Clarinda welcomes Japanese delegation as part of 30-year sister city celebration
Clarinda officials welcomed a delegation from Tamana, Japan, as the two communities celebrated 30 years of being sister cities earlier this week.
The 15-person delegation included Tamana Mayor Takahiro Kurahara, and several Tamana city officials and students. They arrived in Clarinda Tuesday and stayed through Friday.
Kurahara and Clarinda Mayor Craig Hill spoke during Clarinda’s City Council Meeting Wednesday at Clarinda City Hall and a reception and ceremony followed.
“This relationship is about human contact,” Hill said. “I had an opportunity to meet with the students, and I think it’s a tremendous thing for them to come to our country and see some of the things we have to offer.”
Kurahara said having the students be part of this trip was essential.
“We’re promoting the younger generation and building their cultural understanding of other countries,” Kurahara said through an interpreter. “It’s very important to do that and important for our city to continue this friendship.”
Kurahara and Hill both spoke during the council meeting and both gave interviews to news media during the reception.
“The idea of seeing how they come over here their attitude and the way they interact with us and how appreciated they are — I hope that rubs off on our community and they feel our community has been very welcoming as well,” Hill said.
Clarinda Mayor Craig Hill (left, with plaque) and members of the Clarinda City Council (left of Hill) join Takahiro Kurahara, mayor of Tamana, Japan, (right, with plaque) and city officials from Tamana on Wednesday, Oct.14, 2026, during a reception celebrating 30 years of the two communities being sister cities at Clarinda City Hall.
This is the second time that Kurahara has made the trip, and he said he’s “truly delighted” to be in Southwest Iowa again.
“The people of Clarinda have a warm heart,” Kurahara said. “They’re very friendly and nice and it’s easy to communicate with them and become friends. We have a different way of living, but we have the same values and we appreciate that.”
Several members of the Japanese delegation spoke — many of them, including all five students, in English. They thanked Clarinda for the hospitality during the first official trip for Tamana officials to Clarinda in eight years.
Former Clarinda officials, who had been to Tamana during the sister city relationship and are essential in the ongoing partnership also spoke. Several gifts were also exchanged, including personal gifts between the two mayors.
The one who spoke the most throughout the evening was the delegation’s interpreter, Manami Murakami, who originally came to Clarinda in 1991 as one of three students in the first student exchange between the two communities.
“I have been here almost 30 times, and the main reason is the people," Murakami said. "I want to see my friends and my first host family. This is special to me, and I hope this friendship will continue forever. I hope the younger generation will take over and continue it.”
Hill called Murakami a “lifelong friend of the community.”
The student exchange program started with Murakami and two others, five years before the two communities officially became sister cities. That program came to a sudden stop in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is something both communities are working on starting back up again.
The students, two of whon attend the all-girls high school in Tamana and three others who attend junior high school in Tamana, spent the school day Wednesday at Clarinda’s High School/Middle School and were planning on more time in the school building.
Students from the delegation from Tamana, Japan, check out the food during sister city 30th anniversary celebration Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, at Clarinda City Hall.
The delegation spent the day Wednesday touring city facilities as well as the public library and the Lied Center. Thursday, they planned on a tour of a grocery store and seeing a farm implement dealership as well as a tour of the Clarinda Regional Health Center, which has expanded quite a bit in the eight years since the last official trip.
They spent part of Friday at another grocery store, taking in Shenandoah’s Wal-Mart and at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society, as it was the music of Glenn Miller that birthed the relationship between the two communities back in the 1980s.
Hill said he would love to be part of a return trip and also hopes to see the student exchange program started up again.
Lisa Hull is a former mayor of Clarinda who emceed the ceremony and spent a lot of hours making sure this visit goes well. She’s been to Tamana three times.
“There is so much to learn from the country of Japan and its people,” Hull said. “Every time I go, I learn something new. It’s so interesting and fascinating and a good opportunity for students and delegates because it broadens your horizons and opens your mind to so many possibilities.”
Hull said the two communities belong to Sister Cities International and are working with a group that is helping get the exchange program restarted.
A partnership that started because of the music of a Clarinda icon in Glenn Miller likely got a new start of sorts ths week with everyone involved glad to be a part of this experience and hoping this now 30-year relationship continues for many more.
Clarinda officials welcomed a delegation from Clarinda's sister city, Tamana, Japan, with a formal reception and ceremony Wednesday at Clarind…
Related
Clarinda and Tamara, Japan, celebrate 30 years of being sister cities Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026.
