Former All Black Paul Miller is part of a team hoping to form a relationship between Japanese city Atsugi and Dunedin in the build-up to the next Rugby World Cup.
Miller is travelling to Japan later this week to officially become the host-town relationship ambassador for Atsugi.
Atsugi is a city about an hour's train ride southwest of Tokyo and has been selected as a host town for teams for both the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics the following year in Tokyo.
Atsugi authorities wanted to build ties between itself and other cities and a party from the Japanese city had been out to Dunedin last month to meet council officials and staff from education institutions.
Miller said it was quite an honour to get the role which came about through ties he had with the city.
It was instigated by the Japanese who wanted people to visit Atsugi and also have its citizens visit and possibly study in Dunedin.
Miller played in Atsugi for the second division side, Kurita Water Industries, for four years.
``One of the sports guys I knew over there had a role within the city council. We got talking and they had thought about getting a presence here in Dunedin to help link the two cities,'' he said.
``It's just a way to build up a bit of interest in what is coming up in the next few years.
"I feel quite humbled that the city has acknowledged someone like me, that the ties I have made there have been recognised and will be used for something like this.''
Atsugi had a population of about 230,000 and was a quieter place than cities to the north such as Tokyo and Yokohama.
Miller said it was a nice place to live and work and had a friendly feel to it.
"It is closer to the mountains and is nice and green and not so hectic. I think they want to take advantage of the fact they are close to big cities like Tokyo but still have that smaller feel.''
It may be possible the All Blacks may choose to be based at Atsugi in 2019 but that would depend on where their games would be played.
He would be taking material from places such as Otago Polytechnic and Dunedin schools to Japan this week to help spread the message of the advantages of Dunedin. It was not a formal city relationship as Dunedin had a sister city relationship with Otaru in Japan.
Miller would be part of a New Zealand delegation to a festival in Atsugi later this week which attracts more than 700,000 people. It was here that he would officially take on the ambassador role.
"They have a big fireworks display and stalls all through the streets . . . I'm pretty excited about it. I've always wanted to give something back to Japan after what they did for me.''
