November community development, who understands the difference

　Russia's aggression war in Ukraine has been over nine months.
　Every day we see in the press that irreplaceable life is mercilessly deprived and the end of destruction in the built city, sorrow and resentment do not stop. The fear that the citizens of Odesa, the sister city of Yokohama, still feels at this time is far beyond our imagination.
　Every day, I think that "peace" is a major premise in order for the city to live in a variety of activities that can be spent peacefully every day.
　Well, in Kanagawa Ward we are in the middle of a Japanese volunteer training course. Twenty-one volunteers have been learning happily and seriously and completed next month. After that, activities begin as volunteers to support inhabitants of the ward who speak foreign languages as their native language. Exchanges between citizens who can understand each other, regardless of race, culture, ethnicity and nationality, as well as language, will spread again.
　Through these local practices, we will embody the principles of the "Yokohama City Ordinance on Promotion of International Peace" passed unanimously in Yokohama City Council and spread them to the world. It is around this time that I strongly think that we need to proceed steadily and little by little.

November, 2022

Mayor of Kanagawa Masayoshi Hibino