Today I would like to talk about relations between the UK and Japan in the past, present and future, with a particular emphasis on twinning in northern England and Scotland in the hopes that our relations in general and at local level in particular will be further enhanced in the future.

I have just visited the Orkney Islands last week that was my last visit of all 32 councils in Scotland. This was part of a mission to know about local situations during which I learnt a lot about local communities and helped to promote cultural links.

My lecture today will cover a number of points. I will first talk about the historic origins of UK-Japan relationships through the context of one Englishman and one Scot who did much to develop Japan in different ages. I will then talk about how twinning did actually developed without a formal town twinning agreement.

The lecture will then continue with a look at the origins of twinning and some case studies of twinning between cities in Japan and northern England and Scotland. The lecture shall be concluded with a talk about the advantage and the encouragement of the creative use of twinning.

When talking about historic relations between the UK and Japan we have to touch upon the English Samurai and the Scottish Samurai. The first English Samurai, the first foreign Samurai was William Adams. Probably many of you know the name of the last Samurai – played by Tom Cruise.

William Adams was the first Briton to go to Japan. He came from the Kent town of Gillingham and was by profession both a shipbuilder and a sailor. Adams came to Japan by accident in 1600 when his ship was washed up onto the southern shores of Japan. Initially held prisoner by a future Shogun of Japan Ieyasu, he impressed Ieyasu so much with his knowledge of shipping and mathematics and because of this probably spared his life.

He helped construct the first western-style ship in Japan that would later take the first Japanese to America. In return for this and other utilisations of his knowledge, Ieysau who was now Shogun, made him a Samurai with the Japanese name of Miura Anjin after announcing that the Englishman William Adams was dead.

Through William Adams, relations were initiated between the Shogun and the British King, James VI and I. The king had become monarch of both British kingdoms in 1603, the same year that Ieysau became Shogun. The King and the Shogun exchanged correspondence and gifts including a suit of armour from the Shogun and a clock from King James. These items were exhibited in Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds in 2005.

He would take a Japanese wife and settle down to be a trader in Japan. Towards the end of his life he was leading trade expeditions to South-East Asia. He died in 1620.

His life was fictionalised in the novel Shogun that was also made into a TV series. .

Gillingham and its successor local authority Medway has celebrated this link with Japan by twinning with two Japanese cities and set up a Will Adams Scholarship to promote the exchange of students among cities

Over the past few years there has been an interest in Scotland of the life of the Scottish Samurai, the Aberdonian Thomas Blake Glover, the most well-known foreign figure in the history of the modernisation of Japan. Glover came to Japan in 1859 and settled in the port-city of Nagasaki, initially as the local agent for the Scottish owned Jardine Matheson trading company responsible for buying Japanese tea.

He however realised that Japan had a lot of potential and went into business for himself in 1861. From that time onwards he made a great contribution to the industrial development of Japan by importing the first locomotive and developing the first mechanical coal mine as well as many other first things to Japan.

However his biggest legacy was to help develop the shipping and shipbuilding company that would develop into the Mitsubishi Corporation.

Glover settled in Japan and took a Japanese wife, Tsuru. Glover had a colourful personal life in Japan and it is rumoured that his relations with one of his mistresses and their son was the inspiration behind the Puccini opera Madam Butterfly. More recently his life has been the inspiration for the novel The Pure Land written by Scottish author Alan Spence.

He died in 1911 in Tokyo. His home in Nagasaki became the Tomas Glover Garden that attracts 2 million visitors a year. It is one of Japan’s major tourist attractions.

One of his main achievements in helping Japan open up to the west was his involvement in smuggling young Japanese to the west to be educated. This was done during a period when leaving Japan was forbidden on pain of death.

In 1863 he helped five youngsters of the Choshu clan in what is now Yamaguchi Prefecture go to Britain where they were educated at the University of London. These five young men learned the need for Japan to adopt the technology of the west for Japan to prosper in a western-dominated world. The benefits of exposing these young men to the west can be seen in their achievements in later life. One of them 22 years later became the first Prime Minister of Japan and another one the first Foreign Minister and the others became the father of Japanese railways, the creator of a single Japanese currency and the father of the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo which developed into Tokyo University.

