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Good practice Imported

Kitakyushu's City-to-City Model — Exporting Japanese Waste-Management Expertise to 78 Cities in 16 Countries

Japan · Kitakyushu · See the Japan profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 17% 81/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 2010, Japan's Kitakyushu City has run over 192 city-to-city cooperation projects on waste management, water supply and air pollution control in 78 cities across 16 countries, including a JICA-backed solid-waste programme with Davao City, Philippines.

192+
City-to-city cooperation projects delivered since 2010 (2010-present)
78
Partner cities
16
Partner countries
2017-2020
Davao City JICA-backed first phase duration
Kitakyushu's City-to-City Model — Exporting Japanese Waste-Management Expertise to 78 Cities in 16 Countries

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
City of Kitakyushu / Kitakyushu International Techno-cooperative Association (KITA), with JICA
Period
2010–present
Keywords
environmental services, waste management, international technical cooperation

Context

Kitakyushu itself recovered from severe industrial pollution in the mid-20th century, and the city later built its Asian Center for Low Carbon Society to package that recovery experience into an exportable service, delivered through city-to-city technical cooperation with Japan's development agency JICA and the Kitakyushu International Techno-cooperative Association (KITA).

Objectives

The programme aims to transfer Kitakyushu's own pollution-recovery experience to other Asian cities across waste management, water supply, wastewater treatment and air pollution control.

Activities

A flagship example is the multi-year Municipal Solid Waste Management project with Davao City in the Philippines: a first JICA-backed phase (2017-2020) focused on source reduction and segregation, followed by a second phase whose results were presented at a closing forum with JICA, Davao City and KEPA in February 2025.

Results

According to UNEP, Kitakyushu has carried out more than 192 projects on waste management, water supply, wastewater treatment and air pollution control in 78 cities across 16 countries since 2010. The second Davao City phase's results were described at the February 2025 closing forum as delivering measurable social and environmental gains.

Conclusions

The public evidence base is strong on programme reach (project and city counts confirmed by UNEP and JICA press releases) but is largely output-based; there is no independent, controlled evaluation isolating Kitakyushu's specific contribution to environmental outcomes in each partner city, and results plausibly depend heavily on local implementation capacity from city to city.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
City of Kitakyushu's Asian Center for Low Carbon Society packaging technical know-how, Kitakyushu International Techno-cooperative Association (KITA) coordinating cooperation projects, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) providing bilateral development funding and technical support, Local partner-city agencies (e.g., Davao City's KEPA) implementing projects on the ground

Conditions for success

  • A credible domestic track record (Kitakyushu's own industrial-pollution recovery) to draw on and export
  • Institutionalised partnership between the city, a dedicated international-cooperation association (KITA) and a national development agency (JICA)
  • Local implementation capacity in each partner city, since results plausibly depend heavily on this from city to city

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Interreg (European Territorial Cooperation)

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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