IUC JAPAN: 3rd Exchange Meeting of the EU and Japanese Cities on 11 October 2018


The 3rd Exchange Meeting of the EU and Japanese cities took place on 11 October in Brussels.

It was the third opportunity for the first five pairings established in 2017 to meet and discuss the progress made since the start up until to date. In this context, the results of the Study Tours of the five EU cities to Japan in April 2018 were also presented.

In late summer of 2018, three additional city-pairings joined the IUC-Japan: 

  • The city of Bratislava, Slovakia, and the city of Tokorozawa, Japan, for topics on “climate change adaptation, urban nature-based solutions, and smart eco-city development”;
  • The Grenoble-Alpes Metropole, France, and City of Toyota, Japan, for topics on “smart cities”;
  • The city of Umea, Sweden, and the city of Kamakura, Japan, for topics on “smart cities, social inclusion and the integration of SDGs”.

During the meeting, each city representative was given the opportunity to introduce the basic features of their city, the cooperation subject as well as implementation plans.

The five pairings joined in 2017 as well as the pairing coordinators participated in a round table discussion and reported on their activities carried out so far and expressed their visions towards their goal.

In addition, an introduction of the IUC-Website and the good practices in Japan was made to address the handling and management of the website, followed by an information exchange on the elaboration of the local action plans.

In addition, the Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism, Japan, presented their tool to visualize statistical data for city planning and development of policies purposes: “i-Urban Renovation: Visualization of urban renovation by using numerical and spatial data”.

Dr. Hall, Principal Adviser for International Relations at DG REGIO of the European Commission, was pleased to learn about what happens under this IUC component; he hopes that the cooperation continues after 2020 in the form of an extension of the IUC programme. From the Japanese Delegation side, the bi-annual meetings are very welcomed and the ongoing communication – formal and informal- is highly appreciated. The next meeting in Tokyo in spring 2019 is already looked forward to.

Further information