Up until now, we’ve introduced the various cultural events and local specialties of each town and city in the greater Morioka area, such as Shizukuishi’s Yoshare Festival and Kuzumaki hotpot.
This time, we’ll be talking about something different- international exchange in Iwate Town.

Iwate Town is located in the central northern part of Iwate Prefecture, and can be reached in 30 minutes from Morioka station by train. The town’s vegetables are the finest in the prefecture, and in addition to being domestically renowned as the country’s vegetable production base, Iwate Town is also home to top-level athletes. After the town hosted the 1970 Iwate Group Hockey Competition, hockey became widespread throughout the town, and nowadays everyone from elementary school students to senior citizens are smacking pucks on the field. With countless dazzling achievements, such as Numakunai High School winning interschool competitions, and elementary and middle school and adult club teams winning championships at national meets, Iwate Town continues to produce all-star hockey players.

That’s how Iwate Town became known as a sports town, but did you know that it was thanks to an international sports event that they started forming ties with a certain country?

Let’s step back in time to 2021, where athletes in the Tokyo Olympics showing off their skills in various competitions was still fresh in everyone’s minds. At that time, Iwate Town hosted the Irish women’s hockey team in a pre-event camp. With that, the relationship between Iwate Town and Ireland began, and even after the Olympics ended, the town continued to make efforts to strengthen their ties with Ireland and promote cross-cultural understanding among its residents by establishing online interactions with the Irish women’s hockey team, and sharing Irish culture with town residents through Irish music concerts, Irish cultural exhibits, and other various activities.

The largest event among those is the Irish Festival, which has been held every year since 2022. It takes place in March, in order to match with the timing of Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Day. At the Irish Festival, there are various stage performances that introduce Irish culture, such as a harp performance, dances by elementary and middle school students, as well as many opportunities to taste Irish traditional cuisine. In 2024 the festival was held for the third time and had a total of 350 people in attendance, making it an unforgettable day where the entire town learned more about Irish culture.

Furthermore, cultural exchange between the students has also begun to take place. Students of Numakunai High School took on the role of goodwill ambassadors and visited Dublin, Ireland from February 20 to 26 of this year, and participated in cultural exchange activities with local students. This once-in-lifetime visit overseas served as an invaluable experience for the students that broadened their horizons and introduced them to a more international way of thinking. But the exchange didn’t stop there- in October, students from Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Ireland visited Iwate Town. They were able to experience various aspects of Japanese culture, such as wearing yukata and participating in a traditional tea ceremony, and at the same time deepen their friendship with town residents.

In this article, we covered how Iwate Town is promoting the appreciation of Irish culture to its residents while maintaining active relations with the people of Ireland, but Iwate Town has much more to it than that!

If you’d like to learn more about Iwate Town, please click the link below and visit their website!

(Website in Japanese, machine translation available)
https://town.iwate.iwate.jp/town/