The party making a courtesy call on
   Ichiro Kamoshita,the then Minister of
   the Environment.


   The party listening to information about
   Shinagawa thermal power plant,
   a subsidiary of
   Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc..


   Inspecting a resource recycling center
   in Kobe.

The party of nine taking part in the Japan Visit Program for City Mayors in FY2008 (group leader, Lin Renhe vice-mayor of Baishan in Jilin Province). The group came to Japan in July 2008, and exchanged experience and information on the theme of "The challenges of environmental preservation in the face of rapid economic development" with individuals at the Ministry of the Environment, as well as in Osaka and Kitakyushu City. With this visit, the project, begun in 1990, has now been implemented eighteen times. At this juncture, the project will be brought to a close, but will be reinvented in a new format, with the backing of The Sasakawa Japan-China Friendship Fund.

The party was composed of eight vice-mayors from six cities in five provinces including Heilongjiang and Hubei, and the Director of Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations from The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China（the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment）. In the eight days between landing and takeoff from Narita International Airport, the party moved from Tokyo to Kobe, then Osaka to Fukuoka, where they investigated Japanese environmental pollution control measures. At the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of the Environment, the first locations to be visited, the party listened to a comprehensive explanation of Japanese measures to combat air and water pollution. This visit was followed by a guided tour of Shinagawa thermal power plant.

The party moved on to Kansai, where they visited, among other locations, the Kobe Resource Recycling Centerand Matsushita Eco Technology Center Co., Ltd. (Kato-city, Hyogo), where they received information on separating and reprocessing PET bottles and aluminium cans, and examined cutting edge recycling technology. Upon moving to Kitakyushu City, the party exchanged opinions with informed individuals on the city's history of overcoming pollution ? efforts that have been noted in the city and elsewhere for "Working miracles with a smoky sky and dead sea". The party also received an explanation on the city’s regional planning; plans that have as their slogan "Orchestrated improvement of the environment, economy and society".

In response to the series of exchanges during the visit, Chen Jizhuang, vice-mayor of Benxi City (Liaoning Province), an iron and steel producing city in which air pollution is steadily worsening, said "Hearing about the attempt made in Kitakyushu City to bring together citizens, autonomous bodies, the Japanese nation and various enterprises to work towards improving the environment has been extremely informative". The mayor of Kitakyushu City also made a remark, stating, "China can learn a great deal from Japanese experience in years to come."

This five-year project, begun in 2004 for exchange between autonomous bodies in China and Japan, has now come to a close. With this most recent visit, 140 persons connected with autonomous bodies in China have now come to Japan, and the results of the visits to date are now driving administrative reform in autonomous bodies in China.

(Miyazaki Tadashi, the Nippon Foundation)

*This article was reproduced from The Nippon Foundation Blog Magazine with the permission of the Nippon Foundation.