Sister Cities

  
Kanazawa and Ghent have been sister cities since 1971. Since they both are peaceful cities filled with history and where life is good, these two cities are quite similar. They both combine their cultural heritage with everyday modern city life in their own creative way. Their various exchanges in the areas of art, music, food, … reflect the cities’ philosophies where culture is highly regarded. Also, since these two cities are abundant in higher education institutions, students exchanges hold a very special place in the cooperation between both cities. Ghent and Kanazawa are also part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network; Ghent has been proclaimed as a Creative City of Music and Kanazawa as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art.
 
Academic exchanges between the Ghent University and the University of Kanazawa, have been taking place since quite some time by sending out and hosting exchange students. Since 2019 University College HOGENT and Kinjõ University also signed a cooperation agreement. Similar cooperation with student and teacher exchanges is taking place between the Kanazawa College of Art and the Ghent School of Arts, resulting in amazing art projects. Other art exchanges also include exchanges between Kanazawa’s 21^st Century Museum and Ghent’s S.M.A.K. Museum. Successful musical exchanges can be witnessed in the cooperation of the Ghent Youth Jazz Orchestra (GYJO) and Kanazawa’s JAZZ-21 youth big band, as well as the Summer Jazz Camp in Kanazawa organised by a Ghentian music professor. Recent culinary exchanges include pastry chefs doing an internship in Ghent and a famous Ghentian chocolatier participating in Kanazawa’s Sister City Food Festival in 2019. Also, sports exchanges have been occurring quite frequently these last few years, such as football exchanges and Ghentian runners participating in the Kanazawa Marathon every year since its first edition in 2015.
 
Apart from these exchanges, also knowledge about areas in which these cities excel gets exchanged in order to improve their respective cities. Japan also has a long tradition of economic cooperation within the City of Ghent. Many Japanese companies are active in Ghent including Honda, Yakult, Daikin, Fuji Oil Europe, Vyncolit, MEC Europe and Innogenetics.
 
2016 marked the 45^th birthday of the cooperation between the sister cities, which coincided with the 150^th anniversary of diplomatic relations and friendship between Japan and Belgium. Numerous Japan-related activities were organized in Ghent, with Kanazawa being the guest of honour at the Floralies (flower show) with their beautiful Ranshō Garden (later gifted to Ghent) as highlight.
 
Want to know more about these two sister cities? Visit this website of the City of Ghent and be sure to check out the Facebook page Gent-Kanazawa.
 
Kanazawa website: https://visitkanazawa.jp/
 
Gent:
Ms. Inge Willemsen
Service of International Relations and Networking
Franklin Rooseveltlaan 1, 9000 Gent
0032 9 266 56 26
Inge.willemsen@stad.gent