Public Diplomacy

Ministry of foreign affairs offers Japanese local governments opportunities to promote their charms at the receptions celebrating the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor hosted by overseas diplomatic missions of Japan.
February 2020, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture, which have close relations to Belgium, set up their booths at the reception hosted by the Embassy of Japan in Belgium. There were displays of traditional crafts with some hand-making experience and their local food and drink were also served.

Hyuga City, Miyazaki prefecture and the Republic of Togo started their Host Town exchanges, because the name of “Togo” town in the Hyuga city has the similar reading with the country’s name.
We introduce their wide range of exchanges in the fields of music, dance, sports, etc. These exchanges have been promoted to develop global human resources in local areas through regional internationalization.

Inazawa city, Aichi Prefecture, and Olympia city, Greece, established a sister city relationship in 1987. Since then, both cities have developed their relationship; for example, junior high school students from Inazawa city participated in the Greek leg of several Olympic torch relays, and Inazawa city invited the mayor of Olympia to “Konomiya Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival).” In July 2018, junior high school students from Olympia did a homestay in Inazawa city. Based on these exchanges, Inazawa city became a Host Town of Greece.

The convention facility "G Messe Gunma“, the largest scale in the northern Kanto region, will open this year in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture. It will enable large-scale events that were previously difficult to hold in the region, such as international conferences, large-scale academic societies, exhibitions, and concerts with audience of around 10,000. Unique efforts such as the “Gunma Vegan Project” are also underway.

Many companies and organizations are respectively working on their own challenges to achieve the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Local governments are no exception. Sapporo City, which was selected as a “SDGs Future City” in June 2018, is promoting various initiatives to make citizens aware of the SDGs. Sapporo City was also selected as a “Fair Trade Town” in 2019 since the whole city promoted fair trade to achieve the SDGs. Sapporo City is trying to be a sustainable city so that it can continue to create its charms and vitality.

"Ihatov", a coined word by Kenji Miyazawa, a poet form Iwate Prefecture, means a Utopia in his works. Ms. Wayama, who came to Japan from ---- in ---- to work as CIR in JET Program was fascinated by nature, history and culture of Iwate Prefecture, and above all Iwate's people. As she believes Iwate is her "Ihatov“, she decided to stay there. She has worked in the Iwate Prefectural Government and been in charge of overseas public relations. She launched the blog "PEOPLE OF IWATE" to introduce attractive people of Iwate Prefecture.

“We will let people in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the world know about the "sense of happiness" in Nagano Prefecture, and try to build a relationship that truly connects people.”
GINZA NAGANO is an antenna shop that has such a grand concept. Since it was opened in Ginza in October 2014, they are always working to convey the Shinshu Nagano's lifestyle full of "sense of happiness" through not only introduction of Nagano's fascinating specialty products but also a variety of other events.
As a result of visiting here, fans of Nagano Prefecture are spreading from Japan to overseas! Let's explore the whole picture.