Japanese sister city reconnects with Manukau after 20 years

A delegation from Japan has marked the first official visit to Tāmaki Makaurau in more than 20 years.

Manukau’s decades-old sister city relationship with Japan’s Utsunomiya is being revived, with the visiting group formally welcomed at Auckland’s Town Hall yesterday [Tuesday].

Manukau ward councillor Alf Filipaina said it raised questions about how international partnerships were sidelined after Auckland’s amalgamation.

The partnership was established in the early 1980s between Utsunomiya and the former Manukau City Council, making it one of the longest-standing sister city relationships in New Zealand.

Filipaina said the connection largely faded after Auckland’s legacy councils were merged into a single authority in 2010.

“It’s sad that it’s taken this long,” he said. “The relationship goes back to 1982, but after amalgamation everything went under Auckland Council and there hasn’t been much effort to keep some of those sister city relationships going.”

Former Utsunomiya City Assembly chairman Akira Suzuki (centre) with Manukau mayor Barry Curtis (left) and former mayor Sir Lloyd Elsmore at a reception in Papatoetoe, marking the renewal of Manukau and Utsunomiya’s sister city relationship first established in 1982. Photo/Auckland Libraries

Filipaina said many Aucklanders were unaware the relationship even existed.

The visit followed contact from consular staff, which Filipaina said helped prompt the reconnection after they specifically asked to meet Manukau ward councillors.

Auckland Council’s chief executive Phil Wilson said the relationship was one of many inherited through amalgamation, acknowledging that not all had been equally prioritised.

Auckland Council hosts a delegation from Utsunomiya, reconnecting after more than two decades. Photo/PMN News/Taelegalolo'u Mary Afemata

“Auckland, North Shore, Waitākere, Manukau, others all brought relationships in, and some have flourished, and some have maybe not so much,” Wilson said.

“What I hope for Utsunomiya is that it’s one of the ones that continues to flourish," he said.

“These international relationships build understanding across the world, and that might sound grand, but it’s actually really important,” he said.

He said the strength of the Manukau - Utsunomiya relationship lay in shared values rather than transactional outcomes.

“While we come from very different places, we are fundamentally democracies and we share some common ideals, and therefore we can also share some common experience,” he said.

A formal cultural welcome at Auckland’s Town Hall marked the return of Utsunomiya delegates, acknowledging the importance of restoring long-standing people-to-people ties. Photo/PMN News/Taelegalolo'u Mary Afemata

“I’d like to pay respect to the people who had the vision for this relationship, people like Sir Barry Curtis. There’s a lot to be proud of, but it’s born of the vision people had all those years ago.”

Council members in the Japanese delegation included Umagami Go, Gohma Yasuhisa, Narushima Takahiro, Okubo Junya, Ishikawa Atsuki.

Also present were Japan’s Consul-General to Auckland, Shinji Matsui, Deputy Consul-General Mrs Mio Otashiro, and Hisako Takagi, who served as the Japanese-speaking guide and interpreter.

Umagami Go addressed the gathering in Japanese on behalf of the Utsunomiya City Council delegation, with his remarks translated into English.

“Auckland and Utsunomiya have enjoyed a long-standing sister city relationship dating back to the days of Manukau City. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to participate in this precious ceremony,” Takagi translated on Go’s behalf.

Utsunomiya delegates with students from Mountain View Primary School in Māngere, 1985. Photo/Auckland Libraries

Go spoke about shared values around respect for nature, saying Utsunomiya’s relationship with land and water resonated with Māori, who also cherish the natural environment, helping to strengthen the connection between Utsunomiya and Auckland.

“It is my sincere hope that today’s opportunity will foster cultural and emotional ties, and further friendship and understanding between our two cities,” he said.

Filipaina said the visit had prompted him to question what other international relationships Manukau City Council once held, and what became of them after amalgamation.

“I’m going to make it my job to find out how many sister city relationships Manukau City Council had before amalgamation and what happened to them,” he said.

The delegation was formally welcomed with a mihi whakatau, a decision Filipaina said was intentional.

Filipaina said the visit was a first step in restoring a relationship that dates back more than four decades.

“It’s about reconnecting with friends first,” he said. “Then you look at opportunities.”

Any delegation should demonstrate a clear benefit for ratepayers, he said.

“One of the key things we have to remember is that it is ratepayers’ money,” he said. “So when there is a delegation, there has to be benefit, whether that’s education, cultural exchange, or economic opportunity.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.