Despite growing criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, no Japanese municipalities have dissolved their sister-city relationships with Russian partners.
According to the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, 43 municipalities in Japan have sister-city relationships or friendship city agreements with Russian partners, unchanged from the level before the start of the war in Ukraine.
Sister-city relations are “different from relations between countries,” said an official from the city of Osaka, which maintains its relationship with the Russian city of St. Petersburg despite exchange programs being frozen due to Russia’s recent actions.
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