Christopher Pablo, TDLC Team Lead (left) and Yasuhiro Okada, Mayor of Kakogawa City (right) Photo credit: World Bank
On April 23, 2025, TDLC visited Kakogawa City and held a meeting with Mayor Yasuhiro Okada. Home to approximately 250,000 residents, Kakogawa is named after the Kakogawa River, which flows through the center of the city. The city is actively developing its riverfront area through initiatives such as Kawamachi-zukuri (riverside town development). It is also promoting sustainable community development by utilizing well-being indicators and implementing various initiatives as an SDGs Future City. Efforts are also underway to reduce waste, promote recycling, and enhance proper waste treatment to build a circular economy. Additionally, Kakogawa City has an unique story around inter-city collaboration and PPP for shared waste infrastructure, working with neighboring municipalities—Takasago City, Inami Town, and Harima Town—to establish a wide-area waste management system.
Mayor Okada of Kakogawa and Christopher Pablo, Team Leader at TDLC and his team, exchanged views on how to address urban challenges and discussed opportunities for future collaboration between TDLC and Kakogawa City. In addition to Mayor Okada’s participation to the World Bank’s Urban, Resilience, and Land (URL) Forum in DC in February 2025, Kakogawa City officials in the upcoming Technical Deep Dive (TDD) on Urban Solid Waste Management, to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria this May. The meeting also included constructive discussions on potential cooperation related to Kawamachi-zukuri and other areas of shared interest.
TDLC team and Kakogawa City officials exchanging views on potential future collaboration. Photo Credit: World Bank
The TDLC team observing riverfront development in Kakogawa. Photo Credit: World Bank