February, 2010 The Hyogo Business and Cultural Center (HBCC) is Moving!

Our new location is situated in the eastern part of Seattle's "International District," on Weller Street, next door to the Seattle Japanese Language School. In the future, the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) plans to construct a new building at this site, and our offices will be in this new facility. For the time being, we are moving into the second building of the Seattle Japanese Language School complex.

Regarding the current building the Japanese Language School is using, it was originally known as the National Language School (kokugo-gakko), and was built in 1902. The oldest building of its kind in North America, it was established in order to educate younger people of Japanese decent (Nikkei) about Japanese Language.

The history of many Japanese and Nikkei people is written in the walls of this building. Japan's first Prime Minister, and the first governor of Hyogo Prefecture Hirobumi It? gave a lecture at the school. Even today, the wooden hengaku tablet he inscribed is still painstakingly preserved. By locating the HBCC office at a place with such a link to the time of Hyogo Prefecture's founding, one can sense the importance of history.

As one walks around the school, one experiences the same retrospective feelings one feels touring Kobe's Meiji-era foreign residences, or old elementary schools that are steeped in history. Honoring the longstanding relationship between Seattle and Kobe, as well as Washington State and Hyogo Prefecture, it is appropriate to locate the base for Sister-City/Sister-State exchange activities in this place.

This stately building, will become the nexus of Japanese culture, education and economic exchange activities in Washington. It is our hope that locating HBCC here will, above all else, serve to strengthen the bond between Japanese-Americans and the Japanese people in Washington State.