JASDFW board chair Harry Whalen, Sendai Vice Mayor Akira Fujimoto at the “Dallas Friendship Song”

On the morning of July 18th, Board members and employees of Japan-America Society of Dallas Fort Worth, joined by four distinguished members of Japanese-America relations in North Texas, were greeted by representatives of the city of Sendai for a three-day long visit to “The City of Trees”,

Sendai, the prefectural capital of Miyagi, a bustling metropolis nestled between breathtaking mountainsides and the vast Pacific coastline, has maintained a friendship city status with Dallas for the past 25 years. Through that time there have been student exchanges, tsunami relief funding, half marathons, and more shared between these two cities.

Having been delayed because of the pandemic, Japan America Society was eager to establish in-person connection with one of the most active city partnerships Dallas has. Sendai returned the sentiment with the warmest of hospitality as they took care of our delegation with programming that took months of emails and coordination between JASDFW’s board members, and officials of Sendai. There were temples, and castle grounds. There were island boat tours, and high school tours all with the purpose of seeking not just surface level connection, but development on both the education and economic levels.

From the longest running board members to the “youngest delegates to ever come to Sendai”, We hope that after everyone returns from Sendai, we can continue to work closely with our associates in Sendai to bring about true, substantial, and lasting growth for the sake of not just Dallas and Sendai, but all of North Texas and North Japan.

You can see a report from Sendai about this delegation by clicking the link here.