The bond between Kauaʻi County and Iwaki City, Japan, has been official for 10 years, but it began more than three decades ago in 1991 when musicians and dancers from the Garden Isle were invited to perform at Spa Resort Hawaiians.
“That cultural exchange created a bridge across the Pacific, rooted in music, hula, and shared values,” Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami said in a press release.
The friendship between the county and city grew stronger through celebration and hardship. After Hurricane ‘Iniki struck Kauaʻi in 1992, the people of Iwaki offered support with generosity and compassion. In 2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated the Iwaki region, the people of Kauaʻi stood in solidarity with their friends across the ocean.
On Thursday, Kawakami and Iwaki City Mayor Hiroyuki Uchida joined community members and dignitaries for a special ceremony on Thursday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hote in Honolulu to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the official Sister City relationship between the County of Kauaʻi and Iwaki City.
The reaffirmation ceremony coincided with the Japan-America Society of Hawaiʻi’s Sister City Summit, which brought together Japanese and Hawaiʻi delegations from across the Pacific.
“Today, we reaffirm our commitment to continued exchange, understanding and friendship for generations to come,” Kawakami said.
In 2011, the two communities initially formalized their Sister City agreement, and in 2016, the partnership was reaffirmed in Iwaki City.
One of the most powerful symbols of the relationship between Kauaʻi and Iwaki is the yellow buoy that drifted from Onahama Port in Japan after the 2011 tsunami and was later found off the shores of Kauaʻi.
In 2014, the County dedicated the Iwaki Buoy Monument in ʻEleʻele to honor the lives lost and to remind future generations that even across vast oceans, the two communities remain forever linked.
“Mahalo to Mayor Uchida and the entire Iwaki delegation for traveling across the Pacific to be with us today,” Kawakami said. “To our friends from Iwaki City, mahalo for your friendship, your strength, and your unwavering aloha across the ocean.”
Kawakami also extended special thanks to Reyna Kaneko, president of the Japan-America Society of Hawaiʻi, for helping to coordinate the ceremony, and to Atsushi Nishiyama, director of Iwaki City’s Exchange Promotion Division, for his ongoing commitment to cultural exchange between the two communities.
The Iwaki delegation included Uchida; Desk Chief of the Secretariat Satoshi Sakamoto, Nishiyama and Takayuki Inuzuka, staff of the Exchange Promotion Division. Also in attendance were James Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and Japan Consul General Hideaki Chotoku and several Kauaʻi County representatives and local dignitaries.
Thursday’s reaffirmation reflects a shared commitment between Kauaʻi and Iwaki to continue building meaningful connections through cultural exchange, education, and mutual support, while passing the spirit of friendship on to the next generation, the press release said.
