Begun in 1963 in the spirit of President Eisenhower’s 1956 People to People Program, the Long Beach-Yokkaichi Sister City Association was begun by Mayor Edwin Wade, the Port of Long Beach, friends of Yokkaichi, and numerous citizens in both countries. They established the first and one of the most successful sister city associations in Long Beach. For thirty-three alternating summers, each city has hosted trios of two students and a teacher in shared experiences in living with families. Groups of students from Yokkaichi University have taken intensive English language classes at California State University, Long Beach. Six teachers drawn from local teachers or CSULB graduates are continuously employed by the Yokkaichi junior and senior high schools to assist in their English language program.