Japan Local Government Centre (CLAIR, Sydney) 6 Clair staff visit Anglicare Longueville Centre This issue includes: 7 SMASH! 1 Local Cuisine around Japan 8 Suginami City Board of Education visit Sydney 2 Support activities for Ehime prefecture 8 Tokyo students visit Sydney ‐ Experience Japan 2017 9 Sydney Cherry Blossom Festival 3 High school students from Fukushima visit Sydney 9 The City of Tea Tree Gully celebrate 10 years of friendship 4 Support activity for Hokkaido and Aomori with Asakuchi city 4 Kyoto students visit Sydney 10 The Busselton and Sugito cities association’s (Bassca’s) 4 Careers in Language Fair 2017 effort recognized by the Japanese Government 5 Mr. Taira, Associate Professor, visited CLAIR Sydney 12 JETAA 5 Kawasaki Junior Cultural Prize Presentation 13 Our new intern 6 Supporting Saga prefecture 14 From the Director “Sukiyaki Support” from Gunma Prefecture Gunma prefecture is located approximately 100km north of Tokyo. Mountains rise to 2000m towards the northwestern end of the prefecture whilst the crystal‐ clear waters of the Tone river support the fertile lands spreading across the southern region. Gunma utilizes its highlands and lowlands to produce various fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables, like rice, wheat and mushrooms all year round. In addition, the prefecture also has a thriving livestock industry producing high volumes of pork and dairy products, positioning it within the top ranks of prefectural domestic production. Gunma beef also happens to be exported overseas as a luxury food. With its abundant agricultural and livestock resources, it would only be natural to introduce a dish that represents all of this and serves as a perfect symbol of Gunma prefecture, sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is a traditional Japanese dish that has a history dating back 150 years. Its salt and sugar sauce base enables you to fully enjoy the original yet intensified taste of thinly sliced beef with shirataki noodles and locally sourced vegetables. All the premium ingredients needed to make great sukiyaki is readily available in Gunma prefecture, such as Joshu Wagyu beef, which is the first Page 1 type of beef to be exported to the EU from Japan, and Shimonita onions which are dubbed the “King of Onions”. Gunma prefecture offers its upmost hospitality in delivering the finest sukiyaki in the nation sourced from its carefully protected agricultural and livestock produce combined with a recipe which has been handed down through the generations. Gunma prefecture is also known for its silk industry with the Tomioka Silk Mill registered as a World Heritage site in 2014, attracting a lot of international tourists. The prefecture is also home to some natural hot springs and traditional Japanese inns promising a peaceful and relaxing time to visitors. On top of all this, you can also enjoy hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter, making full use of Gunma prefectures diverse natural landscape. If you happen to travel to Japan, please stop by Gunma prefecture to enjoy Japan’s best sukiyaki and our blessed natural surroundings. https://www.visitgunma.jp/en/food/index.html On 2 August, the Sydney Opera House hosted Experience Japan 2017 to promote Japanese cuisine, culture and tourism. Iron Chefs Rokusaburo Michiba (Japanese), Hiroyuki Sakai (French), Kenichi Chen (Chinese) and Masahiko Kobe (Italian) served up a fabulous array of dishes. CLAIR assisted Ehime prefecture with their booth on the day. Ingredients were provided by five Japanese prefectures, namely, Niigata, Nagano, Tokushima, Ehime and Okinawa. The five prefectures also ran booths at the event to promote tourism and their locally sourced products. There were long lines in front of all the booths to try out locally sourced citrus and peach juice, fruit peels, miso and various other goodies all of which got rave reviews from attendees. On 3 August, CLAIR staff supporting Ehime prefecture activities split into two groups, one group accompanying Page 2 Ehime staff to the culinary institute, William Angliss, and the other supporting Ehime staff visiting local media and travel agencies. Ehime staff stopped by William Angliss with the visiting Iron Chefs to interact with the students there as part of an event related to Experience Japan 2017. The students cooked up original dishes using ingredients from the five Japanese prefectures that participated in Experience Japan 2017 under the instruction and advice of the visiting Iron Chefs. Father and son Iron Chef duo, Kenichi and Kentaro Chen also performed a cooking demonstration by making Mabo Dofu and Nobumasa Shimoyama, world latte art champion, held a latte art workshop. It was a fantastic opportunity to promote the techniques of world class chefs and Japanese food to young prospective chefs in Sydney. Ehime staff also visited media and travel agencies to promote local tourism. Particular emphasis was placed on promoting cycling destinations in Ehime such as the Shimanami sea route. The respective agencies gave Ehime prefecture some good advice and ideas on their tourism promotional activities. CLAIR also reached out to local cycling organisations in NSW and VIC to arrange meetings for Ehime. CLAIR will continue to support Ehime prefecture in their efforts to promote their brand in Australia. On 3 August, 29 junior high school students from Fukushima city in Fukushima prefecture visited CLAIR Sydney. Our staff (from both Japan and Australia) made presentations and gave information on the role of CLAIR Sydney, their experiences overseas and the differences in working conditions and everyday life between the two countries. Students were interested in overseas postings and life in foreign countries. They also visited Stella Maris College and University of Technology, Sydney. