Julie Hardaker

A group of students and teachers from Saitama, Hamilton's Japanese sister city, arrive in the Waikato next week.

The 63-strong Saitama Junior High School delegation arrives on Monday as part of an ongoing educational connection between Saitama and Hamilton's Melville Intermediate School. While in Hamilton, the Saitama contingent will meet with Mayor Julie Hardaker and Hamilton City Councillors.

"These types of exchanges provide many students with a memorable and formative experience. It gives young people a cultural understanding that they can carry with them always," Mayor Hardaker says.

The sister city relationship between Hamilton and Saitama was formalised on 14 May 1984, with the primary focus of fostering and enhancing economic development and education opportunities, cultural ties and sporting contacts and exchanges. The school group's visit comes just two months after a 120-year-old Children's Shrine was gifted to Hamilton by former Saitama resident Takashi Shinohara, who lives in Hamilton.