Greater Manchester Japan Mission 2025: day one
Monday 16 June 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.
Japan is a key focus for broadening and deepening diplomatic, business, cultural, and civic links for Greater Manchester throughout 2025. Our relationship dates back centuries and has always been focused on cooperation, innovation, and growth.
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.
This week-long series of events will see engagement with political leaders, trade officials, and Japanese businesses. As part of this mission, the region will be delivering on its promise to support Osaka at EXPO 2025 – putting Greater Manchester centre-stage at the biggest international event of the decade.
Greater Manchester delegation briefing
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.
Meeting with Vice Governor Matsumoto
The delegation’s first appointment took them to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for a Courtesy Call with Vice Governor Matsumoto of Tokyo.
The meeting aimed to build upon relations made during the 2023 visit to Japan and to confirm our commitment to deepening cooperation with Japan’s largest city in leadership, innovation, and low-carbon initiatives.
Low Carbon Summit
Next, the 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.
The Summit provided a gateway to deeper collaboration between business communities to support economic growth, innovation, and the acceleration of clean energy technologies.
Astemo meeting
Following the GM-Japan Low Carbon Summit, Cllr Craig and Mayor Burnham met with senior leaders from Astemo at the British Embassy in Tokyo. Astemo is a global mega-supplier in the automotive industry and is playing a significant role in the growing electric vehicle market.
Meeting with the British Ambassador and media interviews
Prior the evening reception, Mayor Burnham and Cllr Craig sat down with British Ambassador to Japan, Julia Longbottom for an informal meeting before a sit down interview with a journalist from Nikkei – also known as The Nihon Keizai Shimbun – the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc. and the world’s largest financial newspaper.
The interview focused on discussions about economic cooperation and development, today’s Low Carbon Summit, expectations for the week ahead in Osaka, and the incoming Industrial Strategy and opportunities that presents for further partnership with Japan, particularly within the low carbon energy sector.
Evening Reception
To end the day, a special reception was held at the British Embassy in Tokyo to celebrate the Greater Manchester delegation. It brought together leaders from Tokyo’s business community, academia, and local government to help further strengthen relations between our regions and forge more opportunity for collaboration.
The event saw speeches from British Ambassador to Japan, Julia Longbottom, as well as Mayor Burnham, Cllr Craig, and Jo Ahmed MBE, plus Greg Gardner, HM Deputy Trade Commissioner for North East Asia (Japan, Korea and Taiwan), and Taemin Park, Group Chief Growth Officer at Asahi Group Holdings.