Citizen exchange

Each year one official exchange takes place between Tilburg and Minamiashigara. In one year a delegation visits Tilburg, in the other Tilburg visitis Minamiashigara. The exchanges between the sister cities Tilburg and Minamiashigara, centred on distinctive themes, have the aim to be inspired with ideas and learn from one antoher. This all focuses on one single theme. The themes since the early 1990s have been: culture, welfare, economy, sports, and education. The delegations usually consist of some Board Members of VTM, officials and policy makers of the City of Tilburg, members of VTM or other organizations and/or other citizens.  In Tilburg there are many enthusiastic practioners of Kendo, Jiujitsu, judo, Japanese sword figthing, Origami, Ikebana, etc. The exchange of childrens' drawings between schools in Tilburg and Minamiashigara as well as correspondence between secondary education schools has been part of the mutual contacts from the early stages onwards.

There have been different exchanges between associations of both cities: on the domai nof education, culture (dance, music, origami, ikebana, calligraphy, cooking, and the like), environment, sports (judo, soccer, volley ball), economy (visits to FujiFilm, Fuji, Iris Ohyama, ABN-AMRO, among others), welfare (visits to centres of zare and welfare, day activity centre for the handicaped, for instance), elderly care, and more.

Since a number of years, VTM puts its energy in knowledge enhancement and exchange with Japan as a whole (going beyond the limits of Minamiashigara city borders). In close collaboration with the City of Tilburgand organizations within the municipality, VTM seeks partners in Japan to learn from them on relevant policy fields, and, vice versa, to explore where Japanese partners may learn from us. A very successful exchange focused on the domain of elderly care, a domain on which the number-one graying society of the world, Japan, has a wide ranged experience. Also in the field of education knowledge exchange is in place, for instance at '2college Jozef' in Tilburg, the primary school 'de Sprockt', and the Japanese school of Tilburg. The same goes for the theme of sports, taking the numerous relationships between sports centres and sports associations in Tilburg and in Japan into account. A contemporary theme is city innovation. Tilburg has ambitious plans for its 'Spoorzone' (railtrack zone) and in Japan there is a strong body of knowledge and experience in planning, building, and attractively upgrading these types of urban zones. In the course of 2007 a delegation will visit Japan to survey what issues can be (and cannot be) adopted from Japan in drawing up plans for the 'Spoorzone'. Afuture theme might well be civic engagement (what do people do for their neighbourhood/city?, how do people organize themselves?, how can municipal government make use of this self-organizing power? which issues are 'left' to the people to deal with?, etc. ).

Two key activities are 1) organizing and supporting citizen exchanges on the fields of sports and education, care and welfare, and business and trade; and 2) organizing and supporting knowledge enhancement and exchange on varying themes, such as elderly care, urban innovation, education, civic engagement, etc. Here you may find more information and an overview of delegations upto the year 2000 (descending).

2007

May 12 until 20 consultation between the boards of the sister city associations in Minamiashigara covering the new policy course or dual track policy of VTM and preparatio nof a November delegation on city innovation. Click on the picture for a picture report

First week of August a judo delegation of Tilburg visits Minamiashigara. Download the report with pictures, all made by the young delegation members here. Enjoy the enthusiastic responses by the young judoka. NB: The pdf is 5,8 MB. Download it only when you have a broadband-internet connection.

17-18 oktober 2007 a ladies' choir from Minamiashigara visits Europa making a stopover in sister city Tilburg. They will perform at a members' night. See the activities page for a picture report.

November 2007 delegation from Tilburg to Japan on the theme of city innovation and special attention to the needs of Tilburg's railtrack area (Spoorzone), includes a curtosy visit to Minamiashigara. See the 'In focus' frame on top of this page.

Delegation from Minamiashigara visits Tilburg on the theme Graying and Elderly Care. A small delegation on education os also present.

April 7 until 16 april a delegation goes to Minamiashigara on the theme Graying and Elderly care. The delegation consists of representatives of the City of Tilburg, such as alderman Aarts, Tilburg University, foundations "De Twern", "De Wever", "Wonen Breburg" and some members of our association.

June 28 Mayor Sawa of Minamiashigara is present at the inauguration of Mayor Vreeman of Tilburg. On the ocassion the Board of VTM offers Mr. Sawa, his wife and daughter Asako a lunch in restaurant "De Postelse Hoeve" in Tilburg.

August 24 until August 30 a small group of judoka from Minamiashigara, aged 12 and 13 years of, and their coaches visit Tilburg.

April 11 until April 19 April a delegation visits Minamiashigara on five themes: culture (especially flower arrangements or ikebana), cooking (workshop Dutch cuisine), sports (volleyball and soccer), English education on Junior High Schools (lessons by teachers of 2College Jozef) and economics (company visits).

In November a Japanese delegation visits Tilburg on the themes flower arrangements, cooking, and education.

On April 1, 2002, Mayor Suzuki of Minamiashigara receives a street-plaquette from deputy-Mayor Wim Luijendijk on he ocassion of the 30-year anniversary of the city.

From April 2 until April 10 the yearly Tulip Fair is held in Minamiashigara. At this ocassion Yasuko Nagano, part of the small delegation, receives a certificate of appreciation of the city. In the certificate Minamiashigara thanks Yasuko for all her efforts within the framework of interationalization.

In the fall a delegation visits Minamiashigara, one from the City of Tilburg and one from VTM, all from the perspective of cultural exchange and strengthening the economic ties, the latter predominantly in Tokyo. Here our new policy course to broaden our contacts in Japan is pursued for the first time.

July 29 until August 7 youth judo delegation to Minamiashigara.

September 20 until September 26 a delegation from Minamiashigara visits Tilburg with  Greenery as a theme (among other biological agirculture and traditional land use and dairy farming).

Mayor Suzuki visits Tilburg to invite us for the 30-year anniverssary of the city on April 1, 2002.

Enno Voorhorst, the guitar-player, teaches master classes in Minamiashigara.

April 21 until April 30 travel to Minamiashigara on the theme Welfare