JLGC Blogs

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship established in 1988 between Saga City and Glens Falls, NY, a delegation from Saga City visited Glens Falls and New York City from April 10th to 15th, 2013. The delegation was composed of 27 members, including the Mayor of Saga City, Mr. Toshiyuki Hideshima, a Chairman of the City Council, Mr. Hisao Fukui, and city residents. They attended an anniversary event held in Glens Falls and a welcome reception hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in New York. “The Balloon Festival”, which is a famous event in Saga, brought the two cities together. Local balloonists from Glens Falls participated… Read More »Saga city delegation visits their sister-city, “Glens Falls, NY”

“A Taste of Tohoku : Food, Sake, Recipes & Stories”  was  held  on April 11 at the  Japan Society in New York. The main purpose of the event was to introduce a selection of Tohoku’s dishes, and the lecturer was the Japan food journalist, Ms. Elizabeth Andoh, who has lived in Japan for a long time and reports on Japanese traditional foods. There was an audience of about 200 in the event hall. There were two parts to the event. First, Ms. Andoh lectured about a selection of Tohoku’s traditional dishes such as Iburigakko (pickled daikon), Sasa-Kamaboko (steamed fish paste), Zundamochi (rice cake with mashed green pea), Kiritanpo (mashed rice… Read More »A Taste of Tohoku : Food, Sake, Recipes & Stories

The Rocky Mountain JETAA chapter recently participated in the Kizuna Reception hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Denver and the Japan America Society of Colorado, representing the JET Program and bringing a bit of Japanese fun to the festivities by way of rajio taiso. Held on March 22nd, the event was a celebration of the many student exchanges between Colorado and Japan and the support given to Tohoku following the 3.11 disasters. Among the attendees were the students from Littleton High School who just returned from touring the affected areas in Tohoku, exchange students from Sendai now visiting Littleton, and the Montbello High School Drum Line, who will… Read More »RMJETAA Gets Things Moving at the Denver Kizuna Reception

The global recession has severely affected not only the business community, but also local governments in the U.S. from the latter half of 2008. Despite the fact that a large number of local governments faced serious financial difficulties, some of them could avert or overcome financial crisis. St. Lucie County, Florida, is one successful example, due to their rapid response to the unfolding crisis. Award ceremony for County “Leader of the Year” at the 2011 National Association of Counties Annual Conference St. Lucie County Commissioners, Ms. Outlaw, Chairman of the Citizens Budget Committee, and Naomi Maki Because of the global recession, St. Lucie County, Florida, encountered a serious financial crisis,… Read More »A new CLAIR Report, “Learning from successful financial reform in St. Lucie County, Florida”, has been released!

The Japanese premier of LIVE YOUR DREAM was held on March 4th at the International House in Tokyo. The film tells the story of Taylor Anderson, a JET Program participant from Virginia who worked in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and perished in the Great East Japan Earthquake. The film is 85 minutes long and has been subtitled in Japanese. It consists of interviews with Taylor’s family, former teachers, classmates, JET colleagues from Ishinomaki and Miyagi Prefecture, and many of the Japanese people that she came to know, along with photographs and news footage. It relates how she fulfilled the dream arising out of her passion for Japan and how much she… Read More »“LIVE YOUR DREAM: The Taylor Anderson Story” Premiers in Japan

On February 22nd, around 15 JET alumni were invited to the reception held by Japan’s Prime Minister Abe in Washington, D.C. Among them were Mr. Michael Green (Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic & International Studies), Mr. James Gannon (Executive Director, Japan Center for International Exchange/USA), Mr. David Boling (Deputy Executive Director, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation), Ms. Paige Cottingham-Streater (Executive Director, Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission), and Ms. Leigh Ann Mastrini (President, JETAA DC). The families of Taylor Anderson and Monty Dickson were also invited. They talked with Prime Minister Abe about various topics, including how the JET Programme has influenced their lives, and the… Read More »JET Alumni Meet Prime Minister Abe in D.C.

Perhaps those who visited Japan might have seen some of these “city mascots.” Yes. Believe it or not, these mascots dancing to the tune of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in the following videos are sponsored by Japanese local governments to promote each jurisdiction, local tourism and local products. They are called “Yuru-Chara”, meaning relaxing mascots. (FYI, the following videos were officially produced by the Japan National Tourism Organization.) Western Japan: Eastern Japan: Yuru-Charas are quite popular in Japan. There has been annual Yuru-Chara Grand Prix contest since 2010. In 2012 contest, nearly 900 Yuru-Charas were registered. As you may know, the number of local governments in Japan is… Read More »“Cool Japan”? Maybe…

