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Over the course of the visit he was honoured by the award of an Honorary Fellowship within in recognition of his contribution to public management reform in Japan. is the professional organisation for financial managers, accountants and auditors in the public sector.

Professor Osborne met with academics from a range of universities, including , Meiji Women’s, , and Universities to plan future research collaborations. These will include an international UK–Japanese workshop for researchers and practitioners looking at comparative lessons in public management reform, research on social impact bonds across the UK and Japan, and future staff exchanges between the UK and Japan.

Professor Osborne is acknowledged in Japan as a leading commentator on public management reform in that country and met with regional and local politicians and public service managers during his stay to discuss the future trajectory of public management reform in that country. One of the key challenges is developing an integrated approach to value creation in public service delivery. A core element of his discussions during his stay was the implications of a ‘public service-dominant’ approach to public services delivery. In particular the discussions centred on the issue of value co-creation in public service delivery and the importance for public service organisations to have a focus on adding external value to society and to citizens rather than simply upon internal economy and efficiency. Too many recent reform initiatives had focused on this internal approach which has produced, Professor Osborne, argued ‘very efficient but permanently failing public service organisations.’ As an alternative he outlined an approach that linked both efficiency and effective in public serves delivery to the external impact. His approach was very well received and was the subject of a keynote discussion at the CIPFA (Japan) conference the week after he had returned home.