Japan Local Govts Promoting Exchanges with Expo Participating Nations
Tokyo, Feb. 11 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is running a program to help local communities promote exchanges with foreign countries that are set to participate in the upcoming World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka.
A total of 146 exchange plans by 92 local governments--17 prefectures and 75 municipalities--have so far been registered for the central government program.
The local governments expect that their plans will boost youth exchanges, accelerate overseas expansion and promote tourism.
The central government plans to provide subsidies to help the local governments cover costs related to their exchange plans.
A similar program was conducted for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, in which local communities accommodating Olympians and Paralympians from abroad were registered as "host towns."
The Osaka Expo is set to take place on Yumeshima, an artificial island, for six months from April 13.
The city of Miki in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, which served as the host town for French athletes for the Tokyo Games, is promoting exchanges with the European country under the theme of food culture.
As part of the city's initiative, a program was launched in fiscal 2023 in which Japanese and French high school students visit each other's country.
High school students from Miki are expected to take part in an event slated to be held in line with France's Osaka Expo national day.
Also underway is a project to develop special pruning scissors utilizing the Japanese city's hardware technology.
A city official came up with the scissors development plan after learning that grape farmers in France, a major wine country, tend to injure their wrists from the impact of pruning because grapevines are hard.
The Miki official has visited wineries in France three times since November 2023, introducing prototype scissors and interviewing winery staff about desired scissors with hardware business officials from the city.
The official plans to visit France again this spring, seeing the trip as a great opportunity to promote the city's hardware technology globally.
The city of Fukuoka, which partners with Saudi Arabia and two other Middle East countries for the Osaka Expo, is advertising tourist routes linking the Kyushu southwestern Japan region, where the city is located, and western Japan cities such as Kobe in the Kansai region and Hiroshima in the Chugoku region.
Last month, the city of Fukuoka invited travel officials from the three countries to Japan to help them develop tour products for wealthy people.
During the stay, they experienced test cutting for Japanese swords in the city of Setouchi in Okayama Prefecture, part of the Chugoku region, and sushi making in the city of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, also in the region and close to Kyushu.
The town of Ozora in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido began exchanges with Seychelles, an island country in the Indian Ocean, in fiscal 2024.
Students from the town's only high school have visited Seychelles. Students are also expected to visit the Osaka Expo venue.
With the town aiming to accept students from Seychelles to the high school, an Ozora official said, "First of all, we want (people from Seychelles) to know about our town."
Many local communities that served as host towns during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics had to stop their exchanges with their partner countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.
"This time, we want local communities to keep their interactions with Expo participating countries going after the international event," a senior official at the Cabinet Secretariat said.
END
