The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 27 (2016)
Copyright © 2016 Okiyoshi Takeda. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with thisnotice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may be distributed,
electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission from the author.

Closing the Gap: The Japanese American
Leadership Delegation Program and Increasing
Involvement of Japanese Americans in
US–Japan Relations

Okiyoshi Takeda*

Introduction
Understanding the relationships that ethnic groups have with their countryof ancestry is important for knowing the characteristics of the groups.
Compared with other ethnic groups in the United States, Japanese Americans
have not been seen to have close relationships with Japan. For example,
from 1999 to 2007, Israel and Jewish communities in the United States
invited 150,000 young people to Israel under the ten-day program called“Taglit-Birthright Israel.”1 The Taiwanese government has also hosted
American-born Chinese students in Taiwan under the program Overseas
Chinese Youth Language Training and Study Tour. This four-to-six-weekprogram, which began in 1966, invited three hundred students in the 1970s
and nearly one thousand students in the 1990s.2
In the past two decades, however, third- and fourth-generation JapaneseAmericans have become increasingly involved in US–Japan relations. In
this article I examine a program called the Japanese American Leadership
Delegation (hereafter JALD) as a case study of that trend. The JALD
program, which invites ten to fifteen Japanese American leaders to Japanfor about a week, was started by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs*Associate Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University

211

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Okiyoshi Takeda(hereafter MOFA) in September 2000.
By tracing the development of the JALD program, in this article I attempt
to chronicle the growing interest of Japanese Americans in US–Japan
relations. Specifically, I address the following research questions: How was
the JALD program created? Where does the delegation go and whom doesit visit in Japan? What are the goals of the program? Which individuals are
selected as delegates? What has the program achieved?3
Japanese Americans have been thoroughly studied in Japan in thedisciplines of history and literature. However, what Japanese Americans arelike today, what ethnic activities they engage in, and what their relationshipis with Japan have not been well studied. As the Japanese American
population becomes diverse, both in terms of number of generations addedand ethnicity and race (i.e., increase of multiethnic and multiracial JapaneseAmericans), it is difficult to present an overall picture. Yet it is possible tofocus on one group of Japanese Americans as a case study that reveals one
aspect of Japanese American society. My study of the JALD program aims
to contribute to that purpose.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first English-language academic
article on the JALD program.4 As a point of comparison with the situation
today, I begin with an overview of the ways in which Japanese Americans
connected to Japan before World War II (section 1). Next, I cover the period
after World War II, when Japanese Americans engaged in some activities
with Japan but mostly stayed away from US–Japan relations (section 2).
However, in the 1990s, interests of Japanese Americans toward Japan
increased, leading to the creation of the JALD program. I discuss how the
JALD program started and describe a typical JALD program itinerary(section 3). Next, I examine the program’s goals, selection criteria, and thekinds of individuals who are selected to be in the delegation (section 4). The
achievements of the program, as described by the delegates in writings andin interviews I conducted, are evaluated (section 5). In the last section, I
discuss the establishment of the U.S.–Japan Council (hereafter USJC) in2009 and some other developments involving Japan and Japanese Americans
in the 2010s (section 6).
This article is based on MOFA’s press releases and public records, thereports of the JALD symposia by the Center for Global Partnership (hereafter
CGP) of the Japan Foundation,5 USJC’s JALD reports,6 my interviews withindividuals involved in the founding and the operation of the program, andknowledge I gained through attendance at CGP symposia and JALD
reunions.

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213

I. Japanese Americans and Japanin the Pre–World War II Period
In general, Japanese Americans maintained closer contact with Japan in
the pre–World War II period than they do today. It was common for Japaneseimmigrants not to settle permanently in the United States; instead, they
returned to Japan, or they traveled back and forth between the two countries.
Among those who eventually settled in the United States (the issei, firstgeneration Japanese), there were many who encouraged their children (thenisei, second-generation Japanese) to go to Japan to learn Japanese language,
tradition, and culture. However, the issei did not send nisei to Japan for
education alone. With the passage of the Alien Land Law of 1913 in
California, which forbade “aliens ineligible for citizenship” (a euphemism
for Japanese) from purchasing land, the passage of the Immigrant Act of1924, which officially banned Japanese immigration to the United States,
and the Japanese military advance into Manchuria in 1931, anti-Japanesesentiment grew on the West Coast. Issei at that time expected the nisei to act
as “bridges” (kakehashi) between the United States and Japan.7 In otherwords, the nisei were expected to absorb Japanese culture and tradition, andat the same time encourage US society to understand and respect JapaneseAmerican society and Japan.
There were at least two ways that the nisei went to Japan in the pre–World War II era—the first being as exchange students. In Tokyo, several
schools had programs specifically designed to educate the nisei. Some ofthe programs, such as one at Waseda Kokusai Gakuin, were intended to
instill Japanese nationalism and respect for the Japanese emperor. However,other programs, such as that at Keisen Jyogakuin Ryūgakusei Tokubetsu-ka,
respected the background of the nisei as Japanese Americans and taught
them to become individuals who could help facilitate US–Japan relations.8
The second way that the nisei went to Japan involved shorter visits.
Called “study tours” (kengakudan), students who were selected to join thiskind of program visited Japan for several months, met notable Japaneseindividuals, and experienced traditional Japanese culture. One of the earliest
study groups was organized by the Nichibei Shimbun (Japan-US Newspaper)in San Francisco. As detailed by the late Japanese American historian Yuji
Ichioka, study tours were organized in 1925 and 1926 by Abiko Kyūtarō,
who was Nichibei Shimbun’s publisher and a leader in Japanese American
society.9
Kengakudan deserve special mention here, as they have interesting214

