A DELEGATION from the most electronically advanced nation on earth visited a local authority last month to learn how it uses its computers.

The Japanese mayor of Yotsukaido City, near Tokyo, travelled half way around the world to look at Three Rivers District Council's computer systems and see how they linked up to the internet.

Through an interpreter, Mr Misao Takahashi said although his country was renowned as the leader in producing technology, applying it as a system was another matter.

He said: "We have advanced technologically, but it is not utilised in local politics in the applications.

"We have come over to see how the council has invested in technology because they (the district council) already have an experience in it.

"We have been researching quite a bit and Three Rivers came up as one of the best."

Leader of the district council Ann Shaw proudly announced Mr Takahashi was a fellow Liberal Democrat.

She said: "He did not know we had Liberal Democrats in England until he came here."

Mr Takahashi said there was also the Communist Party and Socialist Party, although they were not very big, and the Liberal Democrats were the main party.

But it was not all good news for the Three Rivers Liberal Democrats still basking in the success of holding all its seats in the recent local elections.

Councillor Shaw asked whether Japan was experiencing the surge in support for the far right parties illustrated in France and Holland.

The interpreter put the question to the visiting dignitary, who replied that most of the right wing sympathisers were included in the Liberal Democrat Party.

The group then lined up happily for press shots, before a presentation and tour of the Customer Services Centre by council chief executive Mr Alaistair Robertson.

June 7, 2002 12:00