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Wisconsin is raising money for its Japanese sister-state, the Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, by selling various merchandise – coffee mugs, T-shirts, teddy bears, license plate frames, iPhone cases, wall clocks, magnets and even yoga mats – through a new online store.

Gov. Tommy Thompson signed the order in 1990 forging Wisconsin’s diplomatic bond with Chiba, a peninsular region that lies directly east of central Tokyo, on the western side of Tokyo Bay. Although it’s part of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, much of its southern reaches are wooded, where there is also a mountain, Mount Kiyosumi.

All the merchandise bears a specially designed logo. The word Wisconsin, with the central “O” transformed into the red “rising sun” of the Japanese flag, is positioned above two Japanese characters meaning “friend” and “like.” Joined, they form a compound word, “friendship,” according to a press release from the office of Wisconsin’s first lady, Tonette Walker.

“We know the devastation is horrible there and the need is great,” she said in a recent interview for WITI Fox 6 in Milwaukee.

Donations to the Wisconsin-Chiba Japan Relief Project can be made directly or by purchasing the merchandise. Proceeds go to the Japanese Red Cross.

A magnitude 9 earthquake hit off the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, triggering a large tsunami that devastated the country’s eastern coastline. Smaller tremors followed in the days after the initial quake.

Workers suffering from radiation sickness after working at the damaged Fukushima reactors have been treated at a radiation research center in Chiba city.

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