Sister City Partnerships' Transformation and Future

Abstract

The origin of sister-city partnerships can be found in the post-war peace movements, but as memory of the war dims and recedes people started to see in sister-city partnerships more of cultural and educational exchanges and/or economic collaboration. Among twenty-two sister-city partnerships engaged by local governments in Akita, the one between Akita City and Vladivostok City (Russia) and the one between Akita Prefecture and Primorsky Krai (Russia) can be seen as serving the partners' economic strategies. But these two are exceptions. Generally speaking, it is only in limited circumstances that peripheral cities can have a meaningful economic collaboration with peripheral cities in other countries; therefore, for most of sister-city partnerships of local governments in Akita their value should be sought in cultural and educational exchanges. With clear purposes and shared understanding on available means, sister-city partnerships should be developed in a sustainable way.