Okiyoshi Takeda

similarities with, and differences from, the post–World War II JALD
program, which was initiated some seventy-five years later. One of thestrongest similarities is the idea of sending a group of Japanese Americans
to Japan for a short period of time to let them learn about Japan through avariety of events.10 Just as the JALD participants meet dignitaries in Japan(as discussed later), the kengakudan participants also met important
individuals. The 1925 group met Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijūrō,
members of both houses of the Diet, and the American ambassador to Japan,
and the group made trips to regional cities such as Kyoto.11 The similarities
between the two programs, however, go beyond their itineraries. The core
principles of the two programs have some overlap. In a newspaper article tosend off the first kengakudan, the Nichibei Shimbun made the following
comment:“Japanese American citizens have the important and lofty mission ofcontributing to Japanese-American [sic] amity by deepening American
understanding of Japan and the Japanese.”12
One can see how the expectations for Japanese Americans have evolved
over more than eighty years by looking at the section of the U.S.–Japan
Council homepage entitled “Why Japanese Americans?”:“Japanese Americans have a distinct connection to Japan, emanatingfrom a shared heritage, upbringing and history. Recognizing thisspecial tie, the U.S.–Japan Council encourages Japanese Americans toengage in local, regional and national activities that contribute to U.S.–
Japan relations.”13
One difference is that while kengakudan aimed to educate Americans
about Japan, the USJC encourages Japanese Americans to be actively
involved in U.S.–Japan relations.
Another difference, of course, is that the JALD participants are middleaged to senior Japanese Americans, whereas those who took part inkengakudan were high school or college students.14 Because travel in Japanthrough kengakudan spanned several months (compared with the one-week
JALD program), some nisei who could not speak Japanese came back to theUnited States knowing Japanese. One of the 1925 kengakudan participants
contributed the following remarks to the Nichibei Shimbun: “I made my
first Japanese speech yesterday at a gathering of Japanese people in this

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215

district (Burley, Idaho). Talked to them for practically one hour and a halfconcerning our whole trip to Japan. They were certainly glad to have theinformation, even if it was delivered in broken Japanese. Many were
surprised at my radical improvement in being able to speak so fluently.”15
Following Nichibei Shimbun’s two kengakudan trips, several other Japaneselanguage newspapers in the United States organized similar study groups toJapan. According to Ichioka, “[p]refectural associations, religiousorganizations, educational bodies, and other cultural groups also organized
their own kengakudan and sent them to Japan.”16

II. ‌Japanese Americans and Japan during and after World War II
Despite the efforts of these and other Japanese Americans, “bridges”
were broken by the Japanese military’s sudden attacks on Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941 (local time; December 8, Tokyo time). The subsequentstories of Japanese Americans are familiar ones: 120,000 people of Japanesedescent on the West Coast were sent to “internment camps,” and although alarge-scale removal of Japanese people did not take place in Hawai‘i,
community leaders there were arrested and sent to detention centers andcamps on the mainland. All Japanese and Japanese Americans struggledwith what the war meant to them, as they were ordered to answer loyalty
questions, and many nisei men were either drafted into or volunteered for
the US military. As the United States began to bomb Japanese cities in 1945,
many issei became concerned about their homeland. In particular, whenreports of the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima reached the Japanese in the
United States, many issei were worried because a substantial number ofthem had emigrated from Hiroshima Prefecture and had immediate family
there.
When World War II ended, interned Japanese people either had to moveto new places in the central and eastern parts of the United States or returnto the West Coast to begin a new life. Nevertheless, the news that postwar
Japan was plagued by poverty and a lack of resources prompted JapaneseAmericans to take action. Many Japanese Americans donated resources
through an agency called LARA (Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia).
LARA operated from November 1946 through May 1952, led by religious
groups such as the Church World Service, the American Friends Service
Committee, and the Catholic War Relief Services.17 LARA sent resources toJapan worth 40 billion yen, including “food, clothing, medicine, shoes, soap
. . . 2,036 goats,18 and 45 milk cows.”19 Twenty percent of the LARA

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Okiyoshi Takeda

resources were donated by people of Japanese ancestry in North and SouthAmerica. The records indicate that as many as thirty-six Japaneseorganizations in the Americas contributed to LARA.20
However, after this short period following World War II, JapaneseAmericans tended to distance themselves from Japan. Many nisei regarded
their internment experience with shame (haji) and did not talk about it with
their sansei (third-generation Japanese) children. According to Irene Hirano
Inouye, “in general, among Japanese Americans, those who had higher
status and were in leadership positions tended to avoid engagement in US–
Japan relations.”21 Furthermore, during the process of redress for internment,
the Japanese American community needed to “[show] distance from Japanand loyalty to the United States” to obtain “U.S. government apology andcompensation.”22
Moreover, “[i]t was acknowledged by both sides that in the past there had
been some discrimination on the part of the Japanese toward JapaneseAmericans.”23 One episode that exemplifies such discrimination involved
Daniel Inouye, who became a member of the US House of Representatives
in 1959, the year when Hawai‘i gained statehood. Inouye visited Japan thatyear and met with Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke. Inouye suggested that it
would be a good idea to have a Japanese American as a US Ambassador to
Japan. Kishi told Inouye that Japanese immigrants had left Japan because
they failed economically in Japan: he said that the Japanese government
would not welcome such persons as ambassadors.24