In 1865 Glover repeated his deed by helping nineteen members of the Satsuma clan of what is now Kagoshima Prefecture to travel to Britain to study at the University of London.

One of them named Kanaye Nagasawa was not allowed to enter the University on the grounds that he was too young as he was just 13 years old. He was the youngest of the delegation. He was taken to Aberdeen to study there and lived at Thomas Glover’s family home. Later he emigrated to California and he opened a winery there and introduced Californian wine not only to his native Japan but also to Europe. Due to his success there he became known as the "Winery King". His contribution to America was recognised in 1983 when President Reagan praised him in a speech to the National Diet of Japan.

In 2005 his native region of the Kagoshima Prefecture commemorated the 140^th anniversary of his visit to Aberdeen by commissioning a gold plate. The plate whilst it looks Japanese is actually decorated with symbols of Aberdeen and Scotland such as the Aberdeen coat of arms and thistles.

Since 1996 the Balgownie, Aberdeen and Fraserburgh Rotary Clubs with support of the city’s universities has been sponsoring biennally Glover Scholarships for a student in Aberdeen to go to Nagasaki to study whilst Nagasaki and Nagasaki West Rotary clubs have been sponsoring a Nagasaki student to study in Aberdeen. .

In June last year the Scottish Parliament recognised Glover’s achievements when an official reception was held to mark his birthday on 6^th of June for the first time in Scotland. The reception was organised by Mr Alex Johnstone MSP for Northeast Scotland. I was honoured to be invited to the reception and talk about how Thomas Blake Glover changed Japan.

Before entering into the next subject of twinning relations, I would like to introduce a unique example of exchanges among schools at international level.

The headmaster of Anderson High School in the Shetland Islands took the initiative to build the international network among schools from different countries to expand their horizons in the late 1980’s. To this initiative, two Japanese schools responded positively, Towa High School in Iwate Prefecture joined in 1987 and Nara Women’s University Secondary School in Nara Prefecture in 1995.

In 1997 the first Global Classroom Partnership Conference was held at Anderson High School with seven schools in six different countries including the two Japanese schools with 19 Japanese students. The tenth Global Classroom Partnership Conference was hosted by Nara Women’ University Secondary School last year

Now I would like to talk about twinning relations between Japan and other countries in a general way and between the UK and Japan in a more specific way.

The concept of town twinning started in Europe in the nineteenth century with an unofficial association between the German city and a French city. However the first ever-official twinning took place much later in 1930 between the German city and an Austrian city.

Twinning of towns did not however take off until after the Second World War when the practice was seen as a way of bringing the peoples of Europe closer together, particularly between nations that had been enemies. The country, which did most to do this, was Germany whose cities were keen to build links with counterparts of former enemies.

The first twinning of this period of was the twinning of Hanover and Bristol in 1947. It was felt by the councils of both cities that if people from various countries got to know each other better then there was less likely that the war would be repeated.

More links followed between Germany and the UK. Germany made its first twinning with France when Montbeilard and Ludwigsberg were linked in 1950. The twinning link spread throughout Europe as towns and cities that had suffered during the war twinned with each other.

These examples gave Japan the inspiration to do the same. The first twinning arrangements were with the United States. In 1957 links were developed between six Japanese cities and six West Coast American cities and expanded over the next few years.

Japan’s earliest twinning in Europe was between the Kurashiki City and St Polten in Austria. This was followed by links with France with the twinnings of Kyoto and Paris and Yokohama and Lyon. The German city of Augsberg twinned with Amagasaki City and Nagahama City in 1959.

From this beginning, Japanese local authorities have developed 1546 international links, with most of them being with countries that are in the Pacific Region. For example Japan has 322 local government affiliations with China, 114 in South Korea, 107 with Australia, 42 in New Zealand, 69 in Canada and Japan’s biggest partner in this respect, the USA with 438.

