LANSCA (Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister City Affiliation) warmly welcomed a delegation of city officials led by the mayor of Nagoya, Takashi Kawamura, during their recent visit to Los Angeles.
The members of the Nagoya delegation joined with LANSCA to express their strong determination to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the sister-city affiliation in 2024 by holding a successful event in the fall of next year.
This event is part of the programs that LANSCA holds to promote exchanges between Los Angeles and Nagoya, including a student exchange, sending Los Angeles teachers to Nagoya schools, and an art exchange.
One of Kawamura’s goals for this visit was, first of all, to pay a courtesy call on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. In the afternoon of the day of their arrival, the delegation was joined by LANSCA Chair Teruko Weinberg and visited Bass. Kawamura also wanted to visit several other city offices.
The delegation’s visit provided a strong boost to the tradition of people-to-people exchanges between the two cities.
LANSCA acted as the local coordinator for the four days of Kawamura’s visit to Los Angeles. Stops included the official residence of Consul General Kenko Sone; a middle school in the Colton School District to observe its Career Pathways program; the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District; the Los Angeles City Council; the Port of Los Angeles; Los Angeles World Airports; the Nisei Week Festival Coronation and Grand Parade; the Japanese American National Museum, and various other parts of the city and surrounding areas.
On the day before the delegation’s departure, Kawamura, Weinberg, and others in the delegation participated in the Nisei Week Grand Parade, and the delegation joined with a group of city assembly members and LANSCA members at an evening get-together in Downtown L.A.
Many in attendance said they will work together to hold a successful event commemorating the 65th anniversary of the sister-city relationship.
LANSCA successfully held an event in October 2019 called Nagoya Day and Exploring Central Japan. Some 40,000 Angelenos attended the event, which introduced traditional Nagoya arts and handicrafts, Japanese confections, Nagoya cuisine, the business environment, and the many tourist attractions in Nagoya and the surrounding areas, including Gifu and Takayama.
However, Weinberg thought that more must be done. “I still hold strong doubts whether the people of Los Angeles know much about Nagoya,” she said. “Even today, despite the sister-city relationship, the people of Los Angeles know nothing about Nagoya even though the people of Nagoya know about Los Angeles.
“We need to work towards eliminating this imbalance and making a strong appeal to Los Angeles about the opportunities for business in Central Japan and Nagoya at its center. My goal is to hold a large event in the fall of next year, the 65th anniversary, that surpasses the scale of the 60th anniversary and remind Los Angeles again of its wonderful sister city in Japan.”
Website: https://lansca.org/
