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Nihonmatsu

  • Students and their chaperones from Nihonmatsu, Japan explore items related to Kan'ichi Asakawa at the Rauner Special Collections Library.

Hanover's Sister City

Nihonmatsu, Japan has been a sister city of Hanover, NH since 1999. The relationship centers around Kan'ichi Asakawa, an academic, author, historian, and peace advocate. Asakawa was born in Nihonmatsu in 1873, received his B.A. from Dartmouth in 1899 and his Ph.D. in History from Yale in 1902. Asakawa was the first student of Asian descent to graduate from Dartmouth.

Dartmouth students in the Japan Language Study Abroad Program at Dartmouth visit Nihonmatsu every year and stay with host families.

Every summer students from five junior high schools in Nihonmatsu are invited each year to take part in a pilgrimage to the United States to honor Asakawa's memory. The students apply through a competitive process coordinated by the City of Nihonmatsu's Board of Education. The 10 selected students travel with official Nihonmatsu representatives to Hanover, NH and New Haven, CT.