III. Establishment and Itinerary of Jald
The changing environment for Japanese Americans led to the start of the
JALD program. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, as the US economy was
struggling, US–Japan trade frictions were intense, and Americans frequently
resorted to “Japan bashing,” which affected not only Japanese companies in
the United States but also Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans.
One famous incident involved Vincent Chin, who was killed by two white
men in Detroit in 1982. One of the men had been laid off by a US automobile
company, and they reportedly mistook Chin (a Chinese American) for a
Japanese national, blaming him for layoffs by US automobile companies.
After a quarrel in a bar, they beat Chin with a baseball bat, and he died fourdays later.25 In the early 1990s, the Japanese American Citizens League
received “letters with racial hatred,” and they even had “Molotov cocktails
thrown into their offices.”26

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However, as the US economy improved in the latter half of the 1990s, thenecessity for Japanese Americans to be afraid of Japan bashing decreased.
Moreover, the sansei and the yonsei (fourth-generation Japanese) began tohave different attitudes toward Japan than their nisei parents andgrandparents. Some of them were more keenly aware of the benefits ofconnecting Japanese Americans to Japan: those in San Francisco built a
relationship with its sister city, Osaka, and those in Los Angeles contacted
corporations in Japan to raise funds for a new pavilion for the JapaneseAmerican National Museum (hereafter JANM), which opened in 1999.27
The proposal for the first JALD program was made by Japanese Americans
in San Francisco, including Kaz Maniwa and Paul Osaki. According to
Maniwa, the San Francisco Japanese American leaders conceived of the
program when Japan bashing was still intense, in the early 1990s. They
thought that more dialogue between the two countries was necessary, andthey wanted people in Japan to understand how Japanese Americans wereaffected. Although the Japanese Consul General in San Francisco at thattime did present the idea to MOFA, after this first suggestion, the proposed
program did not develop further.28
It was not until fall 1999 when Tanaka Hitoshi was the consul general in
San Francisco that the program materialized. Although Tanaka acknowledgedolder Japanese communities, mostly of nisei, he wanted to encourage ayounger community of Japanese Americans who looked at Japan from
American perspectives.29 Therefore, there were no conflicts between Tanaka
and the group headed by Maniwa about the concept of the program.30 The
questions Maniwa’s group were asked were about more practical issues,
such as how they would select delegates, who they wanted to meet in Japan,
and what they were going to tell the people they met. As Tanaka returned toJapan in December 1999, the program was approved during the term of thenext Consul General. MOFA provided half of the funding, and the delegatescovered expenses for the other half.31 The first JALD group visited Japan
from September 25 to October 6 in 2000. Reflecting the nature of the
program’s inception, the twelve-member delegation consisted of eightpeople from Northern California and four from Southern California.32
Because it was initially intended to be a one-time program, no delegation
was sent in calendar year 2001.33 However, when a new Consul General,
Kohno Masaharu, arrived in Los Angeles, Irene Hirano,34 then president of
the JANM, asked him to send another leadership delegation to Japan.
Consul General Kohno persuaded MOFA to secure funding, and the seconddelegation visited Japan in March 2002.35 At that time, it was still unclear

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Okiyoshi Takeda

whether it could be made into an annual program with continuous funding
every year. Recognizing the significance of the program as proven throughthe 2000 and 2002 visits, MOFA made it an annual program, and the CGP
also decided to become a joint sponsor in 2003 and beyond.36 Since 2003,
the CGP and the JANM have cosponsored a public symposium in regional
cities during JALD’s itinerary. As Irene Hirano Inouye left the JANM andestablished USJC in April 2009, since 2010, the symposium has beencosponsored by the CGP and USJC.
A typical JALD itinerary is as follows: The delegation stays in Japan forseven to eight days and visits Tokyo and one or two regional cities (including
Kyoto in the previous years). In Tokyo, the delegates meet with senior
MOFA officials and political appointees, (former) Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives Kōno Yōhei, his son and current member of the House,
Kōno Tarō, members of Nippon Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation),
Keizai Dōyūkai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), and Forum
21 (a group of young business leaders), high-level officials at the US
Embassy, and Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado. The delegation
also meets with a group of Japanese Americans in Tokyo. (this meeting wasorganized by the business leader Glen S. Fukushima until 2012.)37 The
delegation gains appreciation of Japanese traditional culture when they
have a chance to visit old temples and watch kyōgen (traditional comic
theater) in Kyoto and elsewhere.
The CGP has held its symposium in a number of major cities, including
Tokyo (2003), Kyoto (2004), Kobe (2005), and Nagoya (2006). From 2007,
the CGP began meeting in those prefecture capitals that have sent many
Japanese immigrants to the United States; namely, Hiroshima (2007),
Fukuoka (2008), and Okinawa (2009).38 In 2010, in celebration of the tenthyear anniversary of the JALD program, the symposium was held in Tokyo.
The 2011 symposium was held in Osaka. In 2012 (Sendai) and 2013
(Fukushima), the symposia were held in the Tohoku region as part of relief
activities that USJC was conducting for the areas hit by the March 11, 2011,
great earthquake. The 2014 symposium was held in Fukuoka, and in 2015 it
was held in Hiroshima as the delegation met with the governors of therespective prefectures. To have enough time for all of the activities, Kyoto
is no longer on the delegation’s itinerary.39

