Sister City

Wilsonville has had a sister city relationship with Kitakata, Japan since October 1988.  Kitakata, with a population of approximately 52,000,  is located about 4 1/2 hours northwest of Tokyo, within the Fukushima prefecture of Japan.  The city is well known for its distinctive ramen noodles. The area within its former city boundaries has the highest per-capita number of ramen establishments in Japan. 

It has also long been known as a center of sake rice wine and miso (soy bean-paste) production, and it once produced such an abundance that many storehouses were built there. Today, about 4,200 storehouses still exist in the city and some of them have been converted to alternate uses, such as museums, art galleries, and restaurants.

The climate is warm in the summer and usually receives heavy snowfall in the winter.   

Additional information is available on the Wilsonville Sister City Association website.