Following close contacts with the ICC team in recent months, the Kobe City Government (Japan) held a study meeting on 1 September 2020 to prepare its membership application to the ICC programme.

The meeting was held online and gather representatives from Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Hamamatsu, Kobe International Center for Cooperation and Communication, Hyogo International Association, NPO Kobe Foreigners Friendship Center, NPO Multilingual Center FACIL, NPO Oneself, Kobe UNESCO Association and experts from the ICC programme, including Ivana d’Alessandro, Head of the ICC Unit; Daniel De Torres, Anti-rumours Global and RECI Director, Professor Keizo Yamawaki, Faculty of International and Japanese Studies, Meiji University, and Takahiko Ueno, PhD student at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University.

The Study meetings also provided additional information to the Kobe City Government, which is now in the process of finalising its ICC Index assessment. The study meetings should be the last step before Kobe puts forward its official membership request.