Fifteen students and two sponsors from Amami, Japan, arrived this week in Nacogdoches, reviving a program that started 30 years ago but was disrupted by a worldwide pandemic.
The students from Japan are in Nacogdoches until Oct. 11 and are staying with host families from McMichael Middle School. A second group of eight students from Ikueikan arrives in Nacogdoches Oct. 10 and will remain here until Oct. 18.
Amami City Public Schools is on an island located southwest of the Japanese mainland. Ikueikan Junior High is located in Kagoshima City on the larger island of Kyushu.
On Tuesday, the students were officially welcomed to Nacogdoches during a pep rally at the end of the school day with McMichael eighth-graders.
While in Nacogdoches, visiting students attend classes at McMichael with their hosts while visiting attractions around East Texas. In May, towards the end of the NISD school year, a group of McMichael students will make their own visit to Japan.
The relationship between Nacogdoches and the Japanese communities began in 1993 and at first included Stephen F. Austin State University.
Former mayor Judy McDonald played a key role in establishing the relationship 30 years ago.
““I never thought it would’ve lasted that long,” McDonald said in 2018 when the two communities marked the 25-year anniversary of the program with a celebration in Nacogdoches.
Students from Japan visited again in the fall of 2019 but the onset of COVID-19 early in the next year halted the program until this month.
