The Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship (2010)

The Japan Foundation (President: Kazuo OGOURA) announced three recipients of the Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship for 2010.
Each recipient will receive an award certificate and cash prize of two million yen.

Recipients

Overview of “The Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship”
This prize was established under the name of “the Prizes for the Promotion of Community-Based Cultural Exchange” in 1985, at the time the importance of community-based international exchange became widely acknowledged. In FY 2004-2005, in commemoration of its 20th anniversary, the award was renamed “The Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship” in awareness of development and diversification of community-based international exchange activities. The Japan Foundation has been presenting the prizes to organizations which have been contributing to promotion of international exchange between communities, cultural exchange, or mutual understanding that results in change or revitalization of communities. (In principle, three prizes are presented every year.)
This year, 70 organizations were offered from the mass media, think tank, international exchange organizations, and local governments. The recipients of the prizes were determined by the selection committee through a careful selection process.

The selection committee consisted of the following seven members (in the order of the Japanese syllabary):

Mr. Yoshitaka ISHII
(President, NPO Kourokan-Fukuoka Castle History & Tourism Citizen’s Association; former Chairman of the Board of Kyushu Railway Company)
Ms. Yasuko OGIWARA
(Program Director, Association for Corporate Support of the Arts)
Ms. Michiyo KAMATA
(Senior Manager, Project Development Department, Project Produce Division, DENTSU Inc.)
Prof. Yasuyuki KITAWAKI
(Professor and Director of Center for Multilingual Multicultural Education and Research, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
Mr. Syota KOBAYASHI
(Editorial Writer, Nikkei Inc.)
Mr. Shinji FUKUMA
(General Manager, Tokyo Office, the Chugoku Shimbun Press)
Ms. Kumi FUJISAWA
(Vice President, Think Tank SophiaBank)

Awardees (in geographical order)

NPO ACITION

Representative
Hajime YOKOTA (President)
Year of Establishment
1994
Website
http://actionman.jp/ External link
Image picture of NPO ACITION

<Activity Outline>
ACTION has Tokyo office and three offices in Phillippinnes to support children in Phillippinnes by offering the environment where they can try to achieve their goals on their own. In ACTION’s orphanage support project, they eagerly accept technical support and management advices from Japanese companies for the orphanage to realize its financial independence and to create jobs for children who leave the orphanage. Stable revenue from organizing work camps and study tours makes ACTION financially independent without relying on donations. Moreover, ACTION launched an eco-friendly brand “ecomismo” of products from recycled candy wrappers in cooperation with a private enterprise. The “ecomismo” products, including those produced through collaborative project with private companies, are sold at department stores. This project is contributing to job creation and financial independence for women in Phillippinnes.
* ACTION is the third organization to be awarded with the prize in Tokyo, first in four years.

TABUNKAMACHIZUKURI KOBO

(Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture)
Representative
Hideki HAYAKAWA (Director)
Year of Establishment
2000
Website
http://tmkobo.com/ External link
Image picture of TABUNKAMACHIZUKURI KOBO

<Activity Outline>
In the prefectural housing complex called Icho Danchi where approximately 30% of the residents are foreign nationals, Tabunka Machizukuri Kobo (multi-cultural community development center) aims for the development of multicultural symbiotic community and people by mainly providing Japanese-language classes and supplementary classes for elementary and junior high school students to support their study. In addition, to help aging Japanese residents of the housing complex, young residents of foreign nationality become vital actors in community disaster prevention actions and festivals. They organized a group of community disaster prevention leaders called “TRYangels” to protect their community by themselves. Tabunka Machizukuri Kobo is a place to be for young residents of foreign nationality where they can also communicate with Japanese residents. Their activity is
attracting attention as a new model of community activities.
*Tabunka Machizukuri Kobo is the first organization from Kanagawa Prefecture to be awarded with the prize.

NPO DANCE BOX

(Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture)
Representative
Iku OTANI (Executive Director)
Year of Establishment
1996
Website
http://db-dancebox.org/ External link
Image picture of NPO DANCE BOX

<Activity Outline>
Based in Shin-nagata, one of the worst-affected areas by the Great Hanshin Earthquake, Dance Box has been presenting avant-garde contemporary dance projects such as “Dance to Create”, “Dance to Show”, and “Dance to Exchange” from Kobe to the world. Dance Box has also been involved in community-based activities such as the theater group “vintage” that only people aged 40 and over are eligible for membership, and production of videos to reconsider dance as the community resource. In recent years, Dance Box has been actively engaging in cultural exchange with groups overseas; for instance, they organized
collaborative projects with a theater group of people with handicaps from Germany and NGOs in art to promote cross-cultural understanding through community art.
*NPO Dance Box is the fifth organization to be awarded with the prize in Hyogo Prefecture, first in three years.

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