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The island town in Yamaguchi Prefecture shaped a sister island romantic relationship with Hawaii’s Kauai Island on June 22, 1963. The aloha biz campaign was launched by the city government in 1986 with regional firms becoming a member of the initiative. Through the marketing campaign, town officers and other islanders put on Hawaiian shirts everyday to greet tourists, as they do in Hawaii.

Academics and workers at the community Suo-Oshima High School started off having portion in the campaign in 2021, and commencing this 12 months college students who would like to don Hawaiian shirts as a substitute of their regular uniforms at faculty can do so.

On the aloha biz campaign’s 1st working day, close to 20 among the the some 50 second-yr learners at the significant college had been witnessed putting on Hawaiian shirts though in a class about Hawaii — the place of their school trip. The shirts were created just for the substantial school in cooperation with Yamaguchi Prefectural College in the 2021 college calendar year. They occur in two shades, eco-friendly and blue, with a sample of white satsuma mandarin bouquets — a local specialty — and Japanese stony coral found in the sea all over the island.

On donning a Hawaiian shirt at college, Honoka Shimada, 17, stated, “It feels cooler than the uniform.” The aloha biz marketing campaign continues as a result of Aug. 31.

(Japanese unique by Norio Oyama, Iwakuni Area Bureau)