About

What is JLGC?

Mission

The Japan Local Government Centre, London (JLGC) is an overseas office of Japan’s Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). CLAIR is a government-affiliated foundation that supports the internationalisation of local authorities in Japan by providing training opportunities, fostering people-to-people exchange with the JET Programme and other initiatives, supporting multiculturalism, and conducting research on their behalf.

We aim to offer consistently practical support to our local government stakeholders using the know-how and extensive international network we have cultivated over the last 30 years.

CLAIR’s staff is mainly made up of Japanese employees seconded from local governments throughout Japan, most of whom work for one year at CLAIR Tokyo and then spend two years at one of our overseas offices.

Office Activities

CLAIR’s overseas offices, such as JLGC, use their extensive networks to benefit Japanese local governments’ international efforts and offer flexible and detailed support. We do this by:

1. Collecting and providing information about regional internationalisation

2. Collecting and providing information about regional administrative and budgetary systems and their trends

3. Collecting and providing information about regional revitalisation policies overseas

4. Providing information about regional administrative and budgetary systems in Japan to concerned parties overseas

5. Providing information about Japan’s regions to concerned parties overseas

6. Supporting local governments’ efforts to promote internationalisation overseas

7. Supporting international person-to-person exchange between local governments

8. Any other efforts necessary to help CLAIR reach its goals

As the London Office of CLAIR, JLGC has responsibility for the following countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.