Suva, 26 October 2017 –A memorandum of cooperation with the Saga Prefecture in Saga City was signed yesterday by Governor Yoshinori Yamaguchi, Mayor Toshiyuki Hideshima and Permanent Secretary for Youth and Sports, Ms Alison Burchell. 
This marks the fourth agreement signed during the Permanent Secretary's visit to promote sport, physical education and culture in the lead up to and beyond the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Governor said: “On my visit to Fiji in January 2017, I was able to meet the Prime Minister of Fiji the Honorable Bainimarama and to put to him our hope to host the Fijian rugby team as part of their pre-event training camp. We hope that this will soon become a reality”.
The Fiji Association of Sport and National Olympic Committee, Ms Lorraine Mar, had visited Saga in May 2017 as part of the Ministry’s support to the prefectures and cities which had kindly expressed an interest in hosting Fiji teams prior to their major competitive events. Likewise, the coach of the Flying Fijians would soon be visiting the prospective hosts to assess the opportunities for the team’s preparations for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
The Permanent Secretary said, “I visited Saga Prefecture and City first on my last trip and this time, Saga is last on the itinerary but certainly not the least.”
“I would like to thank you for hosting the U18 team from Queen Victoria School earlier this year and for sharing with them the essential elements of Japanese culture. There is no doubt that this provides a platform, through sport, for us to support ongoing educational opportunities and to increase cooperation and understanding from a young age.”
Mayor Hideshima also expressed his happiness that the memorandum had been signed opening the way to further cooperation between Saga City and Fiji. He said the City looked forward to hosting the next rugby schools team in 2018 and to support the development of a possible rugby 7s schools competition.
“With the four memoranda of cooperation now formalized, the key is to ensure implementation of creative exchanges which benefit both Japan through the national Ministry responsible for sport, the three prefectures and cities and Fiji” said Ms Burchell.