The mayor of the Japanese city of Fukuoka said this week that his city will train 800 Chinese civil servants annually starting next year on environmental technologies, including waste management and water conservation.

The plan attracted public attention in Japan. The country has been conservative in terms of technology transfers to China and personnel training.

"Fukuoka will be the one benefiting from the program if we can introduce our environmental protection technology to China which is suffering from deteriorating urban problems, including atmospheric and water pollution," Fukuoka mayor Soichiro Takashima said at a press conference on July 3.

It takes less than two hours to fly from Fukuoka, the largest city on Kyushu Island, to China or South Korea. Media reports said that the city has long planned to make full use of that advantage to boost the local economy and make the city more international.