Hanyu, Japan

Millbrae’s Friendship City of Hanyu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Millbrae and Hanyu have enjoyed a friendship city relationship since 2014.  Hanyu is in the northeastern part of Saitama Prefecture on the island of Honshu, Japan, located approximately 60 kilometers north of Tokyo.  Hanyu’s northern border is the Tone River; the river’s drainage is the biggest in Japan.  The river used to be a major shipping route.  In the Edo period, it was mainly used for locally produced textiles and goods, so Hanyu flourished as a landing place for shipping.  Today, agriculture is prospering in Hanyu along the river and you can see a rural landscape still now.  

Hanyu enjoys a pleasant life style, with some of its residents commuting to Tokyo and surrounding areas to work.  There is a direct train running into the center of Tokyo.  Traditional industries include textile dyeing and clothing production.  INDIGO dyeing has been observed since old times.  It became famous for INDIGO (Aojima) production in the Meiji period.  INDIGO tradition has been living on for hundreds of years in Hanyu.  

The biggest shopping center in Hanyu is the “Aeon Mall”, which is a very popular ‘go to’ destination among visitors and residents alike.

The Annual Hanyu “Natsu Matsuri (Summer Festival)”, which is held in July, attracts fifty thousand people.  During the visit of Taylor Middle School students from Millbrae in 2017, this was a huge attraction, and students participated in the festival.

Characters (Mascots) are a popular phenomenon of Japan’s culture.  Hanyu has a total of eight characters.  Every character has its own “theme”. They are often living things that have a connection to the district and all rouse and excite the people of Hanyu.  There is a “Sekai Kyarakuta Samitto (World Mascot Summit)” each year in November when hundreds of characters meet together.  

A great Japanese writer, Katai Tayama, wrote the novel “Inaka Kyoshi (Rural Teacher)” in 1909 and it was set in Hanyu.  A famous Japanese poet, Shoji Miyazawa, was born in Hanyu.  He translated the words of Jingle Bells into Japanese!  

There is an historic site, called “Yomeiji Kofun (Yomeiji Tumulus)” in Hanyu.  It was a tomb built in Hanyu approximately 1,500 years ago.  The total length is seventy-eight meters and seven meters high.  It is a circular shape with a rectangular frontage.  It must be a burial facility for an influential man, because the tumulus yielded various tools, and a warrior’s helmet, suit of armor, Japanese sword, etc.

Mayor Komei Kawata has brought a delegation to Millbrae on three separate occasions, all of those visits to coincide with Millbrae’s Annual Japanese Culture Festival.  Former Mayor Robert Gottschalk (and currently Chair of Millbrae Sister Cities Commission) has led three delegations to Hanyu, one of which was in 2017 with ten students from Taylor Middle School.  The students enjoyed one week’s homestay with Hanyu families and students.  The most recent delegation was in November 2019 when Robert Gottschalk led a delegation of five Millbrae residents to Hanyu to join in the celebration of Hanyu’s 65th Anniversary as a city.  We look forward to welcoming further delegations, and also students from Hanyu in the near future.  

Millbrae looks forward to a long and close relationship with Hanyu and to more student and people exchanges between its citizens.