Lord Mayor Tania Brown with Kawasaki Shinkin Bank chairperson Kazuya Tsutsumi and entries in the Kawasaki junior cultural prize. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
In 1988 Wollongong City established a sister city relationship with Kawasaki City in Japan, formed on the mutual experience of a downturn in heavy industry around that time.
Like Wollongong, Kawasaki has adapted and grown significantly in the 37 years since our relationship began.
Over the next two decades, Wollongong as the regional capital of the wider Illawarra Shoalhaven region, is expected to be the fastest growing region in NSW.
To meet this growth we need more homes, more jobs and the infrastructure to support this increase.
There’s valuable insights to gain from Kawasaki in this regard and earlier this month I spent a few days there to learn more and to meet with the mayor and council leaders of Kawasaki City.
Kawasaki has around 1.5 million people living in an area of 140 square kilometres.
A key focus of my visit was to understand how Kawasaki Council provides services, amenities and housing to its residents in this dense population.
We visited a number of libraries, some housed within high-rise commercial and residential buildings and viewed their plans for a future library that would meet the growing needs of their community.
I visited the architecturally stunning Osanbashi International Passenger Terminal and the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal at the Port of Yokohama, about 15 minutes from Kawaski.
The Daikoku terminal was a low-cost turn-around example which has been established on disused port land with very little permanent infrastructure.
I also visited the massive Port of Kawasaki and was interested to observe how community amenities such as beach volleyball courts and picnic areas have been incorporated within the port precinct. Many of the cars that arrive in Port Kembla come from this region.
I took the opportunity to meet with senior representatives of Kawasaki Shinkin Bank to thank them for supporting the Kawasaki Junior Cultural prize for 34 years.
The finalists’ art works and essays were on display in the bank’s foyer and I was very impressed with the calibre of their creations.
This unique initiative has helped to foster understanding and mutual respect between students from Kawasaki and Wollongong for more than three decades and is an important part of our sister city relationship. Students from TIGS recently joined me online to congratulate the art prize winners.
It is clear that Kawasaki and Wollongong continue to share a number of close similarities which include the significant transformation of land previously used for steel production.
After my brief visit, I believe there are opportunities for closer cooperation as our economies continue to diversify.
