Sister City Stories

Penrith and Fujieda
- 20years -

2004
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Click on each to view

Perth and Kagoshima
- 30years -

Multi-faceted Friendship Flourishes
between industrial cities

The City of Kawasaki, Japan's eighth most populated, has long been known as an industrial city, especially for steel-making. This served as a cornerstone to Kawasaki establishing links with Wollongong City, NSW, one of the major steel towns in Australia, in May 1988.

The mayors of the two cities in front of the Illawarra flora and fauna tile mural installed at Kawasaki International Centre

The City of Kawasaki, Japan's eighth most populated, has long been known as an industrial city, especially for steel-making. This served as a cornerstone to Kawasaki establishing links with Wollongong City, NSW, one of the major steel towns in Australia, in May 1988. Both cities have also experienced severe pollution and have been able to share expertise to help alleviate the problem.

The many celebrations associated with the 10th anniversary of the sister city link show the comprehensiveness and scope of the friendship:
Art and culture hold an important place in the community development policies of the cities. In acknowledging their ten-year friendship, a Wollongong artist created a gift of a tile mural depicting the Illawara region's flora and fauna. The mural was presented to Kawasaki City by the Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Cr David Campbell, at an unveiling ceremony at the Kawasaki International Centre in May.

By Japanese standards, Kawasaki City has a relatively large proportion of foreign residents - 1.63% (the Japanese national average being 1.12%), and has been actively adopting new measures to make its community a better place for all. From this viewpoint, Kawasaki is keen to learn lessons about multiculturalism from the Wollongong community. As part of the celebrations in Kawasaki, a photographic exhibition of diverse cultures in Wollongong was held and a representative from Illawara Ethnic Communities Group addressed Kawasaki citizens on multiculturalism.

Horse-racing is another common feature of the two cities. The Wollongong Cup race was held in Kawasaki in July 1998, and in return, the Kawasaki Cup race was in Wollongong in November.

In October 1998, a Kawasaki delegation, led by the Mayor, Mr Kiyoshi Takahashi, visited Wollongong to attend a formal resigning of the sister city agreement.

Both cities are looking forward to further widening and strengthening their relationship by the increased involvement of the community in their exchanges through sister schools, turf clubs and various other channels.

FACT FILE Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Population: 1,209,845 International Relations Division, Kawasaki City 1 Miyamoto-cho, Kawasaki-ku Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken 210-8577 Tel. (044) 200-2240 Fax (044) 245-5764 http://www.city.kawasaki.jp/index_e.htm

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