The Mayor of a city in Japan has been visiting Cornwall this week to talk to members of the award winning Cornish team who organised the successful Olympic Torch Relay in the summer of 2012.

Hideki Matsuzaki, the Mayor of Urayasu, was visiting with a group of officers from Urayasu City Council and representatives of the city’s businesses and tourism associations to meet members of the Partnership set up to organise the Olympic Torch Relay through Cornwall.

Urayasu, which has a population of about 163,000, is one of the places which will host a leg of the Olympic Torch Relay through Japan.  

Mayor Matsuzaki contacted Saltash Cornwall Councillor Hilary Frank after reading a book she had recently published in Japan on local government, in which she referred to the visit of the Olympic Torch Relay to the town.

Hilary,Saltash’s current Mayor, who speaks Japanese, was a key part of the team which organised the Saltash programme of activities staged to celebrate the visit of the Olympic Torch Relay to the town. 

She agreed to share her experience of organising the event in Saltash and suggested the group should also meet lead members of the wider Cornwall Partnership who co-ordinated the launch of the Olympic Torch Relay in Cornwall in May 2012.

Around 200,000 cheering people – 35% of the population of Cornwall - lined the streets to watch as the Olympic Flame passed through 21 communities along the route, with around 100 events and activities organised by local groups.