Philbert Ono grew up in Hawaii and now lives and works in Tokyo. His parents are natives of Shiga Prefecture, which is hardly known
outside Japan. So Ono decided to make an English-language website about the prefecture, to introduce it to foreign visitors. Since Shiga has several sister city relationships with cities in the USA, Ono decided to write English lyrics for a famous Shiga area song called “Lake Biwa Rowing Song”.  ["Biwako Shuko no Uta"]. Then he found two American JET teachers to sing it for him, and after they applied to appear on the weekly ”Nodo Jiman” amateur singing show on NHK, the song gathered more and more acclaim. Ono is releasing an indie CD worldwide on June 16.

When asked how he found the two Americans, Ono told Japundit in a recent email: “They are twin sisters from Illinois working in Japan on the JET Program as ALTs. The blond one (Jamie) is teaching in Shiga, and the other is in Kagawa-ken. Both have been singing in choirs since childhood and both are members on their local choirs in Japan. In January 2006, Jamie found my Web page in English introducing the song and emailed me. She told me she was a choir singer in Shiga, and I immediately asked her if she would be willing to sing my English version of the song. She said yes, and that she also had a twin sister who could sing. They did it on it volunteer basis. They were thrilled to help me out, and it turned outto be a unique experience for them in Japan.”

“Later, they sent in a postcard to apply for ‘Nodo Jiman’ on NHK. Out of thousands of postcard applicants, they were selected for the audition held the day before the ‘Nodo Jiman’ show. “

Chunichi Shimbun has an article in Japanese, see comment 2: