The Activities of the Japan Foundation

Alexandra Munroe / U.S.
(Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)

Alexandra Munroe has conducted empirical research into Japanese art from the postwar to the contemporary period from an integrated perspective of art history as well as planned and organized several museum exhibitions. She contributed to mutual international understanding through epoch-making exhibitions where she presented Japanese avant-garde art to the world as an autonomous body of work on its own terms, moving beyond the Euro-American perspective, based on a profound knowledge and understanding of Japanese culture. This also served to enhance the international acclaim of contemporary Japanese artists.

Alexandra Munroe at Guggenheim Museum, 2016.
Photo (c) David Heald

Frederik L. Schodt / U.S.
(Writer, translator, and interpreter)

Frederik L. Schodt has been a pioneer of manga and translation for four decades. In his first monograph in 1983, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, Schodt provided not only a wealth of information on Japanese manga but also almost 100 pages of translated manga. He has drawn attention to other fields of marginalized artistic expression and has contributed to multilateral cultural exchange.

Andrej Bekeš / Slovenia
(Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies, University of Ljubljana)

In 1995, Andrej Bekeš was appointed as the first head of the newly established Department of Asian and African Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, working to advance Japanese studies and cultivate human resources in Slovenia. He has played a pivotal role in creating Europe-wide research networks for researchers in Japanese studies, and has been committed as a researcher and educator who has built bridges between Japan and Slovenia as well as Japan and Europe.

Shibazono Danchi Neighborhood Association (Kawaguchi City, Saitama)

Foreigners started living in the Shibazono Danchi apartment complex in the 1980s, reaching approximately 40% by 2009, causing friction with the Japanese residents. However, as the result of numerous activities such as the posting of interpreters and the hosting of exchange events, the apartment complex has become an invigorated environment in which an awareness of coexistence has taken root. The initiatives of the association, in which Japanese and foreign residents have worked continuously through trial and error, have significance because they can serve as a new model for responding to the issues that communities throughout Japan may face in the future.

Nagomi Visit (Minato City, Tokyo)

Nagomi Visit provides "home visit" experiences to visiting tourists. The international exchange takes place over two to three hours in which the visitors sit with the host and eat home cooked meals. The initiative enables the typical Japanese family to easily engage in international exchange while the reach of the project is impressive, with guests participating from all over the world and host families located throughout Japan. This is a leading example of an international exchange activity that harnesses the Internet.

Koganecho Area Management Center (Yokohama City, Kanagawa)

The Hatsuko and Hinodecho areas of Yokohama were known for their many establishments engaged in illegal entertainment businesses. These businesses were closed down in a concentrated prefectural police campaign in 2005, and a community development project leveraging art was begun in 2008. The Koganecho Area Management Center runs the Koganecho Bazaar, an art festival that involves the entire community as its venue, and international exchange programs such as the artist-in-residence exchange program, enabling the artists to serve as a bridge between people in this community where many residents have roots and connections with foreign countries. This is an initiative of cultural exchange and community development, connecting people with the community and searching for its potentials.