Governor Meets with Lord Mayor of the City of London

On Monday, July 9, Governor Koike met with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Charles Bowman, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

In December last year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was concluded between the City of London Corporation and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for collaboration in areas such as financial events, financial educational programs, green finance, etc. Speaking about how deeply moved she was when signing the agreement, the governor said, “This past April, we held the Tokyo-London Green Finance Seminar 2018 with the British Embassy in Tokyo, kicking off positive steps in the right direction.”

Lord Mayor Bowman explained that the Lord Mayor’s function is to serve the role of spokesperson and ambassador as representative of the UK’s financial and professional sector and reflected that it was an honor to sign the December MoU. He added that he hoped to expand the cooperative relationship between Japan and London as financial innovation hubs, and hoped to raise trust and build even stronger bonds in all areas.

A signing ceremony was then held for an MoU for cooperation in academics and research between Cass Business School at City, University of London and Tokyo Metropolitan University. In her greetings at the ceremony, Governor Koike said, “The conclusion of a new MoU between the two institutions is a huge accomplishment. (…) The world is now in turmoil as it stands at a major turning point. It is meaningful that amid the turmoil, London and Tokyo are learning from each other and deepening cooperation. I hope to further strengthen the win-win relationship between our cities.”

Lord Mayor Bowman introduced City, University of London’s excellent business development program and explained that the strength of London as a global financial market is due to support by elite universities and business schools. He added that he was happy that it could cultivate and support financial specialists.

After the MoU signing ceremony, the governor had a meeting on global finance with representatives of foreign financial institutions visiting Tokyo with the Lord Mayor.