Borscht and pirozhki, famous Russian cuisines, were provided for school lunch at all 16 elementary and junior high schools in Nagato on Thursday, the day the Japan-Russia summit was to be held in the small city in southwestern Japan.
Many restaurants in the city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, are serving yakitori charbroiled chicken seasoned like shashlik, traditional Russian barbecue. Since being chosen to host the summit, the city with a population of 35,000 has been steeped in Russia.
It was short notice. Without contacting the city, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Sept. 2 that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 15 in Nagato, located within Abe's home constituency. City officials had just three months to complete preparations.
"We haven't hosted such a big event," said Masaaki Murakami, chief of public relations at the Nagato city office. "Because of the difficulty in obtaining sufficient information, we struggled to prepare for the summit."
Nagato features picture-perfect scenery of the Sea of Japan. Motonosumi Inari Shrine along the sea, which has a tunnel of 123 red torii shrine gates, was selected as one of "Japan's 31 most beautiful places" by CNN in 2015. The city is also famous for its hot springs and local specialties such as chicken and seafood.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Abe chose the location for the Japan-Russia summit because Putin "likes hot springs."
"In order to improve the scenery and reinforce security, we demolished desolate houses around Yumoto Onsen," Murakami said about a hot spring town in the city.
There is also a historic place connected with Russia in the city -- a seaside site with the "Graves of Japanese and Russian Soldiers."
One is the gravestone of Russian fleet soldiers killed in battle and the other is that of passengers of a cargo ship chartering a Japanese army battalion that was sunk by the Russian army. Both gravestones are for victims of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
Nagato people retrieved some of the bodies washed ashore and gave them decent burials.
To teach Russians about Nagato and promote friendly relations, city workers determined to make a Russian-language website and brochure. But it was an uphill battle.
"There were no people who can speak fluent Russian in the city," Murakami said.
Nagato officials asked the Yamaguchi International Exchange Association, a public organization, to introduce Japanese-Russian bilinguals. Only one person was found in the prefecture.
It was a Russian woman who runs a Russian-language class in Yamaguchi Prefecture. She moved to Japan from Russia in 2003 because she was interested in Japanese literature and kimono. She accepted the city's request to become an interpreter and translator.
"We were very lucky," Murakami said, adding, "It was difficult to ask one person to do many things, so we were not able to translate as much content as we had hoped."
Aiming to overcome the language barrier, Nagato created a five-minute wordless online video accompanying music to underscore the attractiveness of the city, which shows a sea view, smiles of people enjoying a hot spring, scenes of traditional festivals and local delicacies as well as other aspects of the city.
"We made the video, while seriously taking into account what kind of information foreign people want and how we can tell them without using language," Murakami said.
The effort has borne fruit, albeit gradually. The number of viewers of Nagato's website from Russia reached 275 for a month between Nov. 7 and Dec. 6, surging from only 20 between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 in 2015. Expectations are high that the number of Russian tourists to Nagato will grow.
Nagato citizens are ready to welcome Russian people.
Earlier this month, the city office held Russian-language classes, targeting hotel and tourism-related workers; a civic group had a cooking class last month on making pirozhki with local ingredients such as "Choshudori" chicken; and elementary school students took part in peace studies related to the graves.
Nagato people of all ages have steadily deepened their understanding of Russia and cultivated the spirit of "omotenashi" – Japanese-style hospitality – to visitors from the country.
"Taking the summit as a great opportunity, we will consider how we can build new bonds between Nagato and Russia as a legacy of the Japan-Russia summit," Murakami said.
Looking ahead, Nagato is eager to serve as the base camp for the Russian national team before the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, in tandem with Yamaguchi Prefecture, and to sign a friendship agreement with a city in Russia.
This article was originally published by Kyodo News. Reprinted with permission.
Editor: Olivia Yang