A group of 35 students from Kozukata High School in Iwate Prefecture and Toride-Shoyou High School in Ibaraki Prefecture visited San Francisco in mid-January to talk about their experiences during and after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami (“3/11”) that devastated much of the Tohoku region of Japan. As part of their visit, the students met with representatives of the JET Alumni Association of Northern California, where Mark Frey, vice president of the chapter, gave a presentation on what current JETs and JET alumni have done since 3/11 to support the people of Tohoku. Mark focused especially on those efforts that have received support from the JETAA USA Relief… Read More »JET Alumni Meet With Kizuna Project Students From Tohoku Visiting San Francisco

On the occasion of the annual National Day Reception, hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Denver, the State of Colorado presented Consul-General Ono with a Proclamation signed by Governor Hickenlooper announcing 2013 as “THE YEAR OF OPPORTUNITY FOR ENHANCED RELATIONS, FRIENDSHIP, AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE STATE OF COLORADO”. The Proclamation cites this as being the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the United States, the inauguration of non-stop flights between Colorado and Japan, and the ongoing success of the JET Program, with strong participation by Coloradoans, as contributing to ever-richer relations between the two peoples. While the state presents a Proclamation each… Read More »JET Program cited in Proclamation by Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado

Executive Director Takaaki Ogata was pleased to welcome Mr. Paulo Ziulkoski, President of the Confederação Nacional dos Municípios (CNM, National Confederation of Municipalities of Brazil), to Japan Local Government Center / CLAIR, New York, on December 18th for a discussion on the activities carried out by our respective offices and how CLAIR might help CNM to promote greater international cooperation among local governments in Brazil. Mr. Gustavo Cezário, Director, also joined the meeting via Skype from Brasília. With 4,500 of the 5,568 municipalities in Brazil as members, CNM has partnered with CLAIR for several years on a limited basis, sending participants to the Local Government Officials Training Program (LGOTP) run… Read More »Mr. Paulo Ziulkoski, President of the Confederacao Nacional dos Municipios, Brazil, Visits JLGC

In early September, Four Nagasaki JET alumni participated in an exchange meeting with a delegation from Nagasaki Prefecture (led by the incumbent Governor Nakamura) and the Nagasaki Association in New York (New York Batten-kai). In the first part, Nagasaki residents in New York and the alumni spoke of their ideas and opinions about how to revitalize Nagasaki Prefecture. The alumni proposed the promotion of eco-tourism, making the most of the newly introduced Shinkansen, etc. The Governor, assembly members including the Assembly Speaker Mr. Watanabe and other prefecture officials listened to them earnestly. After that, they happily spoke with each other about their memories of JET life in Nagasaki and so… Read More »Nagasaki JET alumni meet Nagasaki Governor and Assembly members together with Nagasaki Group in New York

On June 8, Mayor Matsui from the City of Hiroshima visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. He dedicated flowers and gave a speech for visitors. It was the first speech by a Japanese mayor at the Memorial. His key message was as follows: It is my pleasure to be able to visit and offer flowers here at the USS Arizona Memorial on its milestone 50th anniversary. I would like to offer a prayer for the peaceful repose of all the individuals honored here. This wall is carved with the names of many of the victims. Similarly, Hiroshima has lost 140,000 people in the atomic bombing. The… Read More »The First Peace Message from Hiroshima at Pearl Harbor

The Rocky Mountain JETAA chapter has been busy with two recent events helping out their various Colorado sister cities. Fujiyoshida, in Yamanashi-ken, and Colorado Springs just celebrated their 50th anniversary in early August, so RMJETAA mobilized their Colorado Springs and Denver JET alumni to participate in the festivities in Colorado Springs and be available to assist with translating, interpreting, and other duties for the 70 visitors from Japan. One main place they helped out was the family event held at America the Beautiful Park on August 4th. Because many JET alumni from Colorado Springs were placed in Fujiyoshida as ALTs and CIRs, the celebration was a great chance for friends… Read More »Rocky Mountain JETs Come Out For The Kids

The Board of County Commissioners’ special meeting on July 19, 2012 adopted a resolution expressing appreciation to Naomi Maki with the Japan Local Government Center for choosing to visit and study St. Lucie County, Florida to learn more about its success story relating to its financial and budge challenges, organization restructuring and public/private partnerships. Chairman Mowery and Naomi Maki With Ms. Outlaw, BOCC, CBC, County staffs Because of the global recession, the county encountered a serious financial crisis. The county faced a $57 million operating deficit, double-digit unemployment, and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. But, after just two years, the county has made great strides to… Read More »Resolution No. 12-145 was appreciation to Naomi Maki with her CLAIR report-St. Lucie County, FL

Photo: In front of Osaka Station, (C) City of Osaka Japan’s five major political parties reportedly agreed to introduce a bill which enables local governments of a certain population size to change their governing structure. Japan has a two-tier local government system in which the upper tier governments are called prefectures and the lower tiers are cities, towns and villages. The bill will allow local governments with more than two million people to abolish their lower-tier local government(s) and establish special wards instead. Special wards have less governing power compared to the original lower-tier governments, and the remaining power will be concentrated in and exercised by the prefecture to which… Read More »Creating More Powerful and Streamlined Local Government in Japan