(1/6/07) Amherst and its sister city of Kanegasaki, Japan have exchanged New Year's greetings. Byron Koh chairs the Kanegasaki Sister City Committee (KSCC) and sent the greeting from Amherst. The letter from Kanegasaki was sent by that town's Mayor, Yoshiichi Takahashi, and Koh believes this to be the first time the traditional greeting was sent from that office. An employee at their Town Hall is the usual liaison to Amherst's committee.
Mayor Takahashi is new to that position, taking office about the same time Larry Shaffer became Amherst's new Town Manager, according to Koh.
“He's been very friendly,” Koh said of the Mayor. “One of his priorities is to maintain Sister City relations.”
The text of both New Year's Greetings follows:
Town of Kanegasaki, Iwate Prefecture
Kanegasaki Town Hall
22-1 Minamimachi Nishine
Kanegasaki-cho, Isawa-gun
Iwate-ken, JAPAN 029-4592
Kanegasaki Town
Tel. (0197) 42-2111
Fax (0197) 42-4474
January 1, 2007
Dear citizens of Amherst,
Season's Greetings from Kanegasaki!!
We are happy to acknowledge that since 1993, Amherst and The Town of Kanegasaki have nurtured our friendly and rewarding relationship. We are thankful for your friendship because through our interactions, we learn and share each other's rich culture.
We are planning to send our middle school students to Amherst this coming March. We are grateful to your for receiving our exchange students every year. I hope we will receive students from Amherst in the near future.
The Town of Kanegasaki hopes that the New Year brings you joy and success as we continue to strengthen our special relationship.
On behalf of Kanegasaki, I would like to wish Amherst and her citizens a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Best regards,
Yoshiichi Takahashi
Mayor, Town of Kanegasaki
Greetings to all in Kanegasaki!
The Amherst Kanegasaki Sister City Committee wishes you a Happy 2007. May our towns have good luck. May we continue our sister city relationship forever. We wish our new Town Manager, Mr. Larry Shaffer, and your new mayor, Yoshiichi Takahashi-sama, wisdom and endurance as they guide Amherst and Kanegasaki. We greet all the school children, the officials, and the citizens who have visited Amherst. We hope that we see you again. Let us hope that 2007 will be the best year ever for Kanegasaki, Amherst, and the world.
Byron Koh
Chair
Amherst Kanegasaki Sister Committee
The two towns have had a cultural partnership for almost 20 years, and it was formalized in 1993. The summary of the Town's charge for the KSCC is that it: “Promotes friendship and on-going relations with Kanegasaki, Japan through various special events and on-going contacts between residents or government bodies of the two communities.”
Koh explained that the KSCC's work involves fundraising, facilitating communications between local groups and Kanegasaki representatives, and supporting and promoting exchanges such as those made by students, legislators and cultural groups. Koh said that he and other residents, including Select Board Chair Anne Awad, have traveled to Kanegasaki as part of such exchanges.
KSCC assists Amherst Regional Middle School's program of hosting Kanegasaki middle school students each March by helping to arrange activities and entertaining the group's chaperones. For several years, Amherst students also visited Japan, but the grant funding that was necessary to subsidize those trips, in order to ensure that the opportunity be available to all students, has ended. Koh said that the committee, which receives no money from the Town, continues to seek to replace those grants as part of its fundraising efforts.
In the KSCC's FY06 annual report to the Town, Secretary Nancy Pagano summarized the committee's core purpose: “We remain committed to supporting the important work of promoting peace and understanding between different cultures.”
Kanegasaki is located in the northern part of Japan, on the main island of Honshu. It is about 250 miles north of Tokyo.
-- Stephanie O'Keeffe
