［June 2017］
20 – National Association of Towns and Villages – A Year of Local Governments in Japan

Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) holds the National General Assembly in Canberra every June and this year it will be held from 18 to 21 June. CLAIR will again participate in this year’s event.

All Australian local governments have similar functions although their names—city, town, shire, district—differ according to their location. But in Japan, municipalities are different not only in terms of their names but also their functions. Relatively larger municipalities (roughly with populations over 50,000 people) are classified as cities (shi in Japanese) and they have more functions such as social security and city planning. On the other hand, relatively smaller ones are towns (machi or cho) and villages (mura or son). As such, there are two Japanese municipality associations: the Japan Association of City Mayors and the National Association of Towns and Villages.

As you have read, the delegation from the National Association of Towns and Villages came to Australia and New Zealand in May and they learned about a number of administrative and industrial issues in both countries. The delegation was particularly interested in the local agricultural industries as many of their municipalities are located in farming areas. They were surprised by the scale of farms in Australian and New Zealand. I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the farmers and government officials who helped make this visit a resounding success.

Katsunori Kamibo

Director