［January 2019］
The Host Town Initiative for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games

As you may know, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo and other Japanese cities between July and September 2020. The Japanese people are proud to be hosting this pinnacle event for all athletes. We are also looking forward to welcoming athletes and people from all over the world and together with the visitors, enjoy the largest sporting event in the world.

As the host of this special event, Japan has been implementing the Host Town Initiative across the country ahead of the Games. The Host Town Initiative is a project implemented by the Government of Japan, where Japanese local governments can register themselves as a host town for Olympics and Paralympics delegations. Once registered as a host town, prefectures and municipalities will welcome athletes and people from partner countries participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and conduct exchange activities in the fields of sports, culture, economics, and so on with their partner countries. The host towns will also support their partner countries’ teams to ensure they perform greatly during the Tokyo 2020 Games. Additionally, as the people of the host towns extend their warm hospitality to their guests, they will also have opportunities to be involved in various exciting exchange activities with the athletes and people from their partner countries.

The Host Town Initiative is beneficial to everyone. From the Olympians and Paralympians’ perspective, they will be cheered on by locals from their host towns during the Tokyo 2020 Games, and be welcomed with different sports workshops and cultural events held by the people of their host towns before or after the Tokyo 2020 Games. Some host towns may even host pre-game training camps for their guests. As for the people of the partner countries, the host towns may invite guests from their partner countries to visit and learn about each other’s culture, or conduct student exchange activities to promote mutual understanding. All of these activities may hopefully lead to the participation in mutual festivals or events from the people of both the host towns and partner countries.

As of 28 Dec 2018, there have been 288 host towns registered across Japan. There are 14 host towns whose partner country is Australia, and 12 host towns whose partner country is New Zealand. Please click on the following link to see the list of the registered host towns as of 2 Nov 2018: (https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tokyo2020_suishin_honbu/hosttown_suisin/pdf/document4.pdf).

The number of the host towns has been increasing gradually and is expected to continue to increase in future. Please click on the following link to find information on the Host Town Initiative, and updates to the registered host town list: (https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tokyo2020_suishin_honbu/hosttown_suisin/index_e.html).

Some of the host towns have sister city or friendship city relationships with Australia and New Zealand. If your city or organisation has any connections with any of the host towns for Australia or New Zealand, it may be an excellent opportunity to further develop these existing ties. If your city or organisation considers initiating a new sister city or friendship city relationship, it might be a good idea to seek the possibilities of achieving this with the host towns for Australia or New Zealand.

The Japanese people welcomes Australians and New Zealanders to the Tokyo 2020 Games and hopes that the host towns’ ties with Australia and New Zealand will be further strengthened through the many anticipated people interactions sparked by the Host Town Initiative.