Matsumoto ― Grindelwald (1972)

Chubu | Matsumoto City

City Partnerships

The genesis of Switzerland and Japan’s second twinning takes us back to a fortunate encounter with a Swiss Olympic judge in 1972.

From the Alps to the world

Matsumoto is located in almost the center of Nagano Prefecture and Japan, and surrounded by magnificent mountains including Japan’s Northern Alps. Known for more than 400 year-old National Treasure Matsumoto Castle, the city offers wide arrays of historical areas, cultural assets, hot springs and local cuisine (savory soba!), as well as ski runs and hiking trails.

Matsumoto has always thrived through economic and cultural exchange, and since the 19th century, it has nurtured its rich culture with a progressive spirit. The Winter Olympics was organized in Nagano Prefecture in 1998, and Matsumoto City’s special link to a particular Swiss village in fact originated from another previous Olympic completion held in Japan.

A Swiss Judge seals the deal

Matsumoto’s relationship with Switzerland dates back to early 1972, when Firstbahn manager Roland Rudin from Switzerland attended the Sapporo Winter Olympics as chief judge for the Nordic combined event. While in Japan, he was approached by Manabu Kanematsu, Chairman of the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation, who brought up the idea of tying-up Rudin’s hometown, Grindelwald, and Azumi-mura (Nagano).

How did Kanematsu come up with this idea? Through basic comparison: the two villages indeed had striking similarities, from population sizes and economic configurations to alpine environments and landscapes. A meeting between Rudin and Azumi-mura Mayor Kiyoki Fukushima was held in Tokyo shortly after the end of the Games, and the proposal of a twinning was met with such enthusiasm by both parties and populations. Japanese locals were soon to discover Grindelwald, one of Switzerland’s most popular and cosmopolitan holiday and excursion destinations.

The birthplace of European alpinism

The village of Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland lies embedded in a welcoming and green hollow at 1,034 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by a commanding mountain-scape featuring the Wetterhorn and the northern face of Mount Eiger, and hosts the largest ski resort in the Jungfrau region. Consequently, Grindelwald’s surroundings have been regularly featured in Alps documentaries or action movies such as James Bond (“On Her Majesty's Secret Service”, 1969) and Star Wars (“Episode III – Revenge of the Sith”, 2005).

Grindelwald’s modern history is intrinsically linked to alpinism, which flourished in the area from the mid-19th century thanks to the regular visits of British mountaineers. The village was then made much more accessible towards the end of the 19th century thanks to the construction of roads and railways, which in turn also heralded the onset of winter tourism. The first cableway in the Alps was built here in 1908 on the Wetterhorn, and a railway reached the Jungfraujoch via Kleine Scheidegg in 1912. Nowadays, the “Top of Europe” still remains Europe’s highest railway station and a world-renowned excursion destination for those in search of permanent snow and ice.

45 years and counting!

Following the meeting of two villages, a sister cities agreement was signed only two months later, on April 20, 1972. Due to a merger of Azumi-mura into the expanded city of Matsumoto in 2005, the new entity gladly took over the former agreement: inhabitants of Matsumoto reaffirmed their willingness to pursue the exchanges of delegations and students (hosted by local families) and the ski and music-related events that had been taken place at regular intervals in the past 3 decades.

The twinning has since been dully honored. In 2011, for example, in honor of the delegation led by Mayor Akira Sugenoya, the “Matsumoto Club” was founded in the Swiss village to foster the long and deep bond between the two alpine communities. Even more recently, following the mutual visits in 2014 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Swiss-Japanese diplomatic relations, several successive exchange activities have been going on. Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan Jean-François Paroz and a delegation of 26 persons from Grindelwald led by Mayor Christian Anderegg returned to Matsumoto City on April 25 and 26, 2017, to celebrate 45 beautiful years of friendship. Quite a legacy for Olympic judge Rudin, isn’t it?