The Activities of the Japan Foundation
Other Initiatives
Promoting Understanding of and Participation in International Cultural Exchange
The Japan Foundation confers the Japan Foundation Awards and the Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship to individuals and groups who have contributed to deepening mutual understanding between Japan and the world through international cultural exchange and to groups who engage in outstanding community-based international cultural exchange, respectively.
The Japan Foundation Awards
Special Project—International Exchanges Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic as Seen by Past Award Recipients
The Japan Foundation Awards are given to individuals and groups who have made and are expected to further make particularly significant contributions to the promotion of international mutual understanding and friendship through academic, artistic or other cultural activities. In FY2020, the Japan Foundation was inevitably forced to cancel the awards selections and presentations due to the spread of COVID-19. However, as a special project, we shared on our website the messages from 19 past award recipients regarding the state of their activities in 2020, the ideal forms of international cultural exchanges and prospects for the future.
The top page shot from "The Japan Foundation Awards Special Project―International Exchanges Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic as Seen by Past Award Recipients" web page.
The Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship
The Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship are awarded to organizations in Japan that engage in original, forward-thinking initiatives for deepening ties between Japan and other countries, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, ideas and information and encouraging collaborative thinking. In FY2020, three organizations were selected as recipients, and the award ceremony went online for the first time.
FY2020 Recipients and Reasons for the Prize
- Takadanobaba SAKURA CLINIC
- Takadanobaba SAKURA CLINIC is situated in Takadanobaba, an area with a large number of foreign residents in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. The clinic is staffed with professionals with roots in Asian countries and collaborates with the local international community to closely meet patient needs with multilingual services, opening its doors wide for foreign patients to come in and get medical assistance. The clinic also pays special attention in providing preventive health care services for foreign residents and in encouraging capacity building of its staff members. Their constant efforts to provide better medical care to the residents regardless of their origin are a valuable contribution to the realization of sustainable multicultural coexistence.
- The Volunteers Group to Send Wheelchairs to Overseas Children
(Specified Non-Profit Organization) - This group collects and repairs used pediatric wheelchairs in Japan and donates them to developing countries with the aim of helping protect the lives of children with disabilities and promoting their participation in social life. The group's activities have also become in itself a platform for intercultural exchange involving foreign residents living in Japan, who represent roughly half of the volunteers for collecting and repairing wheelchairs. So far the group has donated over 8,500 wheelchairs to 24 countries and has built up a whole process of ensuring effective use of the wheelchairs from the selection of domestic and local collaborating organizations to post-delivery maintenance.
- The Room for Full of Voice, Words, and Hearts (Cocoroom)
(Specified Non-Profit Organization) - The Room for Full of Voice, Words, and Hearts (Cocoroom) has deep roots in the Kamagasaki area of Osaka's Nishinari Ward—one of the working communities that was vital in driving Japan's rapid economic growth in the third quarter of the 20th century. Embracing the theme that "living is expressing," the organization engages in a variety of activities that enable people from diverse backgrounds to encounter others and reengage with society through the power of expression. Running a cafe and a guest house as a steady basis for its many activities, the Room continuously broadens its scope to involve more diverse people by occasionally holding such events as "Kamagasaki University of Arts," reading sessions and "little corner clinic."
Follow-up Project for the Japan Foundation Prizes for Global Citizenship
- Online Seminar "Local-Based International Cultural Exchanges in the Age of COVID-19"
- On August 6th and 7th, 2020, the Japan Foundation held an online seminar entitled "Local-Based International Cultural Exchanges in the Age of COVID-19" with past award-winning organizations as presenters. The seminar featured the three sessions of "Promoting multicultural coexistence," "International exchange/citizen cooperation" and "Community building through arts." Each session included presentations by participating organizations and lively discussions with moderators. The seminar was live-streamed online, and an archive was uploaded on the Japan Foundation's official YouTube channel.