On March 21 st to 23rd , the Sister Cities New Zealand Conference 2019 was held in Palmerston North, New Zealand. There were approximately 150 attendees from government organisations, sister city committees, and universities at the conference, and discussions were held on various best practices for sister city activities and their theoretical aspects. This year, attendees came from not only New Zealand, but also Australia, United States, China, and Japan. CLAIR Sydney gave a presentation on upcoming large scale international sporting events (such as the Rugby World Cup, Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, and the World Masters Games 2021 Kansai) in Japan, and what these events mean from the points of view of Japanese sister cities.
On the second day of the conference, two minutes of silence was held via a national television broadcast to mark a week since the terrorist attack in Christchurch.
We will continue to take every opportunity to promote Japanese initiatives and contribute to further exchanges of local governments between Oceania and Japan.
CLAIR Sydney expresses our sincere condolences to the victims of the attack and their families.
From the 3rd to the 13th of December, eight selected swimmers from the Fukuoka Swimming Association visited NSW, where they participated in joint training sessions with a local school and competed in the 2024-25 Speedo NSW Senior State Age Championships.
