MC Mr. Katsushi Dantsuka, Director of Friendship Exchange Section

Transcription

1 Taito City Taito City Friendship and Exchange Section Minutes of the Sister Cities Meeting between Gladsaxe Municipality and Taito City in Taito City Hall on 29 May,2015 Minutes Date: 29th June, 2015 By: Tomoko Karasawa Participants Gladsaxe City Council Ms. Karin Soejberg Holst, Mayor Ms. Trine Graese, City Councillor Mr. Kim Wessel-Tolvig, City Councillor Mr. Flemming Holst, City Councillor Mr. Bo Rasmussen, Chief Executive Taito City Mr. Yukuo Hattori, Mayor Mr. Ota Masayuki, Chairman of City Assembly Mr. Hideo Horikosi, Deputy Chairman of City Assembly Mr. Soichiro Arakawa, Deputy Mayor Mr. Hitoshi Wada, Director General of Board of Education Mr. Norihisa Sato, Director General of Planning and Budget Division Mr. Hisao Nishijima, Director General of Citizens Division Mr. Tadao Kanbe, Deputy Director of Board of Education Mr. Yoichi Nakazawa, Secretary General of City Assembly Mr. Koichi Yashiro, Director of Educational Guidance Section MC Mr. Katsushi Dantsuka, Director of Friendship Exchange Section From Taito City Hall Mr. Takamitsu Shirakawa, Supervisor of Friendship Exchange Section Mr. Yuta Koike, staff of Friendship Exchange Section Other Ms. Miho Kanzaki, Japanese-English Interpreter Ms. Tomoko Karasawa, English-Japanese Interpreter 1

2 Minutes Mr. Katsushi Dantuska, Director of Friendship Section introduced the meeting Participants from Gladsaxe municipality and Taito City. 1. Exchanging recent ent statement of mutual cities. First, Mayor Yukuo Hattori explained current situation and future vision of Taito city. As the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic will be hold in Tokyo in 2020, he thinks this is an important year and opportunity to introduce the beauty and attractiveness of Taito City. At the meantime he will emphasize on stimulating local industrial activities and traditional manufacturing industry. He also pushes forward barrier free and establishing infrastructure and facilities such as roads and parks. Moreover, he would like to emphasize on the policies to keep historical, cultural and artistic town development. Regarding to interchange with sister cities relationship in the future, he would continuously make more efforts to deepen the relationship with sister cities and asked for the cooperation and support from Gladsaxe municipality. Next, Director Norishisa Sato of Planning and Budget Division presented the The Long Term Plan for Taito City Government which can be a compass for next ten years. ( refer to attached file of The Long Term Plan for Taito city) The objectives of the plan have been settled in Oct., 2004, in order to realize the Basic Concept of Taito City. The term of plan is for ten years period from 2015 to The characteristic of the plan should be the guide line, how to tackle the issues under the cooperation between city administrations and the residents in Taito city. He would examine the issues of it clearly and indicate the goal and resorts of the achievement for each objective. (showed the estimated population graph attached) He explained the several projects of Taito city towards the Olympic game. At the preparation of 10 years term of it, he estimated the future population of Taito City. The estimation for whole Japan showed decreasing population and more aging and declining birth rate. Although the future population of Taito city showed the opposite. It showed the population would continue to increase slowly and it may reach 201,000 at the year of Next, he indicated three main future images of Taito city, which are 2

3 1. Active and Flourish: means Inspiring the industry and tourism and maintain the culture, history. 2. Active and characteristic town; means the town with disaster and crime prevention, rich environment, lifelong learning and spots. 3. The town comfortable to live; mean Health, Welfare, Childrearing and Education. In addition he explained promoting more activities for the residents and administration of Taito city government. Especially towards Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic game. Taito city would like to promote projects over five areas as the center which are Sports, Culture and Education, Hospitality, Safe, and Security/ Environment Mayor Karin Soejberg Holst commented that she was very interested in the Long Term Plan for Taito City Government and it can be using and adapted for the Gladsaxe municipality. She realized that it would be wonderful similarities with two cities and wished to exchange more opinions how to achieve those goals. Mr. Hisao Nishijima asked Mayor Karin Soejberg Holst to explain the recent situation of Gladsaxe municipality. Firstly, Mayor Karin Soejberg Holst, thanked warm and wonderful ceremony for 15th years anniversary of sister city affiliation between Gladsaxe municipality and Taito city. Next,she introduced the members of delegation from Gladsaxe municipality. Secondly, Mayor Karin Soejberg Holst reported the recent situation of Gladsaxe municipality. She explained about the elections for the Gladsaxe city Council once every four years. There was city council election one and a half years ago. There were 13 men and 12 women were elected. The new city council agreed to formulate eight goals which were growth, learning in schools, health and environment, and climate-conscious choices. Gladsaxe municipality is a part of greater Copenhagen and is a neighboring municipality of Copenhagen. There are 67,500 population and 18% of the residents are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Gladsaxe municipality has more than 35,000 jobs in about 2,500companies. Particular growth can be seen in the service sector and knowledge intensive areas of industry, such as the medical and chemistry industries. The goal for Gladsaxe is to be municipality 3

