Yokohama, Japan 🇯🇵
If I told you that this city is Vancouver’s sister, you might look at me like I’ve lost my marbles. But it’s absolutely true, Yokohama is one of Vancouver’s five sister cities across the globe, and they are more important than you might imagine. The entire list is:
- Yokohama, Japan 🇯🇵
- Los Angeles, United States 🇺🇸
- Edinburgh, Scotland 🏴
- Odessa, Ukraine 🇺🇦
- Guangzhou, China 🇨🇳
First off, what is a sister city exactly? The definition can vary from city to city, but in short, it’s a partnership. Kind of like a collaboration between two different artists, except it’s legally binding. The two cities can share information, have joint ventures, and most extensively host a student exchange program. In order for two cities to solidify their positions as sister cities, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) must be signed by the highest elected official from both parties.
The sister city that catches my eye right off the bat is Los Angeles. People have always compared the two cities as being similar in infrastructure and it doesn’t surprise me that a partnership formed between the two. Over in Asia, the two cities of Yokohama and Guangzhou are excellent choices to help Vancouver adapt to and advance its Asian population. Yokohama being the second largest city in Japan and Guangdong being the largest sub-provincial city in China provides a valuable comparison to Vancouver, which is the third-largest city in Canada.
Kawaguchi, Kiichi. ‘Yokohama Night VIew’ 2012. JPG file. / Pixabay
Over in Europe, Odessa is a popular hub for tourism and travel, which draws similarities to Vancouver as both have many iconic tourist attractions, such as the Vorontsov Lighthouse and the lighthouse at Lighthouse Park. Finally, we have Edinburgh, perhaps the sister city with the most famous landmarks and notable buildings. From Edinburgh Castle to the St. Giles Cathedral, its numerous attractions provide a great learning opportunity to Vancouver and its plans for preservation of iconic buildings.
If you could pick a new sister city for Vancouver, what would it be?
I am a canadian citizen and married to a japanese national and lived in Yokohama for 25 years. I had my own ESL school with about 150 students. I had to return to vancouver to support my aging mother. My heart is broken to leave my students and yokohama. I have brought my students to vancovuer from yokohama for homestay experience. They all LOVED vancovuer. I wonder if there are any programs to connect Yokohama and Vancouver. In advance, thank you for your time. Blessings, sincerely, Jean
Hello, Jean, I happened to find this website during my online search, and saw your message. I am an immigrant from Japan, married to a Canadian national, and currently living in Vancouver. I had lived in Yokohama for 12 years till I moved here. I was once a member of “Yokohama Vancouver sister city friendship association” (I believe that the organization is now dormant.) . One of the events they organized was the visit of Yokohama mayor of that time and a group of citizens to Vancouver to celebrate the sister city relationship in 2006. An official ceremony was held at the city hall with Vancouver mayor and some other officials. I was one of the volunteers for the functions. One of my great memories. I occasionally contemplate about staring some programs or business to connect Yokohama and Vancouver., as I feel strongly attached to both places. Although I enjoy living in Vancouver, I miss Yokohama very much, too. I have also been looking for someone who knows both places to share memories, etc.. If you are interested, please email me. Sincerely, Mie
I am very pleased that I happened to find this posting. I also believe that sister-city relationships can provide communities and businesses with great opportunities and benefits mutually. I am an immigrant from Japan, currently living in Vancouver. I used to live in Yokohama, and was a member of “Yokohama Vancouver Sister-City Friendship Association” which I believe is dormant now unfortunately. The last official program that I know both cities participated in was 2006 sister-city relationship celebration ceremony held in Vancouver. Recently, at “Sustainable Brands 2020 Yokohama” conference, a personnel from Vancouver Economic Commission gave a speech as a delegate from its sister city. So, the connection seems to be still there, but I hope that it will become more active.