Association Objectives
Culture
Thirty to forty years in Kelowna, it was unheard of to eat sushi because it was “raw fish or listen to a taiko concert and participate in a tea ceremony. In fact, people would have looked at you with glazed eyes most of the time. Thanks to the efforts of the KKSCA, people have not only an understanding of Japanese culture, but also an appreciation of it and an interest in it.
For the past 30 years, the KKSCA has been a catalyst in bringing Japanese cultural awareness through encouraging exchanges between Kelowna and Kasugai. Promoting Japanese culture at different events, concerts and festivals in Kelowna has helped foster the understanding needed to build bridges between our two cultures.
Civic
When a sister city relationship is formed, it isn't just a commitment between the citizens of each city; it is also the commitment between both municipal governments to build ties between each other. Both Kelowna and Kasugai have worked hard to create ways to share ideas that would benefit each other's city, positively impacting the people of each city. Since the conception of the KKSCA there have been five mayoral changes in Kelowna and three in Kasugai, Japan. Each and every single mayor has embraced the sister city relationship and felt connected to it. Any city councilor who visited Kasugai has also confirmed or changed his/her idea of what the sister city represents. It's amazing how someone’s perception changes when they see things from the inside rather than looking on from the outside.
Education
Since its conception, the Kelowna-Kasugai Sister City Association has placed a huge emphasis on the importance of exchanging between students, teachers, and school boards both physically and through correspondence. As a result of the efforts by the KKSCA, Kelowna has three high schools offering Japanese language courses, school exchanges between students, parents and teachers and Japanese cultural presentations at elementary schools.
Of course, education isn't limited to schools. Through business partnerships and the city of Kelowna and Kasugai, Japanese cultural programs and classes in language, flower arranging (ikebana), tea ceremony, etc… have been offered publicly and privately.
More involvement between our cities would be exciting with possible teacher exchanges and other educational exchanges. Future opportunities for educational exchanges are within our grasp. The Kelowna-Kasugai Sister City Associaton will be there to help nurture those opportunities.
Sports
Kendo, karate, Judo, Aikido, and other Japanese traditional sports clubs have had interactions with their counterparts from Kasugai. There has also been participation with Kasugai in golf, soccer, and some school sport exchanges. We hope other sports clubs will become involved as it is one of the most universal ice breakers between different cultures.
Environment
In 2001, former Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray signed an agreement with former Kasugai Mayor Ukai (d.2006) to commit to initiatives to minimize the environmental impacts and implement environmental safeguards to improve, conserve, protect and restore the nature of the earth. Since then, there have been many initiatives on both sides to work toward this goal unilaterally but except for some ideas from the Scouts, nothing cooperatively to speak of. With a little ingenuity, maybe we could find a lost opportunity to show the world what sister city relationships can do, if only we worked together as two cultures and communities.
Commerce
Someone from Kasugai City Hall once said that sister city relationships accomplish many things through understanding each other's ways in culture, education, community, sports and environment. But the ultimate sign of a successful relationship is being able to apply that to commerce and trade. Kelowna has been studying the feasibility of doing business with Kasugai and its surrounding areas. Although the economic ties between our two cities have been a little tentative, there have been some successful outcomes from these initiatives. As we look at each other's economic strengths with a little more fervor, we will find exciting opportunities to engage more in business practices between us.
Cultural Exchanges