IV. Goals and Participants of Jald
At this time, USJC sets the goals of the JALD program as follows:Closing the Gap

219

1. Improve understanding and strengthen long term relations between
Japanese Americans and Japan.
2. Develop and implement ongoing strategies to expand the role ofJapanese Americans in advancing U.S.–Japan relations.
3. Develop a network of Japanese American leaders that will continue
to advance long term U.S.–Japan relations, at the regional, national
and international levels.40
MOFA’s press release describes the goals of JALD similarly, emphasizingthat the purpose of the program is “for Japanese American leaders . . . toincrease understanding of Japan and offer opportunities to build networks
with our country. After returning from Japan, the delegates are, in cooperation
with Japanese Americans and leaders in Japan, expected to promote concrete
activities to strengthen long-term Japan-US relations.”41
Currently, ten members are selected for the JALD program each year
based on their occupation, geographic location, gender, and seniority.
Applicants submit their applications to USJC and the Consulate-General of
the jurisdictions in which they live (the Japanese Embassy in the case of
Washington, DC). Although the various Consuls General may apply
differing recruitment and review methods, the basic procedure is to nominate
candidates from applicants in their jurisdiction and recommend them to
MOFA. Meanwhile, USJC’s screening committee, which consists of past
JALD members, makes a list of recommended candidates and alternatesfrom among the recommendations from all the Consulates-General. Then,
using the recommendations from the Consulates-General and the USJC
screening committee, MOFA finalizes the delegation.42
Geographical balance is highly valued in selecting the delegates;43
currently, no Consul General sends more than one delegate from his or her
region. Until 2011, when the number of delegates was twelve or thirteen peryear (fifteen in 2006), the jurisdictions with the largest numbers of JapaneseAmericans—San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu—sent twodelegates each. Even with two slots, it was difficult for these Consuls
General to select delegates, as there were many applications in theseregions.44 The geographical development of the JALD program is shown in
the Table 1 below. Although the 2000 and 2002 delegations were exclusively
from California, the 2003 delegation included members from Hawai‘i andSeattle. The program became nationwide around 2004/2005.45
The level of knowledge of delegates about Japan and their career
experiences have changed over the past fifteen years. The political andConsulate-General’s Office2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total
Hagatna (Guam)0
Saipan0
Anchorage0
Honolulu
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
22
San Francisco
8
4
3
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
37
Los Angeles
4
6
4
2
2
2
2
2
2b
2
2
1
1
1
33
1
1
1
1
1
10
Portland*
1
1
1
1
1c
Seattle
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
13
Denver
1
1
1
1d
1
1
1
1
8
Houston1
1
1
1
15
Atlanta
1
1f
2
Nashville**
0
Miami
1
1
2
Chicago
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
11
Detroit1
1
Boston
1
1
1
1
1
1
6
New York
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
12
Washington, DC (Japanese Embassy)
1
1
1a
1a
1
2
1
2e
2e
1
1
14
Total
12
10
10
12
12
15
13
13
13
13
13
10
10
10
10 176* Changed from the Consulate-General’s Office to the Consular Office in January 2013 for budgetary reasons.
**Moved from New Orleans in January 2008, as many Japanese companies began to operate in Tennessee.
a: Participant from Maryland. b: One participant was from Arizona. c: Participant from Vancouver, Washington.
d: Participant from New Mexico. e: One participant was from Virginia. f: Participant from North Carolina.
Other than these participants, all delegates were from the city or its vicinity where the Consulate-General's Office is located.
Source: Tabulated by the author from USJC, “Japanese American Leadership Delegation Archive” at http://www.usjapancouncil.org/jald.

Table 1. Number‌of Participants in the JALD Program by Jurisdictions of Consulates-General and Year

