Japanese Local Governance Lecture at the University of Technology Sydney Graduate Program

On 1 Oct, a CLAIR Sydney staff member delivered a lecture on Japanese local governance as a part of a series of lectures on the subject of comparative local governance for the Master of Local Government program at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This opportunity was extended to CLAIR Sydney by the Institute for Public Policy and Governance (IPPG) & Centre for Local Government.

CLAIR Sydney and IPPG at UTS have been very good partners in recent years. For example, the two organisations have co-hosted the annual CLAIR Forum where participants from CLAIR Sydney, IPPG at UTS, local governments, and relevant organisations give presentations and hold discussions over local government policy topics that are common to Oceania and Japan.

In the lecture, the CLAIR staff member provided background on a wide variety of common and different points between Australia and Japan to local government professionals who are undertaking the master degree program. The lecture covered topics including national institutional governance systems, the position and role of local governments, management of local governments, intergovernmental financial structures, and public financial conditions in Australia and Japan.

All of the attendees displayed a great depth of knowledge of Japanese local governance and raised insightful questions which lead to fruitful discussions.

CLAIR staff also held productive discussions regarding the next CLAIR Forum with Ms Carol Mills, Director of IPPG & Centre of Local Government at UTS.

CLAIR Sydney will continue to work closely and conduct research with distinguished experts of academic institutions such as UTS to provide Japanese local governments with relevant and quality information on topics such as the common and different points of institutional local governance system and recent local governments’ policy topics, in Oceania and Japan.