Myoko ― Zermatt (1997)

Chubu | Myoko City

City Partnerships

How the Swiss village sitting at the bottom of the most famous Swiss mountain was twinned to a charming ski resort of the Japanese Alps.

Under the snow of Niigata

There, at the north of the Japanese Alps, look under the snow! Granted, Myoko is not a big city, but rather a tranquil mountain town snuggled in at the base of nine of Japan’s best ski resorts. The most famous one, Myoko Akakura, was founded in the 1930s and has been a traditional mountain retreat for the imperial family.

Myoko is local, rustic and human Japan: the flowery taste of old-fashioned-brewed sake, the billowing steam of family-owned hot springs, and the friendly greetings and faces of passers-by. Among them, Mr. Tsuyoshi Ueki, proud owner of a lodge and a local ski school.

“Grüzi, minna-san”!

For the past thirty years, Ueki-san has actively developed ties with foreign ski resorts in an effort to make the lifestyle of his town known to the rest of the world. In the mid-1980s, he most notably approached the citizens of a Swiss town that Myoko-kogen (the town’s name until the 2005 merger) had often been compared to: Zermatt.

In September 1994, Zermatt Mayor Robert Guntern and Director of Zermatt Tourism Amadé Perrig were thus invited to Myoko-kogen to sign a declaration of friendship between the two local authorities’ tourism organizations, which enabled several instructors from the Swiss station to come to the Japanese resort and teach in the ski school of Mr. Ueki. The two communities having grown closer, a handful of residents of Myoko-kogen took off to Switzerland in May 1995. Destination: their soon-to-be sister city.

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!

Swiss sushi and a Japanese St. Bernard

Two years after their first visit, on May 24, 1997, 31 residents from Myoko-kogen eagerly returned to Zermatt to sign a sister-city agreement and pledged to cooperate on tourism matters, but also on education, culture, and sports. Since then, exchanges have been far superior to most sister cities partnerships. To name but a few: an avalanche rescue dog was offered to Japanese Prime Minister Ryiutaro Hashimoto; a sushi restaurant was opened in Zermatt; Ueki-San visited Switzerland; dynamics clubs were founded in both localities to fuel the partnership; and approximately 80,000 Japanese travelers visit Zermatt every year!

Next time you visit one of the two sister cities, try mentioning the name of the other. You will surely be treated with a glass of fine wine or sake, as well as with a few personal stories of friendship between Swiss and Japanese people!