San Antonio’s financial and cultural relationship with Japan took one other step ahead Wednesday when former Mayor Henry Cisneros obtained the Order of the Rising Solar Award from the Emperor of Japan, the best ornament the island nation bestows on non-citizens.
The award acknowledges people who’ve distinguished themselves in non-military service and was given in recognition of the connections Cisneros helped construct between San Antonio and Japan, from serving to companies arrange store within the area to cultural exchanges that span the Pacific.
Japan’s consul-general in Houston, Zentaro Naganuma, introduced the award to Cisneros, highlighting specifically San Antonio’s sister metropolis relationship with Kumamoto and the work carried out to deliver Toyota’s manufacturing plant to the town.
“This plant is a robust image of the cooperation between us,” Naganuma stated.
The ceremony for the award was hosted by Toyota at its occasion heart in San Antonio, and officers from Toyota, the Metropolis of San Antonio and Bexar County in addition to Rep. Joaquin Castro spoke on the occasion, noting Cisneros’ accomplishments.
Cisneros, for his half, stated the award acknowledged the work carried out throughout the neighborhood to construct the worldwide relationship.
“I take it as an award the neighborhood has carried out in strengthening its reference to Japan. It’s not an award for anybody particular person,” Cisneros stated in an interview.
San Antonio was one of many first cities to attempt to construct its personal worldwide relationships, Cisneros stated, and it benefited from that.
He highlighted the contributions from San Antonio leaders, from Toyota and from Naoko Shirane, a Japanese enterprise and neighborhood chief who helped join San Antonio to firms and industries in Japan.
San Antonio and Japan established a reciprocal relationship the place the town supplied stability and financial basis and firms like Toyota introduced alternatives for progress.
San Antonio turned the “centerpoint for an internationally important automotive advanced that stretches from the Dallas space to Guanajuato, Mexico,” Cisneros stated.
Cisneros inspired extra cooperation going ahead. He famous Toyota’s alternatives to develop and different firms that had adopted the Japanese automotive producer to San Antonio.
There are different causes to reinforce the 2 communities’ relationship. Cisneros took a step again, noting the geopolitical function Japan and the U.S. performed when it got here to China and the Pacific.
He additionally praised Japan’s prosperity and democracy.
“No folks within the historical past of mankind have willed themselves into such a whole transformation from militarism to an unwavering and complete dedication to peaceable prosperity in such a short while,” Cisneros stated. “We in San Antonio can present our fellow People the significance of standing resolutely with Japan as companions in uplifting democracy, in selling principled financial guidelines and strengthening international establishments.”
Instructional and cultural exchanges are an vital a part of that, Cisneros stated, and he famous East Asian levels and journey alternatives for college students in San Antonio.
“San Antonio’s relationship with Japan has at all times outmoded the financial,” Cisneros stated.
If San Antonio’s present leaders have something to say about it, that relationship might be in place for years to return. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who was elected in June, praised Cisneros’ unwavering service by the years.
“This can be a relationship we’ll proceed to construct on,” she stated. “Henry has been doing this for a really very long time. He’s type of like a kind of Corollas that simply received’t die.”