220
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economic leaders in Japan who met the first few delegations told Glen
Fukushima that they were surprised at how little the delegates knew about
Japan and US–Japan relations. Prior to 2010, a primary criterion was toselect delegates who had never visited Japan and had little experience with
US–Japan relations. In response, Fukushima proposed to Irene Hirano thatan orientation meeting be held for delegates before they left for Japan thatcovered lectures on US–Japan relations and current issues in Japan.46 Thisidea was adopted, and the orientations have been held for the past tendelegations or so in Los Angeles about one month before the delegates leave
for Japan.47 USJC requires selected delegates to participate in the orientationor they will be disqualified from joining the delegation.48
With regard to career experience, the first few delegations had many
participants from the NGO sector,49 and many of them had not been to
Japan.50 In 2010, with the tenth anniversary of JALD, the criteria weremodified to include more senior Japanese American leaders who had
experience in US–Japan relations. This has resulted in delegations since2010 that have more individuals in senior-level business and otheroccupations, and those who have previously been to Japan have also been
selected. This shift is reflected in the delegation-selection criteria: forexample, the criteria for the March 2016 delegation included the following:“Successful and senior leadership in one’s profession; High level of interestor experience in U.S.–Japan relations; Commitment to strengthening U.S.–
Japan relations in the future; Interest in expanding the role of JapaneseAmericans in U.S.–Japan relations.”51 In addition, USJC states that “[i]nprinciple, delegates should be 40 to 55 years of age to enable longer-term
opportunities to build U.S.–Japan relations in their respective professionaland community activities.”52 Many of the successfully elected delegateshave experience working for Japanese American communities, such asserving as officers for Japanese American Chambers of Commerce, theJapan America Society, the Japanese American Citizens League, the JANM,
and professional Asian American associations. Some of the delegates in thepast few years were already USJC members when they were selected;
indeed, all ten delegates in 2015 became USJC members before or after thetrip.53
The composition of the recent delegations is as follows. Of the tendelegates in 2012, “two had worked in Japan; two had studied there; andtwo had never even visited Japan before. Three spoke Japanese fluently, andanother two passably.”54 In 2015, “[u]nlike all previous JALD groups that
included Japanese Americans who had not been to Japan, our group was the

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first comprised of Shin-Issei [new, post–World War II, first-generation
Japanese], Nisei, Sansei, and Yonsei, all of whom had previously experienced
Japan, some many times and for extended periods.”55
From 2000 to 2015, 176 delegates participated in the JALD program.
Notable delegates included attorney Dale Minami (2003), who was amember of the legal team that overturned the Supreme Court case Korematsu
v. United States, which upheld the exclusion order on people of Japanesedescent during World War II; the late Kip Tokuda, a former member of the
Washington State House of Representatives (2003); playwright Philip Kan
Gotanda (2006); Sharon Tomiko Santos, a member of the Washington State
House of Representatives (2006); Stuart Ishimaru, a commissioner of theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission (2010); Moni Miyashita, thenvice-president of IBM (2010); and Kenneth Oye, professor at MIT (2011).

V. The Achievements of the Jald Program
In 2006, Iino Masako interviewed the 2000–2005 JALD delegates andreported that the program was very effective. According to Iino, the program
achieved the following:(1) Delegates’ interest in their roots and identities were deepened.
(2) Delegates’ views of Japan and the Japanese people were improved
or expanded.
(3) Delegates have increasingly participated in activities in JapaneseAmerican communities and US–Japan relations.
(4) Delegates’ networks were strengthened.56
By reviewing the “personal reflection” section of the CGP and the USJC’s
JALD reports, and by conducting interviews, I was able to confirm that the
JALD program did indeed produce these outcomes. Admittedly, the CGP
and JALD reports prepared by the delegates are official reports of the
program, and thus they are less likely to have negative opinions about the
program. Nevertheless, reading the “personal reflection” section gives asense of the excitement and appreciation the delegates felt about having
participated in the program.
(1) With respect to enhancing one’s identity as Japanese American, Stan
Koyanagi (JALD 2008) reported: “[w]hile strolling through the grounds ofNanzenzi temple in Kyoto, I felt a deep sense of inner peace and calm. And
during the trip, I had recurring feelings that, by connecting back to Japan

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through the Delegation program, I was honoring the spirit of my grandparents
who had the tremendous courage and pioneering spirit to emigrate fromJapan to the United States in the early part of the 20th century.”57 Keiko
Matsudo Orrall (JALD 2014) wrote: “[f]or the first time in my life, I waswith others who looked like me. My experience brought me to a place where
I realized that as a ‘hafu’—not completely Japanese and not completely
Caucasian—I can contribute in a unique way to strengthening U.S.–Japan
relations while appreciating my Japanese heritage.”58(2) On increasing and improving one’s knowledge about Japan and theJapanese people, Lori S. C. Yokoyama (JALD 2008) stated: “[o]ur exposure
to the Japanese culture, business, political climate and social mores allowed
me to develop a deeper respect for what it means to be Japanese and how it
is so distinct from what I have experienced growing up.”59 Asked what thegreatest achievement of the JALD program was, one interviewee said that it
was the creation of a new group of people in the United States who think
deeply about Japan.60(3) On increasing participation in Japanese American communities and
US–Japan relations, Hirano Inouye cited the following examples in the2010 CGP symposium: Robert Ichikawa (JALD 2006) “took a team of 11and 12-year-old baseball players (including his son) to Okayama andHiroshima to play in goodwill baseball games”; Bryan Takeda (JALD 2000)“started a program taking a group of teenage students from Pasadena,
California to Mt. Fuji International Summer Camp”; Paul Niwa (JALD2008) “brought his journalism postgraduate fellows to Japan”; and Donna
Cole (JALD 2006) “has become an active member in supporting the Japan
Festival and helping to raise money for the Japanese Garden Renovation in
Hermann Park” in Houston.61(4) The strengthened network of Japanese Americans was cited as one of
the greatest achievements by several interviewees.62 Lynn Hashimoto(JALD 2015) remarked: “[s]ince our return to the U.S., we have continued
to stay in close touch and I am certain that we will remain united for life—
both as friends and as collaborative supporters of U.S.–Japan relations.”63 In
the words of Tracey Doi (JALD 2010), “[a]nother huge benefit of the JALD
has been the formation of a lasting network of Japanese American friends
across the United States with a shared interest in U.S.–Japan relations andsupport of our Japanese American community.”64
As a result of JALD alumni networking, a reunion conference of JALD
participants from 2000 to 2007 was held in Honolulu in August 2007. Forty
past participants gathered at their own expense for a reunion conference, not224

