14.45: First session
14.45-15.05: Tea break
15.05-17.00: Second session
17.00-18.00: Reception co-hosted with the Embassy of Japan in the UK

To register for the event, please contact Phillippa Harvey by email harvey[@]jlgc.org.uk or call us on 020 7839 8500 by February 18. We look forward to seeing you on March 4!

The Japan Day Seminar is an annual event hosted by the Japan Local Government Centre in partnership with a UK host city, the aim of which is to provide an opportunity for participants to exchange information and ideas at an international level. This year we have decided to host the event in conjunction with our final Local Links Conference, which since 2009 has brought together all those UK local authorities with links to Japan to share and discuss the successes and challenges in projects and exchanges with Japan over the past year.

Japan Day Seminar: Local Links Conference

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City of Kawasaki Visits Sheffield to Renew Friendship Ties

JLGC Director Noboru Fujishima, Assistant Director Motoko Tsujii and Public Relations Officer Keith Kelly visited Sheffield City Council last week in support of a visit by Kawasaki City Mayor Takao Abe. The visit cemented the 20th anniversary of the Friendship City relationship between Kawasaki and Sheffield, with the prospect of vibrant city to city links in the future on the grounds of economic cooperation and innovation partnering.  The visit was organised by Sheffield City Council Economic Strategy Policy Officer Michael Hellewell and  Manager of International Trade and Relations at Creative Sheffield Jo Lavan.

Mayor Abe’s group was accompanied by a traditional Japanese music ensemble who performed in the Winter Gardens for the public.  Another group in Sheffield with the mayor was the Kawasaki-Sheffield Friendship Delegation (a local citizens group) who attended various events at local schools and hospices, as well as the friendship renewal and signing ceremony with Mayor Abe and Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Alan Law, where there was also another performance in the mayor’s parlour by the ensemble as part of the ceremony.

Mayor Abe’s group also had a guided tour of the Advanced Manufacturing Park on the edge of the city, where companies, such as Boeing in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, work together in producing metal products for high value high technology industries, including the nuclear industry and defence.  AMP Business Development Manager Joe Anwyl gave a presentation on the background to the AMP and the future plans for the park.

Mayor Abe’s group also met with senior staff at the University of Sheffield to discuss future collaboration between the university and education institutes in Kawasaki, before Mayor Abe gave a presentation to a packed lecture theatre on his policies in Kawasaki.  He compared the city to Sheffield as both have a long history in the production of steel and in heavy industry.   Kawasaki developed as one of the key industrial cities in Japan and instead of concentrating solely on research and development facilities, the city is currently working on an image change.  Focusing on arts and culture, Kawasaki is diversifying into a “City of Music”, “City of Films”, and “City of Sports”, much like Sheffield.

Many thanks from JLGC to Michael Hellewell, Jo Lavan and Joe Anwyl, as well as all the University of Sheffield staff for their warm welcoming and hosting of the three groups.

Written by Keith Kelly

Friendship Agreement Signed between Aberdeen and Nagasaki

On the 12th July a ceremony was held in Aberdeen’s town hall to mark the signing of a friendship agreement between the cities of Aberdeen and Nagasaki, Japan. The Mayor of Nagasaki had already signed the document earliar in the year, but in the ceremony on Monday the Lord Provost of Aberdeen concluded the process by adding his own signiture to the agreement document. The ceremony was attended by the Director of the Japan Local Government Centre, Noboru Fujishima, and Assistant Director Miho Shikano. The Consul-General of the Japanese Embassy in Edinburgh and his wife were also in attendance at the ceremony.

The friendship agreement is not a formal twinning producing a pair of sister cities, but a more informal link between communities. It is hoped that it is a new kind of linking for an age of austerity, designed to promote exchange between groups and organisations within the local communities in Aberdeen and Nagasaki. For example, one exchange between Japan and the UK which has been taking place over the last 15 years in Aberdeen and Nagasaki is a scheme between Rotary Clubs. Both the Rotary Club in Nagasaki and in Aberdeen have been sending a student abroad every year for over a decade and this year too. a student will leave for Japan today for a three week stay in Nagasaki.

The Director and Assistant Director also took the opportunity to visit Glover House:

Glover House in Aberdeen was the family home of Thomas Blake Glover, The Scottish Samurai, who was one of the founders of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in Nagasaki, Japan. The house Thomas built for his parents, was given by Mitsubishi in 1997 to the Grampian Japan Trust and has been restored to its former Victorian splendour with many original details and features.

Olympic team settles in at Loughborough

While not an official twinning link we’ve had featured on this blog, local links forming between Japan and Loughorough have been highlighted today as Loughborough University is featured in an article by the online Japanese newspaper the Japan Times.

Loughborough will be hosting the Japanese Olympic team for the 2012 Olympics in London and staff at the university have been preparing for the team’s arrival with Japanese language classes and by learning about Japanese food and culture. The university will be a training camp for Japan’s Olympians before their events in London but according to the article they will also be providing facilities for Japanese athletes when they compete in Europe.

The agreement with the Japanese Olympic Committee envisages 400 athletes, trainers and other staff making 9,000 overnight stays between now and 2012.  The article goes into detail about the university’s preparations for its visitors including the preparation of food for the athelites and the facilities at the university.

The university is hoping the Japanese presence will create long-term ties with the East Midlands region and they have recruited a local school, which already teaches Japanese, to hold “musubi” days.

“Musubi is a Japanese word for connection,” said Gaynor Nash, who runs the project. “In its literal form it is a set of threads joined together to form a knot. In a metaphorical form, it means people coming together to form connections.”

At a musubi day, kids from the South Wolds School in Nottingham introduce students from other schools to the Japanese language and culture. Some dress in kimono or Japanese soccer team shirts and try to make sushi. Others practice judo and learn how to perform on a traditional Japanese drum.

If Japanese athletes are staying at the university, they also introduce themselves to the children and answer questions about sports and Japan. In this way it is hoped Japan can be introduced to a young audience and stimulate long-term interest in the country.

For the full article in English please visit the Japan Times website here.

Japan Foundation London accounces new funding scheme

The Japan Foundation, London is offering a new programme in the UK which grants funding for Japanese language education projects in the UK e.g. conferences on Japanese language education, seminars for teachers, projects to produce Japanese language teaching materials.

Institutions can apply for up to £3,000 for non-profit projects or activities which promote Japanese language education during 2010-2011. The next application deadline is 14th May 2010, for projects or events occuring between 14th June 2010 and mid-March 2011.

For more information, please visit the Japan Foundation’s site here.

Promoting Local Links to Visitors

While Medway Council have been active in promoting their links with Japan to the people who live in the local area through school visits and the annual exchange scheme, they are also concious of being welcoming to the Japanese visitor to Medway. They have produced a 2010 guide to their town in Japanese.

Guide to Medway

The guide contains a history of the town, including information on the town’s links to Japan through William Adams, local historical sights and attractions, and the major events of the year.

Local area and events

Funding & Investment 101: British Council

British Council

The British Council works with schools using grants funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Union and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The British Council also operates a links programme for Local Education Authorities, with grants available of up to £1,000 per school to sponsor the setting up of a link and exchange activities between linked schools.

The links they support include those with Japan. The website provides detailed information about the support they can offer local authorities. This includes funding to support a visit to Japan to set up partnerships as well as school funding for joint curriculum projects and a Japanese language and culture immersion course.

While applications for the immersion course are now closed, funding deadlines for their other programmes are in August 2010.

They also have case studies of schools who have set up links with a partner school in Japan on this page, as well as a list of educational opportunities and resources.

Official Homepage