Fujikawaguchiko ― Zermatt (2015)

Chubu | Fujikawaguchiko Town

City Partnerships

Since 2015, a friendship pact between Zermatt and Fujikawaguchiko has brought Switzerland’s and Japan’s most famous mountains together.

The volcano, the lake, and the town

In the “Sanju-ichi-nichi no Omaki” written in 1733, Jikigyo Miroku, a teacher of the Fuji-ko faith, mentions eight lakes as places for religious pilgrimage. Among them, Lake Kawaguchi, which sits right at the foot of the mighty Mount Fuji. Nowadays, tourists still flock to the area to enjoy the harmonious sight of the sacred mountain from Fujikawaguchiko, a charming town located on the lake’s opposite shore. Serving as the last stop of the Fujikyuko Line (operated by Fujikyu Railway), which connects Otsuki to Mount Fuji through Yamanashi Prefecture, Fujikawaguchiko is one of the highest-located local autonomies in Japan - 868 meters above sea level, and hosts an exciting cultural scene featuring several art museums and many festivals.

This, however, does not prevent its inhabitants from also venturing into other faraway lands. In July of 2015, former Fujikawaguchiko Mayor Yoshiyasu Watanabe undertook a trip to Europe to discover the Alps. During his time in Switzerland, he notably visited a renowned village that eventually left an ever-lasting impression on him: Zermatt.

The neighbor of an icon

Lying at an altitude of 1,600 meters at the foot of the legendary Matterhorn, one of the world’s most iconic peaks, Zermatt is a village of 5’000 souls known internationally for its breathtaking landscape, 360 kilometers of ski slopes, large entertainment offer, and numerous hiking and climbing routes. It is conveniently located at the end of the panoramic Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

Thanks to strict environmental policies, however, the vacation destination is a car-free zone and has retained the characteristics one can expect from the Swiss Alps: pristine nature, clean air, rustic buildings, and a fair dose of alpine hospitality.

World-class winter sports athletes and mountaineers can be seen training in the area at all times of the year, with the exception of wild marmots - who during winter will prioritize taking a nap over playing with tourists. Fortunately, they can always count on the positive vibrations of the Zermatt Unplugged festival to wake them up in early April!

The cowbell of friendship

During his stay, former Mayor Watanabe quickly noticed many similarities between the two local public entities: both were situated in proximity to a national icon; their economies strongly relied on tourism; they both aimed to preserve their environment; and their local train companies, Fujikyu Railway and Matterhorn Gotthard Railway, had signed a sister railway partnership in 1991. Soon, he reached an obvious conclusion: Zermatt and Fujikawaguchiko were meant to be together!

Thanks to the help of the two railway companies, a delegation from the Swiss village was invited to Fujikawaguchiko later that year, and on November 15, 2015, a friendship pact was signed by Deputy Mayor Yukihito Furuya and Zermatt Mayor Christoph Buergin - who notably offered a big commemorative cowbell as a symbol of friendship. During the festivities, both parties promised to exchange infrastructural knowledge about railroad tracks, to share each other’s culture, and to cultivate their newborn friendship.

Since then the pact has been on a rising phase: groups of students have traveled to Switzerland and Japan, and in July 2016, just a few months before a Zermatt visit group made it back to the Japanese town, Mayor Kikuo Watanabe attended the inauguration of a monument for Fujikawaguchiko in the Swiss village. Never have the Matterhorn and Mount Fuji seemed so close!