Accompanied by Mayoress Pam Sharpe and senior Councillor Alister James, the Mayor joined a small group of people from Christchurch who travelled to Kurashiki in Japan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Christchurch-Kurashiki Sister City relationship.

Kurashiki Mayor Takeshi Nakada said the scheme had allowed numerous educational, cultural, artistic and sporting exchanges to take place since 1973.

"I sincerely thank the citizens of both cities who have actively participated in these exchanges," Mr Nakada said. "I cannot help but be deeply impressed by all of the benefits that a sister-city relationship has to offer and by how much it has strengthened the bonds of friendship that exist between the residents of our cities."

Mr Moore presented Mr Nakada with a maquette (a detailed scale model) of a work by Christchurch sculptor Graham Bennett. Called Lines Extending, the sculpture will be a gift to Kurashiki from Christchurch and Mr Bennett will go to Japan later this year to assemble and install it.

Christchurch's second sister city in Asia is Songpa, one of about 20 cities that make up the South Korean capital, Seoul. Mr Moore met Songpa Mayor Yoo Taek Lee and they talked about how the relationship might be supported and strengthened, culturally and interms of business links between the cities.