Title: Sister City as Preservation Strategy
Description: This thesis examines how sister-city networks, particularly between the United States and Japan, can be used as a strategic tool to raise local heritage awareness and create a platform to promote historic preservation in both communities. By analyzing three case studies of U.S.-Japan sister cities: Seattle, WA - Kobe; Buffalo, NY - Kanazawa; and Elberton, GA - Mure; the thesis identifies that sister cities tend to share similar historical, cultural, or geographic characteristics, and argues that contacts with such overseas counterparts could stimulate cities to rediscover the value of local heritage, reconsider their preservation policies, and foster development of mutual cooperation and methodologies in heritage conservation and management. Following the analysis and comparison of preservation policies and practices in the two countries, the thesis presents major findings and recommendations, as well as a practical model that sister cities could pursue for an improvement on the use of their partnerships.

The concluding chapter proposes how citizens in the U.S. and Japanese cities can benefit by learning from their oversea "sisters" in regards to a different set of preservation philosophies, and speaks about the significance of sister-city and other inter-city cooperation in the field of historic preservation in a wider context.