Gardena City

Outline of Gardena City

Gardena is located about 23km south of Los Angeles in California. It was founded on September 11,1930 as the result of the combining of three cities, Gardena, Moneta, and Strawberry.

It is blessed with good climate. (average temperature in summer 20^oC, winter 12^oC, amount of rainfall year round is 330mm)

The San Diego Freeway runs through the western part of the city, the Harbor Freeway the eastern part, the Artesia Freeway the southern part. This is why Gardena is nicknamed "Freeway City", and is carved in the emblem of the city established in 1954.

The population is about 60,000, 20% of which are Japanese Americans. It has various industries from high tech machinery to light industry and is prosperous in electric products, aircraft parts, automobile parts, and textile and petroleum products.

Sequence of the conclusion
1961	The Rotary Club held a world convention in Tokyo. Two Rotary Clubs (Gardena and Ichikawa) tied up as sister clubs.
Feb.,1962	Prof.Tono (Tokyo Agricultural University.), a member of the Ichikawa City General Development Committee, informed the city that the mayor and members of the city council of Gardena hoped that the two would be sister cities.
May	Miss Barded(Miss Gardena) visited Ichikawa during her trip to the Far East to pass a request from the mayor of Gardena to the mayor Takejiro Ukiya.
Gardena is a satellite city of Los Angeles, which is similar to Ichikawa's location neighboring Tokyo 20% of the citizens are Japanese Americans Rotary Clubs of the two cities are sisters Considering the above reasons, Ichikawa proposed the council tie up with Gardena as sister cities in order to develop friendly relations and promote world peace through cultural exchange, education and youth delegations. On May 28,1962, the Ichikawa City council approved the proposal. On June 12 in the same year, the Gardena City council also approved the proposal. Both Mayors signed on November 6 in the same year when the mayor of Gardena and his wife visited Ichikawa.

History of relations between the two cities


Exchange of resolutions at the 40^th anniversary ceremony	Gardena official goodwill delegations in Kimono at a party	Plant memorial cherry blossoms in Gardena

Ichikawa citizens delegations	Youth from Ichikawa at a "pool party"	Gardena youth delegations

Friendship between citizens

Citizens of both cities can expand their friendships personally and understand each other more and more thanks to various activities among citizens as follows:

official visits by both mayors
interchange between civil groups such as Rotary Club, Lions Club, Junior Chamberlain
exchange of culture
introducing Japanese traditional arts (flower arrangement, Koto, calligraphy)
sending photos and books to introduce Ichikawa's public institutions, historic sites and landscape photos, books and materials sent from Gardena to be shown to Ichikawa citizens
exchange of education
visiting educational institutions, seeing school lessons, meeting teachers and students, and sending students' work to each other
sports matches (Judo, Kendo, baseball)

Exchange of youth delegations

Since 1977, the two cities have been exchanging youth delegations during summer holidays every other year.

They participate in a home stay program for about 10 days and they visit municipal institutions, schools, museums and places of scenic beauty and historic interest to study history, culture, and customs of the country. At the same time they describe their own country, so others may know it better.

This is a precious chance for young people to widen their range of vision.

Exchange of Education

Those who are concerned with education have been visiting educational institutions and classes, exchanging students’ work, meeting teachers or students more than ten times.

Exchange of Sports

Youth delegations from Gardena had Judo, Kendo or baseball matches in Ichikawa.

Exchange of Culture

Those who are concerned with Japanese culture such as flower arrangement, calligraphy, a traditional music, Koto and Shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) player and garden designer visited Gardena and introduced Japanese traditional arts. We sent photos or books to introduce Ichikawa public facilities, historic sites and landscape.

45th Anniversary

In 2007, this year, we are celebrating our 45^th sister city anniversary in both cities. In July, Ichikawa Citizens Delegation and Official Goodwill Delegation of Ichikawa City visited Gardena and the resolution was signed. During their visit, 45^th Anniversary Dinner was held and citizens promised to keep friendly relations between the two cities.

In coming November, City of Gardena 2007 Goodwill Delegation will visit Ichikawa.