Report Title:

Hawaii/Fukuoka Prefecture sister-state relationship

WHEREAS, the Fukuoka Prefecture/Hawaii sister-state relationship was established on September 26, 1981, by Governor Hikaru Kamei of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government and Hawaii Governor George Ariyoshi of the State of Hawaii, and was reconfirmed by Fukuoka Governor Hachiji Okuda and Hawaii Governor John Waihee on September 6, 1988; and

WHEREAS, this affiliation was established to strengthen existing bonds of friendship, promote cultural and economic interchange, and encourage the growth of goodwill and understanding between the people of Fukuoka and Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the idea to establish the sister-state relationship originated with the members of the Fukuoka City Chamber of Commerce and the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce at the fifteenth Japan-American Conference of Mayors and Chamber of Commerce Presidents held in 1980; and

WHEREAS, the Fukuoka Prefecture/Hawaii sister-state relationship was first given legislative support by the late Senator Mamoru Yamasaki, former Senator Joe Kuroda, former Senate Vice-President Duke Kawasaki, and former House Speaker Henry Peters during a May, 1981 visit to Fukuoka with Senator Hisaya Tanaka of the Fukuoka Prefectural Legislature, resulting in a visit by over 1,000 people who accompanied Governor Kamei to Hawaii for the signing celebration; and

WHEREAS, throughout the twenty years of the Fukuoka Prefecture/Hawaii sister-state relationship, annual sports contests and activities, business and industry conferences, and World Fukuoka Ken Jin Kai conferences have attracted many thousands of Fukuoka Prefecture residents to Hawaii, who are estimated to be ten percent of all Japanese visitors to our State; and

WHEREAS, the Fukuoka Prefectural Government has sent a delegation of elected officials in each of the past ten years to attend the opening of the Hawaii State Legislature and meet with state officials and Hawaii Fukuoka Ken Jin Kai members to foster stronger ties between our people; and

WHEREAS, during the 2000-2001 school year, the Japan Education Department authorized Fukuoka public high school students to visit Hawaii public schools, and there is interest in further visits during the 2001-2002 school year; and

WHEREAS, the Fukuoka Prefectural Government is proposing a September, 2001 commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Fukuoka Prefecture/Hawaii sister-state relationship following the week-long Fourth World Fukuoka Ken Jin Kai Conference in Fukuoka City; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that this body hereby commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the sister-state relationship between Fukuoka Prefecture and Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body commends and thanks Governor Wataru Aso and Speaker Shigenori Fujita of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government, and the people of Fukuoka Prefecture for fostering and perpetuating the relationship between the citizens of their land and ours; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Governor Aso, Speaker Fujita, Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano, and the President of the Hawaii Fukuoka Ken Jin Kai.