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On June 15, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the Presentation Ceremony for Certificates of the FY2018 ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Future Cities’ at the Prime Minister's Office.
 
The Prime Minister said in his opening address,
 
“I would like to thank the representatives of the municipalities that were selected for the SDGs Future Cities for taking the time and coming to the Prime Minister’s Office today.
 
Japan is aiming to develop an SDGs model, which only it can present, in order to present a vision for a fulfilling and dynamic future through the promotion of SDGs, ahead of the world. We extended the SDGs Action Plan 2018 in order to achieve that aim.
 
This Action Plan consists of three major pillars. One of those pillars is regional revitalization driven by the SDGs.
 
Your municipalities were selected as the SDGs Future Cities since your proposals were highly evaluated for matching the scale and uniqueness of your cities; these proposals showed us your enthusiasm to achieve the SDGs and utilize it to promote regional revitalization.
 
I hope that you will continue to work hard to steadily implement each of your proposals and materialize them as initiatives which you can boast about to the world. .
 
I have high hopes that even more municipalities will work on sustainable urban development, incorporating the concepts of the SDGs by promoting successful cases of the SDGs Future Cities.
 
I would like to close my congratulatory message by expressing my hope that we will see concrete actions towards the achievement of the SDGs throughout Japan. I want to offer my sincere congratulations to all of you today.”