Sister city since: April 1994

Overview

Sanjō City is in Niigata Prefecture, Japan and has an urban area of 432 square kilometers and a total population of 101,000. Sanjō City is one of the few industrial cities in Niigata and is currently the fifth most populated city in the prefecture. As a known base of metal products in Japan, it has first-class forging and mold technology and a full-fledged metal processing industry. With rich water resources, Sanjō is also famed for its strong agricultural sector.

Relations with Ezhou

Since Ezhou and Sanjō twined in April 1994, the two cities have had fruitful exchanges and cooperation in economy, administration, culture, education, and people-to-people contacts.

Ezhou first sent 39 people to receive training in relevant companies in Sanjō in February 1992. Since then, 827 trainees in quality management, stamping, plastic molding, mold, electric welding, printing, and engineering construction have been selected and sent to Sanjō.

Recent years have seen frequent friendly exchanges between the two cities. In August 2018, Ezhou sent agricultural and education delegations to Sanjō, giving a boost to cooperation in agriculture and friendship between middle school students from the two sides. In 2019, Ezhou received a Sanjō government delegation, took proactive actions to expand people-to-people diplomacy, and further cemented sister city ties with Sanjō. In May 2019, Sanjō International Exchange Association and Tokyo Calligraphy Association of Japan led delegations to Ezhou. In August 2019, Sanjō sent municipal government and education delegations to Ezhou to mark the 25^th anniversary of sister relations. In 2020, mayors of the two sides sent each other letters and much-needed supplies such as protective gowns and surgical masks as a show of support at the height of the Covid pandemic. In July and August 2022, online events were held to strengthen exchanges between teenagers and middle school students.