Tokyo: Japanese municipalities in sister-city relationships with their Hawaiian counterparts are seeking monetary donations to help people affected by massive wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, which established a sister-city relationship with the city of Honolulu in June last year, started accepting disaster relief funds for the wildfire victims on Wednesday, setting up donation boxes at 64 locations, including the ward’s main office.

“We hope for the earliest possible recovery and reconstruction in the disaster areas,” a ward official said.

The town of Hachijo in Tokyo, a sister city of Maui County, also launched its charity drive on Wednesday, collecting cash donations at its town hall and four branch offices while accepting money from people outside the town through bank transfers.

The town of Yurihama in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, is in a sister-city relationship with Hawaii County and has the “Hawai Onsen” hot spring. The relationship was originally formed between the county and the Tottori town of Hawai, one of the three municipalities merged in 2014 to create the town of Yurihama.

Yurihama plans to inform residents later this month of a plan to collect relief funds from next month at the earliest.

Meanwhile, an association for “taiko,” or traditional Japanese drumming, in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, is looking for ways to support wildfire victims.

“Maui Taiko,” a local performing art, has its roots in Fukushima, and people in Maui sent monetary donations to people in areas devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

“We want to return the favor we received at the time of the disaster,” Haruo Imaizumi, a member of the association, told Jiji Press.

There is an association of people from Fukushima on the island of Maui, and it has about 80 members now. “We will consider ways to support them once we know the overall extent of the damage,” an official of the Fukushima prefectural government’s international division said.

JIJI Press