4 where growth and welfare go hand in hand. They must give residents optimum service, and at the same time, they must ensure that Gladsaxe remains a municipality in social, environmental and economic balance. They must not deliver more welfare, but rather better welfare to our residents. Last year, Gladsaxe was rewarded as the leading municipality in terms of growth. This honor is the result of many years of dedicated efforts to create an optimal environment for business. They are also continuing their growth-oriented efforts on all fronts and they also collaborate with the surrounding municipalities in this regard. They invest in transforming their business districts and they are an engaged partner in the regional and national growth initiative, Greater COPENHAGEN. The Greater COPENHAGEN collaboration is a business political partnership between municipalities and regions in the eastern part of Denmark, in which they work together to promote growth in the area. International competition has intensified and there is a need for coordinated joint efforts to increase growth and create jobs in eastern Denmark. They will break down the boundaries between municipalities, regions, and countries, working together in the same direction to optimally support business and provide the best possible conditions for growth and job creation. In the area of traffic, they also have a major collaboration with municipalities, the national government and the Capital Region to establish an extensive light rail along the Ring 3 motorway. Next year they will break ground on a 27-kilometre long light rail, a rail-based public transport connection forming a ring around Copenhagen, passing through Gladsaxe and connection 10 municipalities across the Greater Copenhagen region. Good and well-functioning public transport is critical to urban and industrial development in the regional, and the new light rail will provide rapid and efficient public transport. This project will provide new opportunities for development and growth on the future of Gladsaxe. But they must constantly improve efficiency and come up with new ideas for performing their tasks a little smarter. This includes the use of new technologies and changing their working procedure such as digitalization of official procedures. In the new city council, they are focusing our efforts in both of these areas. So she expressed that she feels very optimistic about the future of Gladsaxe. Mayor Yukuo Hattori commented that the objectives of Gladsaxe are very similar with the one in Taito city. There are many efforts and cooperation had been made between two cities such as educational exchanges. He also added these efforts can 4

5 give a great future vision and opportunity for the students to be the next leader for cultural, traditional, historical understanding and realize the sense of pride for their own heritage. Secondly most of the municipalities in Japan are facing shrinking population and aging society. He would like to learn more from social welfare developed countries in this area, and meantime he was very impressed the expression of Age is no impediment which is mentioned in eight strategies of Gladsaxe and asked the further explanation from Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst. Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst replied that there are 8 goals in Gladsaxe municipality, and Age is not impediment is one of them. It is because not being lonely is the mostly requested among elderly people. Recently they have shifted their policy from elderly people not giving lots of care but providing support to keep the independent lives. Therefore, it would be more fruitful relationship for both cities by exchanging the opinions and methods of how to achieve those goals. 2. The benefit of exchange visit by Junior High School Students Mr. Tadao Kabe, Deputy Director General Board of Education gave the statement of junior high school visit. It has been 12th times to do exchange visit by junior high school students in this year. He has received many letters from the students who has participated the visit. It says, The exchange visit inspired and gave me a strong motivation to learn English and Danish more. In spite of different culture and language we would be able to feel unite in hearts, and that would be something very precious experience for my life. So this project gives them enthusiasm of learning other languages and also opportunities for getting in touch with different cultures. It also helped them to recognize more deeply the worth of their own historical heritage. It has been four times of the visits from the schools in Gladsaxe such as Stengard and Bagsvaerd schools. This year, they had presented the choir and introducing the culture of Denmark at Ueno junior high school. It would remain the precious experience for the students. This is the great benefit for students in both Denmark and Japan to learn each other s culture directly. In addition, through mutual visit, including such as attending the classes and staying individual homes help them to grow their ability of international communications and respect other cultures. So they will be able to deepen the awareness of their responsibility as a member of 5

6 global with pride. He hopes that this precious opportunity such as mutual visits will continue. (He showed the public relation magazine which contains the photos when they visited Denmark last year.) Mr. Hisao Nishijima, General Director of Citizen s Division asked Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst for a comment of this agenda. Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst replied that this mutual visit of junior high school students is the one of the project which must be continued. Every time, when the students of Taito city come to Gladsaxe municipality, they visit city hall. She always looks forward to meeting every one of the students. They always told her how much they learned about Denmark and what sort of things they were expecting from the visit. It was very touching to see the students saying goodbye to each other with tears. So she feels strongly that this project must carry on and she would put every effort to continue this program. Mr. Hisao Nishijima, General Director of Citizen s Division asked any other comments or inquiries about agenda (2). There were no other inquiries and comments. 3. The future exchange plan for Mutual cities Mr. Hisao Nishijima, General Director of Citizen s Division mentioned that when the affiliation of sister cities established, there were many supports and contributions from former Mayor Ole Andersen, present Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst, other councilors and citizens of Gladsaxe municipality. That is the main reason why they are able to continue the effective interchange. Through junior high school mutual visit, obviously they deepen global understanding and it contributes significant effects for both cities. They hope that Taito city can make this visit will become more fruitful. Regarding to the visit from Taito city to Gladsaxe municipality, they would set the specific schedule later on. He also hopes to establish further development and fruitful relationship between two cities. Mr. Hisao Nishijima, General Director of Citizen s Division asked for a comment from Mayor Karin Sojberg Holst. Mayor Kari Sojberg Holst commented that she is looking forward to welcome the 6

7 short visit from Taito city in this August. Every five years, they have agreed to have mutual visit. Next visit will be the year of She is also looking forward to this memorial event. Mayor Yukuo Hattori replied that he had been looking forward to have the delegation from Gladsaxe municipality. He is also looking forward to make a short visit to Gladsaxe in August. Next mutual visit will be five years later which is the year of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic game. He is also looking forward to this special event as well. Mr. Hisao Nishijima, General Director of Citizen s Division asked any other comments or inquiries about agenda (3). There were no other inquiries and comments. 4. Miscellaneous Nothing under this agenda item. The meeting ended at the time of 16:15. 7