Tokyo and London Become Friendship Cities
Tokyo Governor, Yoichi Masuzoe and London Mayor Boris Johnson has signed a friendship agreement between their cities on Wednesday. Two biggest cities of the world have become friendship cities now. Two parties, Tokyo from Japan and London from the United Kingdom are both capital of a well-developed country and the friendship deal will promote each other to be even better. The meeting and press conference were held in Tokyo.
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With this friendship deal, Tokyo and London will cooperate in 6 different fields, including culture and tourism.
Masuzoe told reporters "We would like to learn from London, how the city has made 2012 Olympic and Paralympic so successful. We are keen to study the experience and legacy / heritage in order to make 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic successful."
Mayor Johnson has responded to the press with comments "In order to make events successful, there has to be cooperation in different levels regardless of positions. I believe that it will be the best Olympic and Paralympic in the history."
Currently in the United Kingdom, 2015 Rugby World cup in under way. Even though Japan has been eliminated, the competition is still ongoing. End of this month, Masuzoe will visit London in order to inspect the Rugby World Cup Final. The next Rugby World cup will be held in Japan in the year 2019. Tokyo will be learning from London to make this competition a good one as well as for Olympic and Paralympic.
London is Tokyo's 12th friendship city partner. Some of other friendship partners include New York, Beijing and Paris. Roma is the last city to be a partner and the agreement was made back in 1996.
Secretary of Sports Authority of Japan, Daichi Suzuki spoken in the press conference saying "We won 16 gold medals in the last Tokyo Olympics, this time we would like to win more than 16 as there are greater number of sports too."
After the official press conference, Masuzoe also added that "This friendship agreement with London can help us speed up the preparation for the Rugby World Cup and Olympic games."
News Source: NHK, Sponichi