Okiyoshi Takeda“to do sightseeing or have a social party” but to discuss “the promotion of
US–Japan relations and the future of Japanese American communities in
America.”65 A similar reunion was held in San Francisco in July 2009,
where more than eighty alumni participated at their own expense. Since
2010, USJC has held its own annual conference, which has partially played
the role of JALD reunions.
Participants in the JALD program often call the program a “once in a
lifetime experience/opportunity.” Why has the program been able to attainthese achievements, even though the delegation trips themselves are very
brief?
The first reason can be traced to the leadership skills of Irene Hirano
Inouye. Her network of Japanese political and economic leaders, as well as
her contacts with Japanese American leaders, which was fostered throughher work as president of the JANM for twenty years (including fund-raising
for the museum’s new pavilion), have helped the JALD program operate
effectively. In the past five years or so, Hirano Inouye has scheduled faceto-face meetings with Japanese prime ministers outside of the JALD
framework.66 She is also good at making sure the delegates prepare for eachmeeting during their stay in Japan.67
The second reason the JALD program has been so successful is that theJapanese government strives to give the delegates a good impression ofJapan.68 The delegation meets senior-level people in government, business,and politics as well as Princess Takamado. Of course, an ordinary group ofJapanese Americans visiting Japan would not have the opportunity to meetsuch people—so the program has a somewhat artificial aspect, as the people
the delegates meet do not reflect the everyday world.69 Some of the delegates
understand this point. One participant (Derek Okubo, JALD 2014) said: “[t]his trip was like no other I have taken before or will again in the future. How
often do you get to visit with the Prime Minister, a member of the Imperial
Family, members of Parliament, prefecture elected officials and corporate
leadership of globally influential companies ... all in one trip?”70
The Japanese government treats the JALD program so seriously that it
has allowed the delegates to meet the prime minister since 2008. This
courtesy call was made possible after Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo’s trip to
the United States in November 2007, when he proposed a three-part
initiative to President George W. Bush to strengthen US–Japan relations(through intellectual exchange, grassroots exchange, and Japanese-language
education) and President Bush supported the initiative.71 Because theinitiative included relationships with Japanese Americans, MOFA asked theClosing the Gap

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Prime Minister’s Office about the possibility of a courtesy call. As the Prime
Minister’s Office came to better appreciate the value of the JALD program,and as the understanding of the Prime Minister’s Office increased, the idea
materialized.72 The 2008 delegation became the first group to meet Prime
Minister Fukuda Yasuo on March 5, 2008. Since then, the 2009 delegation
met with Prime Minister Asō Tarō (March 3), the 2010 delegation met with
Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio (March 3), the 2012 delegation met with
Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko (March 7), and the 2013, 2014, and 2015
delegations met with Prime Minister Abe Shinzō (March 15, March 12, andMarch 11, respectively).73
By giving the delegations such rare opportunities, one might wonder if
the Japanese government wants Japanese Americans to act as its agents or
go-betweens when conflicts arise between the two countries. Such highexpectations were not mentioned by the interviewees.74 One MOFA official
reported that delegates were expected to work with Consuls Generalvoluntarily and to disseminate accurate information about Japan.75 Another
MOFA official also noted that the extent to which delegates engaged in
US–Japan relations depended on the individual but that it would be nice ifthey let people know that there were no grounds for the unfounded rumors
about what happened after the great earthquake on March 11, 2011.76

VI. Developments in the 2010s
In 2009, the U.S.–Japan Council was established to build a network ofJapanese Americans, engage them in U.S–Japan relations, and strengthen
the relationship between the two countries. According to Fukushima,“Although the primary focus of this group is Japanese Americans, a neutral
name, ‘U.S.–Japan Council,’ was proposed by Fukushima as the name of
the new organization and endorsed by Senator Inouye.”77 Irene Hirano
Inouye has been the president of the Council since its inception. Thomas
Iino (in Los Angeles) was the chair of the board of Directors until December
2014. As of October 2015, the USJC headquarters are in Washington, DC,with ten staffers, and there is a Senior Vice President (Kaz Maniwa, JALD
2000) in San Francisco, a staffer in Los Angeles, and an office in Tokyo.78
One set of USJC’s major activities is the TOMODACHI Initiative, which“is a public–private partnership between the U.S.–Japan Council and the
U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Born out of support for Japan’s recovery from thegreat earthquake on March 11, 2011, the TOMODACHI Initiative isintended to produce the next generation of Japanese and American leaders

