U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge will be the first sitting HUD secretary to visit Japan when she arrives in Tokyo next week.
According to an announcement, Tokyo’s Governor Yuriko Koike will hold a joint news conference with Fudge on November 30 to “learn more about [Japan’s] policies regarding public housing, affordable housing models, and aging in place.”
Secretary Fudge is also slated to meet with the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism (MLIT), Tetsuo Saitō, and tour public housing in the Edogawa Ward of Tokyo.
The conversation with the governor will focus on Tokyo’s broader approach to housing issues. According to recent estimates, Tokyo’s population was approximately 13.96 million in 2021 — which is much larger than the population of New York City, the largest city in the U.S., which had approximately 8.5 million residents in 2021.
While the HUD secretary duties are generally limited to domestic policy, Fudge has already made one other major international trip this year, attending the first-ever G7 Ministerial for Urban Development in Potsdam, Germany, in September.
Participants included representatives from the G7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as “non-enumerated members” the European Union — and included discussions on topics like inclusive sustainable development and international coordination on development policy.