Fairfield-Nirasaki Sister City Program

The Fairfield-Nirasaki Sister City Program is a non-profit organization that is run entirely by volunteers from our local community who want to cultivate cultural understanding between Americans and Japanese at a citizen level. The program began over 45 years ago in 1971 as a basic sister city relationship between the cities of Fairfield, California, and Nirasaki, Yamanashi, Japan. At that time, Nirasaki and Fairfield were very similar: they both had a strong agricultural base, and their populations were about the same size people). Some Japanese-heritage farmers in Fairfield with connections to the Nirasaki area suggested creating a sister city relationship, and our program was born. Initially, the program only supported occasional adult exchanges between the two cities, but in 1987, we began our student exchanges. Since then, Fairfield has tripled in size while Nirasaki remains much the same. But still, for over 30 years, we have continued sending students each year from the Fairfield area to Nirasaki, and have received students from Japan in return. We also continue the adult exchange program on a five year cycle that coincides with our founding anniversaries. The next adult exchange will be in 2021 for our 50th anniversary. The program is an official program of the City of Fairfield, but it currently receives no financial assistance from the city and is solely dependent on donations.