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In honor of the work of Taylor Anderson and Montgomery Dickson, who came to Japan with the JET Programme and were victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake while working as Assistant Language Teachers, 5-year memorial projects were established at the universities they respectively graduated from to encourage others to pursue Japan-U.S. exchanges as they did.
Taylor Anderson Memorial Project (December 2011-August 2016)
Ms. Taylor Anderson
Worked in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi.
University: Randolph-Macon College (Virginia)
Montgomery Dickson Memorial Project (June 2012 - May 2017)
Mr. Montgomery Dickson
Worked in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate. Completed the Japan Foundation / Nationwide JET Training Program for Japanese Teachers.
University: University of Alaska Anchorage (Alaska)
The Kizuna Project is a youth exchange program that is a part of the Great East Japan Earthquake Countermeasures. Information about the earthquake and recovery was sent out and around 1,200 high school and university students from affected areas of Japan were placed across the U.S. Around 1,000 American high school students also visited effected areas in Japan over a 2-week journey.
As youth ambassadors, five American journalists came to Japan from June 26 to July 4, 2011. During this time they visited the affected areas of Kesennuma City and Ishinomaki City in Miyagi and Rikuzentakata City in Iwate, as well as also visiting Tokyo and Kobe. They then called for elementary school students across the U.S. to write messages of support (“Genki Mail”) and up to 7,000 messages were gathered. The “Genki Mail” included messages such as “Don’t worry. We’re here for you.” These were sent to isolated elementary schools and evacuation areas.
The Invitation Program for US Experts on Asian Affairs was designed as part of the “Strengthening the exchange between Japan and U.S. for further deepening the Japan-U.S. Alliance” initiative, which was announced at the Japan-U.S. Leaders’ Meeting in November 2010. The program invites a group of Asia specialists from the U.S. three times a year and provides them with the opportunity to meet and hold discussions with leaders in government, bureaucracy, academia, and finance, as well as policy makers and researches.
As part of the efforts of “Fostering Japan specialists in the U.S.” in order to develop a deeper Japan-U.S. relationship for the future, Center for Global Partnership (CGP) worked with the Association of Professional School of International Affairs (APSIA) to run an invitation program six times that invited exceptional students studying International Relations at U.S. graduate universities to Japan for 10 days. During their time in Japan, the participants met and were able to have exchanges with people important to Japan in their field, as well as specialists that shared the participants’ intellectual community or area of interest. The participants also visited areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and learned about its impact and the recovery effort.
As part of the efforts of “Fostering Japan specialists in the U.S.” in order to develop a deeper Japan-U.S. relationship for the future, CGP provided support to Emerson College in the U.S. to run an invitation program two times that invited graduate students studying journalism at prominent U.S. universities to Japan for 10 days. During their stay in Japan, the visiting graduate students had the opportunity to have exchanges with local graduate students, have informal discussions with people working with media, academics, and people of culture, as well as being able to inspect related facilities.
Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CGP invited 22 young researchers, government and legislative workers, business leaders, and business people who are expected to contribute to the formation of U.S. foreign policy and public opinion. This program took place across four times from 2007 to 2010 with the aim of deepening even further the intellectual exchange between Japan and the U.S.
Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CGP invited 22 young researchers, government and legislative workers, business leaders, and business people who are expected to contribute to the formation of U.S. foreign policy and public opinion. This program took place across four times from 2007 to 2010 with the aim of deepening even further the intellectual exchange between Japan and the U.S.
Together with the Consulate General of Japan in New Orleans, the Louisiana State Museum, and the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution, CGP organized a local symposium. The event enabled a group of “Storytellers” from Japan sent to New Orleans, which is working towards recovering from Hurricane Katrina, to speak about their memories of the Kobe Earthquake.
CGP co-organized the “Innovators’ Network,” which was a project to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the Japan Society in 2007. In this project, successful innovators were chosen from Japan and the U.S. The innovators were then broken up into subcommittees, in which they planned to create networks between themselves. This gave over 50 Japanese and American innovators the including business leaders, social entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, and education experts the opportunity to have exchanges.
This program gave mid-career staff the Japanese non-profit sector the opportunity to undertake medium and long-term training at American NPOs to receive training in the management of non-profit organizations. 37 fellows were placed in the U.S. from the pilot program that started in 1998 up to the 8th run of the program.