江刺市の姉妹都市交流に関する一考察 : シェパートン市並びにロイテ市・ブライテンヴァング市を中心に

type:論文

type:Article

岩手県の中南部、北上山地西部に位置する江刺市は、農業を基幹産業とする人口3万人余の田園都市である。江刺市は1979年にオーストラリアのシェパートン市と、岩手県で四番目となる姉妹都市提携を、さらに1991年にはオーストリアのロイテ市並びにブライテンヴァング市と姉妹都市提携を締結している。一つはオーストラリア、もう一つはオーストリアと、日本から遠く離れたこれらの都市と、どのような経緯で交流が始まり今日に至っているのか、その軌跡を辿り、現状を概観し、それが「個性が輝き、産業の力がみなぎる、健康で文化的な田園都市」づくりを目指す江刺市の将来像と、いかにかかわっているかを考察する。あわせて、江刺市の国際交流について展望する。

Esashi City is a rural city rich in history, situated in the southern part of Iwate Prefecture. The basic industry of the city is agriculture and it has a population of some 30,000. This rural city has three international sister cities, one being Shepparton in Australia, the others Reutte and Breitenwang in Austria. This monograph will study how Esashi came to have the sister-city relationships with these cities in distant parts of the world, and how Esashi has kept and developed their affiliations. Esashi City has a future prospect of "founding a city where its citizens could display their individuality, appreciating their own cultural heritage and foreign cultures as well." Therefore, how the sister-city exchange programs of Esashi have achieved that prospect should be examined. How much the programs have contributed to make the city and its citizens internationalized should be also investigated. In 1978, when the international sister-city affiliations were not so many in Iwate Prefecture, the City of Esashi was approached by Mr. Moto-o Shiina (then director of the Asian Club, later member of the House of Representatives), suggesting a sister-city relationship with the City of Shepparton, Victoria, in Australia. This proposition came like a windfall to Esashi, but the municipal assembly decided to accept the offer with a limited knowledge about Shepparton itself. Shepparton is a city of agriculture, specializing fruit-growing and dairy business like Esashi, and was then hoping to find a Japanese counterpart to promote tourism and economic exchanges. The "Declaration" of the alliance between the two cities was officially proclaimed on March 3, 1979, in which they were pledged to contribute to maintain the peace of the world through various exchange programs. The programs were to include educational and cultural, as well as economic, exchanges. As to the sister-city relationships of Esashi with Reutte and Breitenwang, it started on the mayor's own initiation of Esashi. In October, 1989, Mr. Tsutomu Oikawa, then mayor of Esashi, met with Mr. Rudolph Machenschalk, president of Metallwerk PLANSEE, who visited the Esashi Industrial Park to celebrate the completion of Vacs Precision, a joint-venture company. Learning that PLANSEE company is located in Reutte and Breitenwang, Tyrol, in Austria, Mr. Oikawa wanted to have a sister-city relationships with these two cities. Toward the end of that year, Mayor Oikawa of Esashi sent a letter to President Machenschalk asking him to act as intermediary to set up sister-city relationships with these two Austrian cities which are connected very strongly with PLANSEE company. Reutte and Breitenwang are rather small cities, but can boast a long and glorious history like Esashi. They are prosperous in its economic aspect because of the existence of PLANSEE. With the mediation of President Machenschalk of PLANSEE, Esashi City was able to have sister-city affiliations with the Cities of Reutte and Breitenwang, and the three cities adopted the "Declaration" of the sister-city alliances on June 7, 1991. The substance of the declaration is essentially the same as the one which was signed twelve years previously between the City of Esashi and that of Shepparton in Australia. Esashi and Shepparton continued their various exchange programs, including the official reciprocal visits of both cities every few years from 1979 until 1994. However, the City of Shepparton merged the surrounding three small towns, and became the City of Greater Shepparton in 1994. Since around that time, the relationship between Esashi and Greater Shepparton has become somewhat estranged, partly on the side of Shepparton because of the drastic change of the administrative systems. However, recently there have been indications in the two cities of restoring the relationship through the deliberation of the mayors. Since the conclusion of the sister-city compacts in 1991, Esashi, Reutte and Breitenwang have been carrying out their reciprocal exchange programs. At the core of their sister-city exchange programs, there is the reciprocal official visit every three years, and the most important project is the annual student exchange programs on a reciprocal basis. It is a little bit ironical that Esashi's sister-city exchange programs with the Austrian cities seem to have taken the place of those with the Australian counterpart. Esashi's efforts to "internationalize" the city itself and its citizens through having sister-cities abroad have produced some of the desired results. The people of Esashi, young people in particular, have learned a great deal about the people and the cultures outside Japan, although the length of their visits and stays has been limited so far. A minute scrutiny of the sister-city relationships and the exchange programs of the City of Esashi leads to some of the problems to be considered for its further promotion of the relationships: a) Most of the exchange programs have been carried out by the administration, and many of the citizens are still quite indifferent toward the sister-city relationships. Although the Esashi International Association was founded in 1991 to make the projects more citizen-oriented, the administration is still responsible for the most of international exchange programs. b) There should be a special section or agency which can deal with the international sister cities without having any communication barriers. c) As three of Esashi's sister cities are located in the distant places of the world, it is not so easy to keep the programs going in terms of finance. Therefore, some means should be devised to raise funds apart from the subsidies from the municipal government in the future. d) In order to deepen the cross-cultural understanding as well as to make themselves understood properly, many of the citizens of Esashi should acquire basic skills of English (a sort of international common language). The most serious problem concerning the sister-city relationships for Esashi is the merging of Esashi City with a surrounding city, two towns and one village, which is scheduled for February, 2006. In the new Ohshu City, Esashi has to deal with how to maintain the current relationships with its three sister cities. As with the case of the City of Greater Shepparton, the year 2006 will be a critical stage for Esashi to continue and develop its sister-city affiliations.

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identifier:KJ00004529699