Through the Eyes of the former Consul General Yamada (June, 2017 - July, 2020)

From July 26 through the 29th, Governor Toshizo Ido of Hyogo Prefecture visited Washington State to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Hyogo and Washington’s sister-state relationship. On the 27th, a celebratory event was held in Olympia. Hyogo Prefecture and Washington State have a close relationship; in addition to the sister-state relationship on the prefecture-state level, 13 cities in Washington State have sister-city relationships with cities in Hyogo Prefecture, including Seattle and Kobe, and Spokane (the second biggest city in Washington) and Nishinomiya. Last year, Kobe and Seattle celebrated the 60th anniversary of their sister-city relationship. (For more details about Governor Ido’s visit to Seattle, please see the North American Post.)
   
Hyogo Prefecture and Washington State have many things in common. They have important ports that serve as centers of distribution. Japan and the United States’ leading research in medicine and life science are conducted in Hyogo and Washington State, respectively. Another similarity they share is that agriculture and forestry have developed in the areas away from each region’s coast. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed between Hyogo Prefecture and Washington State at the event on the 27th, will further develop the relationship.
   
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee organized a welcome lunch for Governor Ido at his Official Residence, which I attended. Both governors have met each other several times before. In the English-style hospitable dining room, they enthusiastically talked about their future visions for development as well as challenges they are both facing, such as traffic congestion, disaster preparedness, and environmental protections.
 
At the welcome event for the whole delegation, both governors showed warm consideration for each other.  Although I did not know how it began, there was a moment when both governors came to an impasse, each insisting on giving way to the other, and was settled by a game of rock-paper-scissors. Governor Inslee, who lost, looked up at the sky with a big sigh. Ms. Karin Zaugg Black, who has good command of both Japanese and English, was the MC of the event. When she was handed a note to read and stumbled at some difficult Japanese words, she made the audience laugh with her Kansai-style lighthearted joke, “This job is harder than you think!”
   
At the reception at Governor Inslee’s Official Residence, a sake ceremony called Kagamiwari was conducted with “Fukuju,” a sake from Nada, Hyogo. Fukuju is a famous sake that was served during a past Nobel Prize awards ceremony. I have visited Shushinkan, the sake brewery of Fukuju where visitors can learn the basics of sake brewery, enjoy dinner with a sake tasting, and buy many kinds of souvenirs.
   
Two weeks later, a delegation of a dozen people from Hyogo’s Tamba city, including Mayor Shinichi Taniguchi and middle school students, came to Washington State and attended the 50th anniversary event of the sister-city relationship between Tamba, Kent, and Auburn. Tamba is a mountainous city famous for black beans and chestnuts. The three cities have continued exchange programs for a long time, such as a one-year exchange program for high school students and a home-stay program for the youth.
 
On August 9, a welcome dinner for the delegation was held and attended by Mayor Ralph of Kent and Mayor Backus of Auburn, both of whom are women. Mayor Ralph said she lived in Tamba for one year when she was a high school student. According to Mayor Taniguchi, only 5 percent of Japan’s total 814 cities have female mayors. Come to think of it, of the different types of delegations that have previously visited Seattle, the majority of its members were male, and I have never met a delegation that had a woman leader so far. Washington State has a high number of female leaders in many different societal layers. For outside delegations that visit Washington State, meeting many female leaders will be an energizing, positive experience.
 
Sister-city exchanges inspire people, from the community’s youth to governors and mayors, and can provide opportunities to reflect back on their own society. Local governments can invest in the future by committing to youth exchanges as an investment for the future. Furthermore, mutual understanding and friendship created by pleasant exchanges contribute to building strong, stable relations independent from whatever the political relationship is between the two countries. The events this summer were a warm reminder that Hyogo prefecture, which has maintained a strong sister-state relationship with Washington State, plays a significant role in the ties between Japan and the United States as a whole.