Japanese Visit: 2 Flags Fly

Officers Frank Hoy and Dennis Betz hoist the American and Japanese flags during City Hall ceremonies

Japanese visit: 2 flags fly

SATURDAY MAY 12 1973

Despite light rain showers, the Japanese flag was hoisted alongside City Hall this morning honoring a visiting delegation from Ann Arbor’s Japanese sister city, Hikone.

At a reception immediately following in City Council chambers, Hikone’s Mayor Naoyoshi Ii, accepted the key to the city from Mayor Louis D. Belcher.

"Although we’ve been here only a little while we.clearly feel Ann Arbor’s atmosphere of sophistication and cultural level,” said Mayor Ii.

"We don’t have any ‘university towns’ in Japan, and I sense that is what Ann Arbor is,” commented Ii, who visited here in 1954 as part of a State Department leader’s convention.

“We present the key to the city as well as the key to the hearts of our people,” Mayor Belcher told the 33-member delegation. A tour of the city and the University of Michigan campus is planned for this afternoon. They will also attend a tea meeting in the home of Mrs. Lester McCoy in Saline. Dinner and cocktails are set for this evening at the Michigan League with 150 invited guests. Mayor Belcher said much of the expense for hosting the delegation has been handled by local businesses.

Hikone is a town in Shiga Prefecture, Michigan’s sister province. There have been several exchanges of delegations between the two cities during the past 10 years.