Kanonji Appleton Partnership (KAP)

The Kanonji Appleton Partnership (KAP) is a volunteer-led, non-profit sister city organization. It was founded in 1988 to introduce Appleton residents to the culture and language of Kanonji, Japan. KAP was formed with the help of the late Mako Bice, a restaurateur in Appleton and mother of two sons who graduated from Appleton East High School. Mako, who grew up in Japan and her husband, Burt, owned the former Mako’s Japanese restaurant (now Far East Korean and Japanese). Until 1998, exchange participants were mostly adults including physicians, lawyers, business professionals, teachers and local government employees. In 1988, the Appleton Boy-choir was invited to Kanonji to sing. In the summer of 1999, a group of students from Kanonji arrived in Appleton to do a home stay with members of the Appleton Boy-choir and other volunteer host families. Since the partnership began, mayors of both Kanonji & Appleton have traveled to each other’s cities.