On 9 October, the delegation from Hokkaido Association of Towns and Villages (HATV) for overseas administrative inspection and research visited the CLAIR Sydney office. The delegation was made up of a total of 10 town and village mayors, including Hokuryu Town Mayor Yutaka Sano, who also serves as the Vice Chairman of HATV.
The delegation visited Australia this time to learn from Australia’s advanced efforts in areas such as urban planning, fishery industry, dairy farming, and environmental policies.
CLAIR Sydney provided the delegation with a briefing and Q&A session on the administration, political and economic overview of Australia in advance of the 5-day on-site investigation by the delegation. During the briefing, there were surprising observations regarding the differences with Japan and the high level of interest in Japan. For instance, it was mentioned that the top executive positions in local government (CEO or GM) may be publicly advertised, and Australia is ranked first in the world in terms of the number of Japanese learners per 100,000 population.
During the Q&A session, we received a multitude of questions, covering topics such as financial structure, immigration policy, and more.
CLAIR Sydney will continue to support the overseas activities of Japanese local governments visiting Australia to address the challenges faced by local governments.
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.
