News

01/11/2010

Visit to Bordeaux

On October 28 and 29, JLGC’s Andrew Stevens and Marie Yoshikawa visited Bordeaux for the Council of European Municipalities and Regions ‘A time to reflect’ conference. The event was held as part of CEMR’s ‘reflection’ process ahead of its 60th anniversary next year and was a timely look at the organisation’s role and future as […]

26/10/2010

World Conference of Historical Cities

The World Conference of Historical Cities was held in Kyoto this month, under the auspices of the League of Historical Cities, which is chaired by the city’s mayor Daisaku Kadokawa. The League, which aims to “deepen mutual understanding by transcending national boundaries and building on the common foundation of historical cities to strengthen affiliations between […]

25/10/2010

Visits to Nottingham and Cambridge

JLGC’s Andrew Stevens and Marie Yoshikawa visited the East of England Regional Resilience Team in Cambridge in October as part of CLAIR report preparation. Andrew also visited the East Midlands RRT in Nottingham as part of the work, as well as the Cabinet Office Civil Contigencies Secretariat in Whitehall.

15/10/2010

Visit to Cardiff

JLGC Director Fujishima and Assistant Director Mamika Kambayashi visited Cardiff in October for two days to attend the annual conference of SOLACE, the society of local authority chief executives and senior managers.

08/10/2010

JETAA International Meeting in Edinburgh

The Jet Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme Alumni Association International meeting took place in Edinburgh last week. Representatives from fourteen countries attended the meeting, including Australia, the United States of America, Singapore and Jamaica to name a few. The meeting was held at the end of a year which has seen the JET Programme and […]

29/09/2010

Japanese academics visit Stevenage

Stevenage Borough Council press release: A delegation of Japanese academics has visited Stevenage as part of a tour of new towns in the UK and Sweden. The purpose of the trip was to learn about regeneration of new towns and about housing for elderly people. The party consisted of Professor Masanori Sawaki and Assistant Professor […]

24/09/2010

Japanese visitors get insight into Leeds’ care

From this week’s Municipal Journal: Delegates from Tokyo’s Nihon University have been in Leeds to see how council cares for older people. The visitors were escorted around various projects by a group of staff from West North West Homes Leeds (WNWHL). They also looked at how to build stronger links with the voluntary community sector. […]

22/09/2010

From love hotels to toilet rolls: delivering planned communities in Japan

By Sarah Longlands, Patsy Dell (www.lgcplus.com) It’s refreshing to find that the problems that we are grappling with in the UK are not so different from the challenges faced by planners and economic development professionals on the other side of the world… apart from that is, the economic contribution of Love Hotels in planned communities. […]

22/09/2010

The lessons from Japan’s public sector challenge

Aidan Rave reports on a recent study tour to look at local government in Japan where he discovered surprising similarities in public sector challenges with the UK This was my first trip to Japan and on so many levels it lived up to expectations. Our tour took in both Tokyo and Kyoto, with the theme […]

22/09/2010

Saitama Prefecture employees set up bike sharing scheme

In June 2010 employees of Saitama Prefectural Government and the Saitama Risona Bank set up a communal bike share scheme called ‘E-cycle Sharing Saitama’ with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions by encouraging the switch from cars to bikes. The scheme currently has thirty bicycles which can be used and dropped off to one of […]