Japan is more than geisha girls and stock exchange crises. It also has at least 3,000 local authorities, many of which face abolition as the Government grapples with budget deficits. In the week before the London-based Japan Local Government Centre holds its annual seminar - this year in Belfast - Michael Burton reports from a recent UK local government study tour to Japan Geisha girls, stock exchange crises, the re-election of the PM, snow-bound Kyoto, 'fat fingers'... In the past few weeks, the British media has been full of stories about Japan, prompted, in part, by the new film Memoirs Of A Geisha.
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