Today marked the beginning of the landmark Greater Manchester 2025 mission to Japan, the largest recorded UK delegation to visit Japan.
This mission is a significant opportunity to elevate the relationship between Greater Manchester and Japan as part of a historic year of cultural exchange, innovative collaborations, and major events.
This mission led by Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham and Leader of Manchester City Council Cllr Bev Craig, with Jo Ahmed MBE, Honorary Consul to Japan in Greater Manchester – aims to build on this historic relationship.
By showing our commitment to Japan, Greater Manchester is seeking to progress the partnerships and relations formed in the last Mayoral visit to Japan in 2023.
Day one of the mission started by bringing the entire Greater Manchester delegation together including representatives from Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the Greater Manchester Japan Steering Group, University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, MIDAS, Marketing Manchester, Manchester Airports Group, Deloitte, Daikin, The Halle and a number of Manchester businesses.
Greater Manchester delegation hosted the GM-Japan Low Carbon Summit at Deloitte’s Tokyo Office.
The Summit follows the success of the Low Carbon Roundtable hosted by Deloitte during the 2023 Mayoral mission and set out to demonstrate Greater Manchester’s ambition to reach carbon neutrality by 2038 and the steps we are taking to reach this.
With members of Japanese local government and senior business leaders in attendance, the Summit gave insight into Greater Manchester’s proven track record of working with Japanese companies and reflected on the success of partnerships with companies such as Panasonic and Daikin; with the overarching aim of inspiring and fostering new business relations in the sector.
Mayor Burnham gave an overview of Greater Manchester’s ambitions and strategic approach including retrofit, transport and the Bee Network, green skills through the MBacc, and how low-carbon fits into Greater Manchester’s 10-year ambition for growth. He also spoke on the partnerships formed with Japanese companies and our ambition to build on these even further.
Director of Environment at Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Mark Atherton then gave a summary of current low carbon projects taking place across Greater Manchester such as the Net Zero accelerator.
Councillor Craig then gave a speech on ‘Delivering Sustainable Economic Growth’, focusing on the trailblazing regeneration approach in Wythenshawe as an exemplar of how place-based regeneration can work alongside net zero investment.
