Learning Cities and Communities nurturing Wellbeing and Democracy is the title of our joint research that I have been undertaking with Professor Yukiko Sawano from the Sacred Heart University in Tokyo. We are both members of the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub, Research Network 6 for Learning Cities and Communities, that promotes research activities on the topic between Asia and Europe.

Both parts of our field research are now completed, first for Finland in Turku, Tampere, Vantaa and Espoo, second for Japan within Shibuya and Hamura in Tokyo, Naha in Okinawa and Okayama.

A comparative study with conclusions, and perhaps some publications will follow. Stay tuned.

These research visits were made possible by the Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation. Thank you for that support.

Editor's Note - Balazs Nemeth, Associate Director of PASCAL is European Co-ordinator of RN6 and Kristiina Erkkilä is a key contributor to PASCAL's Learning Cities Networks.