Sister Cities International was founded in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower, along with the People to People Program, as a way to create and strengthen partnerships between people from different communities around the world.   By forming these relationships, President Eisenhower reasoned that people from different cultures could understand, appreciate, and celebrate their differences while building partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.

1n 1956, the Mayor of Nagano, Mr. Itaru Kurashima, being interested in the Sister Cities program, came to America to study three cities that had been suggested to him by the State Department.  These cities were of similar size to Nagano City.  The Mayor chose Clearwater over the other two cities and, with Clearwater Mayor Herbert Brown they laid the groundwork that resulted in our Sister City relationship that started in 1959.

The first exchange occurred in 1964, and these exchanges have continued through the years.  Official delegations from both cities conduct visits every five years.  Annually, separate education exchanges are conducted between Clearwater and Nagano for both teachers and students.