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours and hope to see them working abroad in the near future. Page 3 CLAIR Sydney supported the tourism research efforts of the Hokkaido Tourism bureau and Aomori prefecture in Queenstown, New Zealand and the Snowy Mountains, New South Wales throughout the months of July and August. We promoted Hokkaido and Aomori ski resorts to increase public awareness and to help improve the number of visitors to these regions. We also conducted a survey on overseas ski trips amongst visitors at Queenstown and the Snowy Mountains. We also met with representatives from tourism organisations and ski resorts in the region such as Destination Queenstown, the Treble Cone, Perisher and Thredbo. On 8 August, 10 junior high school students from Ide town in Kyoto prefecture visited CLAIR Sydney. Ms Okamoto who was seconded from Ide Town to CLAIR talked about the organisation, the type of work she does and also explained what she learned from working abroad. Students enjoyed the talk and had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss any relevant areas of interest. We hope the students will make the most of this opportunity to think about their future careers. We wish them all the best and hope they continue to cherish and take pride in their hometown of Ide! On 8 August, CLAIR Sydney ran a booth at Careers in Language Fair 2017 in Glebe Town Hall. It was a career event for students studying Japanese. We promoted the JET Programme and local areas of Japan at the event. Most visitors were high school and university students who showed lots of interest in the JET Programme as well as Japanese culture and sightseeing. We enjoyed answering all of their questions. (Some of them even asked questions in Japanese!) During the event, visitors listened attentively to advice from guests speakers from JETAA‐NSW, JETRO, the Japan Foundation, Innovation Dojo and SMASH!, and enjoyed activities like Shiritori (a traditional Japanese game) and trying on Yukata (summer kimonos). We are really excited about what the future holds for them! Page 4 On 14 August, Mr Taira, Associate Professor at Nihon University visited CLAIR Sydney to have a meeting to discuss Australian law and to prepare for a visit to the NSW Department of Justice on Friday. He is currently conducting research on merits review done by Tribunals in Australia. He met with NCAT (NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal), ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, a professor from ANU and some other relevant agencies. CLAIR also accompanied him during the visit to the NSW Department of Justice. He was able to further refine his research through his visit to Australia. On 17 August, CLAIR Sydney attended the official reception of the 26th Kawasaki Junior Cultural Prize Presentation in Wollongong. Four students aged 12 from Kawasaki were chosen as recipients of the award based on their outstanding art and essay submissions. The prize, sponsored by Kawasaki Shinkin Bank, is the opportunity for select students in Japan to visit Wollongong, which is a sister city of Kawasaki. During the presentation ceremony, the prize winners handed their works over to the Lord Mayor of Wollongong to be displayed in the Wollongong Council offices. Page 5 On 10 August, a delegation from Genkai Mirai Gakuen which is located in Genkai town in Saga prefecture, Japan visited Korowal School in Hazelbrook, NSW to discuss their activities as friendship schools. Much planning and communication was done in the lead up to the visit which provided both schools the opportunity to meet in person and confirm each other’s intentions, with the meeting ending with the signing of their official friendship‐school agreement. CLAIR Sydney attended the meeting and was present for the signing event. The schools came into contact through our official webpage with information on Japanese and Australian schools looking to partner up for student exchange programmes. We hope our webpage and promotional activities can give more Japanese and Australian schools the chance to engage in international interactions and we will continue to support them in student exchange activities. On 13 August, four junior high students and six companions including the Superintendent of the Board Page 5 of Education from Genkai town, Saga prefecture, visited our office.