Koshigaya (Saitama prefecture) has a long-standing Sister City relationship with Campbelltown City Council. As part of their friendly relations, the cities hold an annual staff exchange program, where in principle, a staff member from Koshigaya goes to Campbelltown in odd-numbered years, and vice versa for even-numbered years. This time, Mr Higuchi from Koshigaya stayed in Campbelltown and learned about Australia’s local government system.
On 30 September, he and two staff from Campbelltown visited our office. We gave them a presentation on the outline of Australia and what Japanese local governments are doing to attract Australian tourists. We also talked about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, especially its potential to attract visitors to Japanese regions and the benefits of holding training camps for foreign Olympic teams.
Their staff exchange programme is one of the liveliest programmes between Japan and Australia. We look forward to seeing their relationship continue to grow.