The Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix, known as Rohō-en, was created through the long relationship between Phoenix and its sister city Himeji, Japan, as a shared cultural expression shaped by decades of business, cultural, governmental, and educational exchange. Developed with repeated collaboration by Himeji landscape architects and Phoenix delegations, it opened in phases beginning in 1996 and was completed in 2002. Designed as a traditional Japanese stroll garden adapted to the Sonoran Desert, it features streams, stone bridges, lanterns, a tea house, a waterfall, and a koi pond. It has become a recognized cultural landmark and continues as a nonprofit partnership with the city and Himeji.