In November, Ehime Prefecture and the state of Hawaii agreed to become sister "municipalities" -- a symbolic move aimed at overcoming the February 2001 Ehime Maru tragedy.

Nine people aboard the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fisheries training ship, died when it sank off Hawaii after being struck by a surfacing U.S. Navy submarine.

In signing the sister-city accord, however, the parties also agreed that the relationship should be reassessed five years later.