From 28th to 30th April, we attended the Sister Cities New Zealand (SCNZ) conference and workshop in Nelson, New Zealand. The main theme of this conference was “Connecting People – Celebrating our Past, Creating our Future”.
Listening to and interacting with inspirational speakers from many different positions, including business groups, grass-root community organisations, schools and education-providers, local & national government & non-government organisations gave us an opportunity to share information and exchange opinions, which enabled us to build connections between our organisations.
Our director, Katsunori Kamibo, made a speech on the role of CLAIR Sydney and the current condition of exchange between Japan and New Zealand, starting with an overview of CLAIR, and then focusing on the JET Programme and JET Alumni Association (JETAA)’s activities. He placed particular emphasis on the role of the Sports Exchange Adviser, which is part of the JET Programme, and related it to Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympics. We hope the activities held by the JETAA continue to promote sister city relationships between Japan and New Zealand and garner the interest and involvement of the younger generation.
During the conference, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the sister city relationship between the Japanese city, Miyazu and Nelson. CLAIR Sydney was proud to sponsor the 2016 Sister Cities New Zealand Conference and hopes that sister city exchanges between the two countries will continue to grow successfully in the future like Miyazu and Nelson.
