Konan Friendship City 

A Brief History

The friendship between St. Johns, Michigan, and Konan (formerly Kosei-cho), Shiga Prefecture, Japan began through educational exchange and grew into a lasting international partnership rooted in cultural understanding, student involvement, and community connections. What started in the early 1990s as a high school exchange program evolved over the years into student pen pal and art programs, goodwill missions, and the creation of shared cultural spaces. The following timeline highlights the key moments that shaped and strengthened the St. Johns–Konan Friendship City relationship.

  • January 1994: CCRESA agrees to coordinate Michigan-Shiga High School Student Exchange Program with director Jenny McCampbell

  • September 1994 - June 1995: Exchange teacher Susumu Ninagawa from Shiga taught Japanese to students in Clinton County

  • Spring 1995: Ninagawa-Sensei asked St. Johns about having a sister city in Shiga Prefecture. The City Manager at the time, Randy Humphrey liked the idea and to the city council. Kosei-cho in Shiga was also interested in this. Both of the cities agreed to have a friendship city agreement. Over the following years, several delegations of about 5 to 10 people came to visit St. Johns from Kosei-cho. Because of these visits some elementary teachers in St. Johns started a pen pal program with Kosei-cho students

  • 1996: The pen pal program became an art exchange between the elementary and middle schools in both of the cities

  • Summer 1996: St. Johns hosted a few members from the Shiga Sister State delegation on the Goodwill Mission. From then on, St. Johns-Konan Friendship Committee worked to find delegates from St. Johns to go to the friendship city on the Goodwill Mission in odd-numbered years, and find hosts for guests from Shiga in the even-numbered years

  • Summer 1977: Jenny McCampbell was one of the two chaperones for the Michigan-Shiga Student Exchange Program in the summer and arranged an official call to the Mayor's office of Kosei-Cho and exchanged gifts from St. Johns with them

Friendship City

Jenny McCampbell with Mayor and Other City Officials in Kosei-Cho, to exchange gifts on behalf of our friendship city agreement

  • Early 2000s: Shiga government strongly encouraged small towns and villages to combine. Kosei-cho joined with a smaller town named Ishibe, forming Konan-Shi

  • 2003-2004: St. Johns-Konan Friendship Committee created a Japanese-style garden in the vacant lot to the east of the library. Pete Motz took the lead roll in designing and soon fundraising began. It was put into place in the spring of 2004 and then dedicated to the Friendship Cities on October 8, 2004

  • April 2019: 24th Annual art exchange. Pictures from both of the cities hung in the Briggs District Library during the month of April. An annual reception was held to honor the St. Johns students whose are was chosen to be sent to Konan, with the elementary school choir sung traditional Japanese songs