This year’s CLAIR Forum, hosted by CLAIR in conjunction with the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) successfully opened on Thursday 27 November. This year’s theme was “Revitalise Your City” and presentations were conducted over two sessions of “Advertise local products and tourism” and “Attractingpeople to your region”. We invited ACELG Director, Associate Professor Roberta Ryan as a facilitator, Clarence City Council Alderman James Walker and ACELG Associate Alex Gooding as guest speakers to this year’s Forum.
Also, Assistant Directors of CLAIR Sydney – Hiroaki Seino from Aomori, Noriyuki Shiba from Wakayama, Misa Hirasawa from Hiroshima and Hiromi Hakuta from Shikaoi town in Hokkaido delivered presentations at the Forum for the first time. An audience of around 40 local and state government representatives joined the Forum, making for lively question and answer sessions. 
The forum began with a welcome speech from Mr Yasuhiko Tanabe, Director of CLAIR Sydney. He talked about challenges Japan is facing, particularly the serious issue of local area population numbers, especially the sharp fall in population in rural areas and move to urban areas. He said that Local government as a whole must make strategies to revitalise local areas. Next, the facilitator R
oberta Ryan talked about the common challenges Australia and Japan are facing, remarking that we need to support municipalities and small communities that have problems with depopulation and over-reliance on a single, dominant industry. She said she looked forward to hearing some practical case studies on how we can address these challenges during both sessions. Session 1 “Advertise local products and tourism” The first session w
as delivered by Hiroaki Seino, James Walker and Noriyuki Shiba. Alderman James Walker talked about strategies to revitalise Clarence City in Tasmania, focusing on environment arrangements of the bay area to market the local area as a place of business. He mentioned that Clarence City makes an effort in tourism collaborating with neighbour cities. The Council is also envisioning a short-stay facility to make it possible to experience farming life. This strategy is integrating tourism and produce. Through farming experience, the visitors get local products, leading to sales promotion of those products – in short, tourism has the potential to promote local produce in the long term. 
Messrs Seino and Shiba from CLAIR Sydney explained tourism and local produce promotion strategies in Japan. The rice field art tourism projects in Aomori impressed everyone greatly. The three speakers’ presentations had a common theme: local governments need to think of their own strengths and make active efforts to promote the attractiveness of their region more effectively. 
Participants and speakers discussed ways to apply the case studies of Japan to Australia. Ideas about economic exchange with sister cities being beneficial to increase the vitality of local areas also came up in the post-presentation discussion. Session 2 “Attracting people to your region” 
Alex Gooding presented on the results of a research project looking at economic growth in regional capitals. His presentation showed several findings, using five Australian regional capital councils as case studies. Among the features of sustainable regional councils is regard for social capital – looking at such things as the local population and culture as resources for prosperity. One key of successful economic growth he outlined was an effective governance framework. He emphasised the need for shared leadership and effective formal regional structures between regional capital councils and surrounding smaller local authorities. 
Misa Hirasawa and Hiromi Hakuta explained ways that their home governments in Japan are attracting people to stay and live in their local region. In some rural parts of the country, depopulation and the subsequent abundance of disused houses is a big issue. To counter this, local governments are conducting settlement experience projects by using those disused houses as accommodation, in the hope that project participants will grow to love the local area and move there permanently. As well, Shikaoi town organises farm internship programs for women every year, to give urban people a first-hand experience of the value and appeal of agricultural life. In Hiroshima, existing heavy industry is using the ageing population as an advantage by adapting its technology to aged care and related fields, turning a perceived social disadvantage into a promising commercial opportunity. 
During the question and answer session, participants discussed the role of mayors and other local leaders in revitalisation strategies, and what power should be allowed for mayoral autonomy when innovative ideas for growth need a strong approach for implementation. We had a valuable opportunity to hear of case studies of addressing challenges facing local government in both Australia and Japan through this year’s Forum. We thank all speakers and participants for making this year’s Forum a great success.