Jacinda Ardern reunited with Japanese homestay sister after 32 years …

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is capping off her trip to Japan by reuniting with a home-stay sister who stayed with her family over three decades ago.

Madoka Watanabe, now 46, visited New Zealand on an exchange student programme when she was about 14, and stayed with Arderns family.

Ardern was 10 at the time and living in the Waikato, and the pair have not seen each other since.

They were reunited at the start of an event at the New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo on Friday.

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Henry Cooke/Stuff/Stuff

Jacinda Ardern with her former homestay sister and her husband.

I grew up to be taller than you, Ardern remarked as they were reunited.

Arderns mother had kept the details of the exchange students through the years, and officials managed to track the sister down ahead of Arderns trip to Tokyo, her second visit to Japan as prime minister.

The prime minister said her parents had insisted that Watanabe and her family be invited back to New Zealand a visit that would not be possible ahead of May 2, when the border reopens to tourists from visa-waiver countries like Japan.

Watanabe replied - through a translator - that she would like to visit.

Supplied

A photo of Watanabe and the Ardern family when she was staying. Ardern is on the left in pink, with father Ross and Laurell and Louisa.

She said her favourite memory of New Zealand was visiting an orchard and eating an apple straight from the tree.

Ardern said the orchard was at the back of their property and they had also tried to get Watanabe to drive a tractor.

Ardern is leaving Japan for New Zealand on Saturday after her first overseas trip since the start of the pandemic. She spent two days in Singapore and full days in Japan.

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Jacinda Ardern reunited with Japanese homestay sister after 32 years ...