Kitahiroshima City, located adjacent to Sapporo City and roughly in the center of Sapporo and New Chitose Airport, is hot right now. In 2023, Kitahiroshima City is scheduled for completion of a ball park with a new baseball stadium of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters at its core. The ballpark is highly anticipated as a complex facility where parents and children can shop, dine, and camp for the day, not to mention watch baseball games. What kind of movement is taking place in Kitahiroshima right now? In this issue, we interviewed people involved in the ballpark project at the Kitahiroshima City Hall.

(From left to right, Tomoji Tsukada, Fumitoshi Sugihara, and Misato Shiromizu of the Planning and Finance Department of the City of Kitahiroshima.)

In 2018, we signed a partnership agreement with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and we have been holding sports classes and nutrition education classes. The 2020 Project Team was formed as part of the Kitahiroshima City Ballpark Promotion Committee, a group of related city organizations, and about 15 young employees have gathered to launch a new initiative to build momentum for the project. The project team has set up a Twitter account (@kitahiro_bppt) to enhance the dissemination of information. The project team has launched a Twitter account (@kitahiro_bppt) to enhance the dissemination of information. A series of four-frame manga titled "Hokkaido Ballpark" has been launched to provide easy-to-understand explanations about the ballpark. ("Manga de Tsukuru Might? (Hokkaido Ball Park) In August, a talk event called "BP Talk Session" was held for three consecutive days. Opinions were exchanged on urban development triggered by the ballpark under three themes: people who work in Kitahiroshima, students, and people who work outside of Kitahiroshima. (BP Talk Session) A walking event around the ballpark is scheduled for October 4, and the first 200 applicants are already full. In this way, "grass-roots community development" is starting to take off with the ballpark as a catalyst. (Walking event "Let's walk around the F Village construction site with Fighters Ashiato Fund" to be held on October 4. The event has already filled up and is no longer being accepted.) The project team has been working with light footwork to hold events, and I think we are gradually making contacts with the public through these efforts. We have about 15 members on the project team, and we hope to expand the circle of people who are involved in Kitahiroshima City as if it were their own business. In September, the team's academy coaches gave a physical education class at an elementary school in Kitahiroshima City, and the team is also working together in the fields of education and welfare. (Class at Kitanodai Elementary School in Kitanohiroshima City on September 11) "Kitanohiroshima City will start a new 10-year plan in 2021. We will continue to work on building momentum for citizens to look forward to, while gradually integrating ourselves into the city in various areas such as tourism, education, and welfare." Other proactive initiatives are underway in Kitahiroshima City this year, including a project to deliver rice and Genghis Khan to students from Kitahiroshima City in the Corona Disaster, and planning an online event for the Tokyo Kitahiroshima-kai, a gathering of people with ties to Kitahiroshima living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. (Student Support Delivery Project to Feel Kitahiro) Kitahiroshima City is full of momentum as it awaits the opening of the ball park. It seems that efforts to create an attractive city will continue.