Wentworth Shire's Sister City - Azai

The delegation arrives in Japan at Osaka Airport. The Mayor, Cr Warren Ward, centre, and his Deputy, Cr Margaret Thomson, are flanked by, on the left, Community Services Officer Grant Maynard and Azai Deputy Mayor Isao Kawachi and in the foreground Communications Officer Yuriko Kondo and Town Promotion Division director Katsumi Ito. To the right are Independent Star editor Max Thorburn, Cr Peter Crisp, Mayoress Bonny Ward and Shire General Manager, Michael Boyd.

A delegation from the Shire of Wentworth has recently returned from an eight-day visit to our Japanese sister city Azai.

The purpose of the visit was primarily for the Ten Year Anniversary of the Sister City Relationship and also to help celebrate the Fifty Year Anniversary of Azai-cho as a Council.

Our delegation was exceptionally well received by our Sister City and indeed the whole delegation was treated formally as guests of honour at the Fifty Year Celebrations attended by eminently credentialed senior regional politicians.

There is no doubt that primarily due to trade restrictions between Japan and Australia, there will never be any significant commercial financial benefit in the Shire being involved in the Sister City Relationship.

The benefits of the relationship are more about the social, cultural, educational and environmental interchange.

In essence the Sister City Relationship enables the Councils of both Wentworth and Azai-cho to educate both of their communities about the other's social and cultural heritage, and enabling us to introduce a component of Japanese cultural heritage to festivals and events held within our Shire.

The report on the Azai visit can be read by downloading the following PDF file:

Azai Report (PDF: 1,721KB)

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