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through educational and cultural exchanges as well as leadershipprograms.”79 Several of the programs sent high school students from the
Tohoku region to the United States, and in 2014, as many as fifty exchange
programs were held in twenty-five locations in the United States andJapan.80 Many of the programs are funded by a variety of corporations, andthey include the corporations’ names in the programs.81
There is a reason why the USJC undertook the TOMODACHI Initiative,
whose purpose is not limited to the promotion of Japanese American issues
alone. According to one USJC staff member:
When the 3.11 disasters struck, many USJC Members wanted to help
Japan, and many in the community looked to USJC as a platform tosupport Tohoku, so USJC created the Earthquake Relief Fund andmany of the USJC Members actively educated their communities
about Tohoku’s situation. Many USJC members visited Tohoku on
their own or with other groups. USJC focused its giving under the fundon Japanese NPOs working in Tohoku.
When Ambassador John Roos realized that following the military’s
Operation Tomodachi, there would be a need for the private sector to
support a second phase of support to Tohoku, he came up with the ideaof what became the TOMODACHI Initiative. He had great support
from many quarters, and one key piece of advice from the State
Department was to make the TOMODACHI Initiative a public–private
partnership, and to choose a private sector partner wisely. The
Ambassador recognized that the USJC agenda and activities were all
focused on supporting U.S.-Japan relations in innovative and nontraditional areas (NPO, education, exchanges, women’s leadership,
entrepreneurship, technology) that aligned with the needs in the wakeof the 3.11 disaster, so he asked USJC to partner with him on
TOMODACHI.82
Among the various TOMODACHI Initiative programs, a unique programis the TOMODACHI Inouye Scholars Program. The purpose of this programis to let the participating college students “learn about the legacy of the late
Senator Daniel K. Inouye . . . Specifically, students learn about Senator
Inouye’s contributions to his state, his country, his heritage and to the U.S.–
Japan relationship.”83 The program is “designed to allow U.S. college
students [to] visit Japan, and Japanese college students to visit the UnitedStates. . . . The point of [this] program was to honor the Senator’s legacy,Closing the Gap

227

and each of the [participating] schools approached his legacy differently.”84
The Inouye Scholars Program is unique in that it is funded as part of the“Kakehashi” Project (exchange programs with North America) operated by
MOFA.
Some Japanese politicians argued that, in addition to receiving JapaneseAmerican leaders during their trips to Japan, high-level Japanese politicians
should stop by Japanese American communities when they visit the UnitedStates. One notable member of the Diet who has voiced this belief is Kōno
Tarō. Kōno has hosted a dinner for every JALD delegation since 2000,85 andhe has attended many of the Japanese American–related symposia andmeetings. Kōno has repeatedly argued on his official blog that when
Japanese prime minister or foreign minister visits the United States, theyshould visit Japanese American communities.86
Kōno’s wish materialized when Prime Minister Abe Shinzō visited Los
Angeles on his way back from a speech he gave to a joint session of the US
Congress on April 29, 2015 (during which he mentioned that “[w]e all missSenator Daniel Inouye, who symbolized the honor and achievements ofJapanese-Americans).”87 Abe placed a wreath at the Go for Broke monument,
which honors Japanese Americans who served in the US military during
World War II, and then visited the nearby JANM on May 1. The nextmorning, he met with students of the Kakehashi Tomodachi Project (local
time respectively).88

Conclusion
According to Kristen Dozono (JALD 2008), “[t]he JALD generated a
new bond and network among Japanese American leaders that waspreviously non-existent and very much in need.”89 The actions taken by
JALD members after the great earthquake of March 11, 2011, are very
illustrative of this networking. The earthquake occurred on the final day of
the 2011 delegation’s official trip. Irene Hirano Inouye encouraged delegatesto report to their local media back in the United States on their firsthandexperiences and the need for relief, and the delegates did indeed speak to
many television, radio, and newspaper journalists.90 On returning to Los
Angeles, Hirano Inouye appeared on the KTLA morning news anchored byFrank Buckley (JALD 2006) and asked for contributions through USJC’s
Earthquake Relief Fund. The fund collected US$ 1.5 million within one
month and US$ 2.6 million by July 31, 2012.91
Although in this article I have traced the development of a network of228

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Japanese Americans involved in US–Japan relations, I do not argue that all
Japanese Americans are moving in that direction. In fact, in 2004, there wasa heated debate in the Nichi Bei Times in San Francisco (which ceased
publication in 2009) about whether Japanese Americans should engage in
US–Japan relations. In response to Irene Hirano’s interview entitled “Unique
Position: Japanese Americans Can Build Bridges between Japan and the
U.S. at the Grass-Roots Level,”92 nisei film producer Chizu Omori
contributed an article entitled “JAs Needn’t Serve as ‘Bridge’ Between
U.S., Japan,” in which she said that “anything that smacks of making Nikkei[those of Japanese descent] Americans feel obligations to be a bridge groupbetween Japan and the U.S. raises my hackles,” and “[w]e are first andforemost, Americans, and we are no longer Japanese.”93 The Nichi Bei
Times solicited opinions from six Japanese Americans and six individuals
from Japanese-speaking communities about whether Japanese Americans
should serve as a bridge between the two countries,94 and it received a wide
range of responses.95 The Nichi Bei Times won a grand prize award from theOverseas Japanese Press Association for this project.96
Among those who disagreed with Omori in the Nichi Bei Times were pastand future JALD delegates (Paul Osaki, 2000, and Emily Moto Murase,2013), which suggests that JALD participants were not necessarily
representative of average Japanese Americans.97 Nevertheless, membershipof USJC has been on the rise, growing from 97 in 2009 to 178 in 2011 and403 in 2014.98
Future scholarly research should examine whether and if so how JALD
participants have changed their roles in their Japanese American
communities, what contributions multiracial and multiethnic JapaneseAmericans can make to their communities, and whether people in Japanacknowledge the activities that Japanese Americans engage in to strengthen
US–Japan relations.99