When it comes to Europe, as you may expect the number of twinning arrangements falls supposedly due to a lack of geographical proximity to Japan. However Japan has 30 healthy links with Italy, 32 with Austria, 48 with France and 50 with Germany.

In the case of the UK there are at present 13 twinning arrangements. In my capacity as Consul-General for Scotland and the North of England, three of these links fall into my region of jurisdiction. One of these links is in the North-East of England whilst the other two are in Scotland. I would like to see more these links developed due to our long and deep historical relations. The UK and Japan have many things in common such as being island nations that prefer tea to coffee as well as many economic and cultural links.

The origins of the twinning arrangements between the UK and Japan are diverse. Some are based on economic links such as Gateshead and Komatsu City.

The Japanese company Komatsu having a plant in Gateshead. Komatsu, which is a mining and construction equipment manufacturer, opened its plant in Gateshead in 1986. In 1991 Gateshead and Komatsu City officially twinned.

The initiative has seen a number of cultural links between Gateshead and Komatsu City as well. An interesting physical memorial to the link is the Japanese tapestry that hangs in the Gateshead Civic Centre. The motto is sewn into the tapestry is the heart warming phrase "It is very far from England to Japan but it is the same sky".

Another memorial is the mosaic that hangs in Gateshead Central library that was completed in 1996. The mosaic that was created by two English artists and two Japanese artists portrays the lives and culture of the peoples of the two cities. This piece of art won the Japan Festival award.

In 2002 Komatsu City presented Gateshead with a friendship garden as part of the UK-Japan Green Alliance.

Since the initiation of the link there has been a number of projects. Since 1991 there has been exchanges of 13-15 year olds going to each other countries to learn different cultures, new experiences and skills. Also a number of schools in the two towns have developed links.

In April there will be a reception at the Gateshead Civic Centre celebrating the link between Gateshead and Komatsu that the Consulate-General shall be co-hosting.

Scotland’s two links are between Edinburgh and Kyoto Prefecture and between Yoichi Town and East Dunbartonshire. East Dunbartonshire boasts the oldest twinning between the UK and Japan with the link dating back to 1988.

The City of Edinburgh council has been twinned with Kyoto Prefecture since 1994. The link over the years has moved from one based on education to one based more on cultural links and celebrating the fact that Edinburgh and Kyoto is important historic cities.

The link has brought about a number of visits at various levels as well as cultural exchanges. The link has also increased business relations between the two counterparts.

There is now a physical link between Kyoto Prefecture and Edinburgh in the guise of the Japanese Garden at Lauriston Castle. The garden’s construction was funded by Edinburgh Council, Kyoto Prefecture and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians and is maintained by a principal gardener who did two weeks training in Japanese garden techniques in Kyoto. The garden is a symbol of friendship between Scotland and Japan.

The garden was started in 2001 with the groundbreaking ceremony coinciding with the Japan Festival of that year.

In 2002 the Governor of Kyoto Prefecture attended the naming ceremony of the garden. In 2005 the garden’s designer Takashi Sawano, who is based in London, performed a traditional blessing ceremony on its third anniversary on which I was delighted to be called upon to make some congratulatory remarks.

I am very please to see that the garden has become a venue for many cultural and social events for the people of Edinburgh.

East Dunbartonshire Council is twinned with Yoichi Town in Hokkaido. The twinning came into being in 1988 and is the oldest link in the UK.

This relationship was developed due to a link between Yoichi Town and the East Dunbartonshire town of Kirkintilloch. Masataka Taketsuru came to Scotland in 1918 to study at the Glasgow University and trained at various distilleries in the Highlands

He married a beautiful Scottish lady named Rita Cowan from Kirkintilloch, a match approved by only a few of her relatives, and they returned to Japan in 1921. In 1934 the Taketsuru’s moved from the mainland to Yoichi which he found the most ideal place for whisky making in the country and constructed a Scottish-style whisky distillery. The company that developed from that distillery, the Nikka Whisky Distilling Company, is now Japan’s second largest whisky producer. It also retains some interests in Scotland as owner of Ben Nevis Distillery.

