9), President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., held a strategic meeting with Dr. Takeharu Yamanaka, Mayor of Yokohama. The engagement highlighted opportunities for deepening collaboration and city-to-city partnerships between Liberia’s cities and Yokohama.
During their exchange, President Boakai extended a formal invitation to Mayor Yamanaka to visit Liberia, highlighting the importance of personal engagement in strengthening bilateral ties.
According to an Executive Mansion release dated August 21, 2025, Mayor Yamanaka warmly welcomed the invitation and expressed genuine interest in Liberia, emphasizing potential cooperation in several key sectors:
- Water supply systems, aimed at enhancing access to clean and reliable water across Liberian communities.
- Waste management strategies, where both cities might exchange practices in sorting, recycling, and sustainable urban hygiene.
- Port operations, leveraging Yokohama’s advanced infrastructure experience to support Liberian maritime and trade enhancements.
- Technical knowledge transfer, involving expertise exchange to build local capacity in infrastructure, administration, and service delivery.
President Boakai, in turn, expressed the desire for Yokohama’s leaders to be introduced to Liberia’s major cities, including the capital, Monrovia, facilitating city-level dialogues and fostering people-to-people engagement.
Mayor Yamanaka framed his interest as part of Yokohama’s broader commitment to engaging proactively with African leaders, underscoring that this approach aligns with the city’s philosophy of fostering inclusive, practical, and mutually beneficial international relationships particularly at the subnational and grassroots levels.
Both leaders agreed to establish a working framework to advance these collaborative areas. The anticipated visit by Mayor Yamanaka to Liberia promises to inaugurate a new chapter in cooperative city diplomacy aimed at delivering concrete benefits to both Yokohama and Liberian municipalities.
A sister-city relationship between Liberia’s cities and Yokohama would be mutually beneficial, drawing on shared maritime identities and complementary strengths. Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city with a population of approximately 3.77 million and a global leader in port operations, urban planning, and sustainability, offers expertise in areas such as water supply, waste management, logistics, and technical knowledge transfer—sectors that align closely with Liberia’s development needs under the ARREST Agenda.
For Liberia, such a partnership would support urban renewal in Monrovia, and other cities and strengthen its global maritime position, and open avenues for education and cultural exchanges. For Yokohama, it would advance Japan’s Africa engagement by fostering grassroots diplomacy and people-to-people ties, making the relationship a practical bridge for sustainable growth and deeper international cooperation.
