IN a historic ceremony on Friday, Saipan and Katori City signed a sister city agreement through videoconference.
Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang led the Saipan contingent that included his special assistant Henry Hofschneider, Japan Consul Tomoake Yoshise, Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Priscilla M. Iakopo, Japanese Society of the Northern Marianas chair Hideaki Sawada, Japan Saipan Travel Association chair Masaru Sunaga, Japan-Northern Marianas Descent Association chair Norman Tenorio, and the 2021 Japan Foreign Minister Commendation awardee and Pacific Development Inc. managing director Gordon I. Marciano, and student cultural exchange program coordinator Yuki Kishimoto who served as the designated interpreter.
Katori City Mayor Seiichi Ui, other city officials and Kyowa Construction Industry Stock Company President Noboru Hirayama, who is no stranger to Saipan, represented the Japanese city.
Hirayama had visited the island on numerous occasions to honor the Saipan Katori Shrine at Sugar King Park.
According to the sister city agreement, Saipan and Katori City have shared more than 100 years of history through the Katori Shrine, or Katori Jingū, the head of all Katori Shrines, or Katori Jinja, throughout Japan, and the Saipan Katori Shrine, or Saipan Katori Jinja, its branch shrine.
The shrines are a place of prayer for peace and prosperity. The Saipan Katori Shrine was built by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914.
It burned down during the Battle of Saipan four decades later but was rebuilt in the 1980s.
Over the years, the shrine sustained damage from typhoons, but it had been restored by the CNMI government and non-profit organizations.
“Utilizing this connection, we wish to furthermore promote the friendly relations that we have been fostering thus far, to deepen mutual understanding and cooperation through the exchange of education, culture, industry, sports, and so forth,” the sister city agreement stated.
The objective of creating the agreement, Mayor Apatang said, is “to ensure a perpetual connection between Katori City and Saipan and the preservation and teaching of the vital history of that connection. Because the preservation and teaching of that vital history is everybody’s business, just like tourism, we will develop programs that should include cultural exchange programs for the youth and adults.”
He added, “We will also endeavor to include exchanges in agriculture, commerce, and tourism in our relationship with Katori City, as the city is a premier agricultural hub in the Chiba Prefecture in Japan. The word ‘Katori’ has a special place here in Saipan.”
He said the agreement is “an important document that will perpetuate our collective intent to bring Katori City to Saipan and Saipan to Katori City.”
“The hope of the sister city relationship is to ensure that future generations know and understand the importance of the way of life in the early days when Japanese and local islanders lived together as neighbors in Saipan… Our friendship must live forever… I am very excited for the future of our sister city relationship,” he added.
Mayor Ui, for his part, highlighted the history of the relationship between the two jurisdictions, now embodied not just through the shrines, but through a sister city agreement.
“Due to Covid-19, we have concluded the sister city agreement online, but I would like to visit Saipan after Covid-19 is under control,” he said.
He added that in the future, Katori City would like to revitalize exchanges with Saipan, including through agriculture, tourism, and student exchange programs, that would lead to further development of the two jurisdictions.
“I would like to offer my best wishes that the Covid-19 pandemic will be both under control as soon as possible and that the two cities will resume social exchanges as we have before the pandemic…. See you again in Saipan,” he said.
Mayor Ui also expressed his deepest sympathy to all who had lost loved ones during World War II, noting that there now exists a close and friendly relationship between the U.S. and Japan.
“We believe that the conclusion of today’s agreement will further deepen our friendship and promote mutual understanding,” he added.
Both mayors expressed their gratitude to each other. All of their representatives and guests then offered cultural gifts to their sister jurisdiction to commemorate the historic signing of the agreement.
Guests from both jurisdictions also delivered brief congratulatory remarks, lauding the historic agreement and their hopes for the future of the sister cities.
Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, 2nd right seated, and Katori Mayor Seiichi Ui, shown on a TV screen, pose for a photo with other officials after signing a sister-city agreement on Friday.
Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang and Katori City Mayor Seiichi Ui hold copies of a sister-city agreement they signed on Friday.