I believe that the twinning between the two authorities came around purely by accident. In the 1980’s a group from Yoichi Town office were spotted in Kirkintilloch looking for the family home of Rita Cowan. When a person from the local council who happened to be in the area asked what they were looking for, he was surprised to know of his town’s Japanese connection. This was passed on to the local council and from that the relationship was born.

It should be added that Yoichi Town has a population of only 23,000. However the distillery attracts 240,000 people a year. The road from the town railway station to the town hall is named Rita Road to celebrate the link between the two towns.

In 2002, the Taketsuru’s adopted son Takeshi Taketsuru visited Scotland to retrace his father’s footsteps on the invitation of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society. He also visited Glasgow University and gave a donation for the setting up of "The Taketsuru Prize". The prize is gifted to the best students on the MSci course every year, the course that Masataka Taketsuru studied.

A more tangent memorial to Masataka Taketsuru is the blue rose. The Suntory Whisky Company which was his original employer of Masataka, wanted to return something to Scotland, home country of Japanese whisky. In 1990 the idea came up to create a blue rose to honour Scotland, an idea inspired by the former President Mr Saji of Suntory when he saw an English rugby player wearing the red rose of England.

At the time it was thought to be impossible to develop a blue rose naturally. After fourteen years and much money, a blue rose was developed for the first time in the world in June 2004. Unfortunately Mr Saji did not see his dream realised, having died in 1999.

I am hoping that not only Edinburgh, East Dunbartonshire and Aberdeen develop links with Japan but other cities in Scotland and indeed in the UK also develop links. I believe that there is room for progress in this area.

A popular view, particularly in the media is that town twinning is merely a vehicle for councillors to go on junkets at the cost of the taxpayer. However such a view ignores the more long-term advantages twinning between cities across the world can bring.

The advantages of twinning can be divided into visible and invisible benefits. The visible benefits, or what I call hard power, are the development of links in the fields of commerce, tourism, culture, sport and education.

The invisible benefit or soft power is the creation of friendships at all levels through the use of exchanges. Through the development of friendships a better understanding of differences of culture and nations can develop.

I would therefore conclude there is much to celebrate about the past and present about twinning in the north of England and Scotland. And I believe that there will be much celebrate in the future as our two countries develop links at local level. I believe that the best level for friendly relations between nations to be forged is between individuals and between communities. From there the foundations of friendship at central government can be built and be expanded.

I believe that if people between two countries can understand each other at the grassroots level and at local levels then their nations as a whole will have a better understanding of each other.

I therefore would like to say that there is much to be gained from twinning. Twinning should not be seen as something that benefits the few in the short term. It benefits the many by creating opportunities and by creating ideas. If the ideas of one man like Thomas Blake Glover moving to Japan can change a country and its economy, then think of the result of the exchange of ideas between many people and how this benefits society as whole especially in the longer term.

I will end with the story of Kaichi Wantanabe who came to Scotland in the 1880’s to study civil engineering at Glasgow University. He went onto become a railway tycoon in Japan. For fifteen months after he graduated, he stayed in Scotland and got involved as an assistant engineer in the construction of the Forth Railway Bridge, the 8^th wonder of the world in the 19^th century. Mr Watanabe, a Japanese, helped build a bridge in Scotland and I hope his work can be continued through the building of bridges between the UK and Japan and between Scotland and Japan.

Let me conclude my lecture by saying that through twinning at different levels amongst different countries a bridge of friendship can be built. A bridge that is invisible but goes from strength to strength day-by-day and helps to create a true and genuine peace in the world. The whole process seems a long way, but I strongly believe that the world peace fostered through strong mutual trust and international friendships is the quickest way in the end and the most enduring one.