［December 2019］
2020 – Olympic and Paralympic Year –

Next year, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo and other Japanese cities between July and September. Japanese people are looking forward to welcoming athletes and people from all over the world, and enjoying the largest sporting event in the world together with visitors.

The games will be predominantly held in Tokyo. However, the venues are not only in Tokyo, but also in eight other prefectures: Hokkaido, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka.

In addition, as I have noted in the 131th edition of the CLAIR Sydney Newsletter released in January this year, Japan has been implementing the Host Town Initiative across the country. As of 29 November 2019, there are 18 host towns whose partner country is Australia, and 15 host towns whose partner country is New Zealand.

The Japanese people welcome Australians and New Zealanders to the Tokyo 2020 Games and any other occasion across the country. They also hope that the host towns’ ties with Australia and New Zealand will be further strengthened through the many anticipated interactions sparked by the Host Town Initiative.