Shiga and Michigan exchange political and educational information and people.
Shiga prefecture is located just north of Kyoto.
Hikone has such a relationship with Ann Arbor. There's a park in Ann Arbor called Gallup Park . If you ever visit, you might see this stone commemorating the relationship. In Hikone, about 10-11 years ago, Shiga prefecture funded the larger part of a project to build a university in Japan to house Michigan students who wanted to study Japanese. In exchange, the state of Michigan would accept and place Japanese exchange students into Michigan colleges.