The Japanese ambassador to the United States is scheduled to visit Grand Forks on July 31, according to embassy spokesman Shinju Karasawa.
Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki is planning to stop in Bismarck during the morning and travel to Grand Forks for an afternoon visit.
Although his schedule for the stop in North Dakota is still being planned, Wesley Julian of the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago said, Fujisaki is "checking in on the Dakotas and meeting with the Japanese community."
Kenji Shinoda, consul general of Japan in Chicago, visited Grand Forks in 2007.
Grand Forks has several ties to Japan. The Japanese city of Awano was Grand Forks' sister city from 1998 to 2006, when Awano, population 11,000, was annexed by neighboring city of Kanuma, population 100,000.
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Many ties
The roots of the affiliation between the cities started in the public school system with a student exchange, initiated in 1993.
After the 1997 flood, Awano residents raised $26,000 for flood victims here by gathering donations door-to-door.
In 2003, a delegation from Awano gave Grand Forks residents a gift of the Japanese Garden in Sertoma Park.
In 2004, Mayor Mike Brown led a delegation from Grand Forks, arriving for a visit in Awano with a 900-pound bronze statue of a buffalo, valued at $28,000.
There is still a relationship between the two cities, but it's not an official sister city agreement because Kanuma has an exchange program with another city. Student exchanges continue, though every other year instead of every year.
Program advisor Gene Aanenson, who teaches history and Japanese studies at Red River High School, said 17 students will be traveling abroad in October, on the 20th anniversary of the program.
UND also has ties to Japan, with an exchange program with Utsunomiya University 62 miles north of Tokyo. The Grand Forks university has an Asian Student Association and a Kendo Club, which is a modern Japanese sword-fighting art.
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Reach Bieri at (701) 780-1118; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1118; or send email to cbieri@gfherald.com .
