Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre is the jewel in Cowra’s special friendship with Japan and a major domestic and international tourist destination. Opened in 1978, the building of the Garden symbolised the growing reconciliation between Japan and Australia in the 1970s. In the decades since, the 5-hectare Garden, the largest and most authentic in the Southern hemisphere, has become the pre-eminent expression of the Australia-Japan relationship and a lasting testimony to peace.