Notes
This is a revised and updated version of my article “Japanese American
Leadership Delegation Program: The Emergence of a New Network ofJapanese Americans Involved in US–Japan Relations” (in Japanese), Imin
Kenkyu Nenpō [Annual review of migration studies] 18 (March 2012):139–
50. I thank the editorial board of the journal for allowing me to use substantial
portions of the article. I am also grateful to interviewees for giving me
permission to reuse interview data. The views expressed by intervieweesClosing the Gap229

are their personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the official
positions of organizations they belong(ed) to. Any remaining errors aremine.
In this article, Japanese names (including Japanese immigrants before
World War II) are listed with last names first, whereas Japanese Americannames have given names first.
Teresa Watanabe, “Reconnecting with Israel: A Program Puts Young Jewish
Americans in Touch with Their Ancestral Land, Forging Deeper Ties and Seeking to
Build Future Support,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2007, 1. I thank Glen S.
Fukushima for bringing this article to my attention.
2 Ellen D. Wu, “Chinese American Transnationalism Aboard the ‘Love Boat’: The
Overseas Chinese Youth Language Training and Study Tour to the Republic of China.”
Chinese America: History and Perspectives 19 (2005): 51–64.
3 Another purpose of this article is to chronicle the history of the JALD program byusing various public records and interviews, which, unless somebody assembles them,cannot be pieced it together.
4 The only exception is Jane Yamashiro, who briefly mentions the JALD program in
the contexts of ethnic return migration and diaspora. Jane H. Yamashiro, “Ethnic Return
Migration Policies and Asian American Labor in Japan and Korea,” aapi nexus 10, no. 1(Spring 2012): 21–39 (see 37); and “Working towards Conceptual Consistency in
Discussing ‘Diaspora’ and ‘Diaspora Strategies’: Ethnicity and Affinity in the Case ofJapan,” Geoforum 59 (2015): 178–86 (see 183 and 185).
5 The CGP reports 2003–2009, as well as the abbreviated reports of the CGP 2013 and2014 symposia, can be found at https://www.jpf.go.jp/cgp/info/publication/index.html.
6 The USJC’s JALD 2010–2015 reports can be found at http://www.usjapancouncil.
org/jald.
7 Azuma Eiichirō, “1930 nendai no Tokyo ni okeru Nikkei Amerika zin nisei ryūgaku
jigyō to nihon syokuminchi syugi” [The second-generation Japanese American study
abroad project in Tokyo in the 1930s and Japanese colonialism], Amerika Nikkei Nisei to
Ekkyo Kyōiku [Transnational education for Japanese American nisei], ed. Yoshida Ryō(Tokyo: Fuji Syuppan, 2012), 21–56 (see 23).
8 Azuma, “1930 nendai no Tokyo ni okeru Nikkei Amerika zin nisei,” 37–42, 45–49.
9 Yuji Ichioka, “Kengakudan: The Origin of Nisei Study Tours of Japan,” in Before
Internment: Essays in Prewar Japanese American History, eds. Gordon H. Chang andEiichiro Azuma (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), 53–74.
10 There were eleven participants in the 1925 kengakudan, and in 1926 there were ten.
Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 59, 68. For the numbers of JALD delegates, see Table 1.
11 Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 63.
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Cited in Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 60.
USJC, “Why Japanese Americans?,” http://www.usjapancouncil.org/about (accessed
September 21, 2015).
14 Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 59, 68.
15 Cited in Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 64.
16 Ichioka, “Kengakudan,” 72.
17 Iino Masako, Mou hitotsu no Nichibei Kankeishi: Funso to Kyochō no nakano
Nikkei America Jin [Another US-Japanese History: Japanese Americans in Conflicts andCooperation] (Tokyo: Yūhikaku, 2000), 143–68.
18 In his address to the joint session of the US Congress on April 29, 2015, Prime
Minister Abe Shinzō mentioned the goats as follows: “Seventy years ago, Japan had
been reduced to ashes. Then came each and every month from the citizens of the UnitedStates gifts to Japan like milk for our children and warm sweaters, and even goats. Yes,
from America, 2,036 goats came to Japan.” The full transcript of Abe’s speech (both inEnglish and Japanese translation) was published in Asahi Shimbun on April 30, 2015.
The number of goats exactly matches the number Iino reports.
19 Iino, Mou hitotsu no Nichibei Kankeishi, 143.
20 Ibid., 152–55.
21 Irene Hirano Inouye, “Nikkei Amerika jin no Nihon kan: 4 sei ya 5 sei ga kakeru
nitibeikan no shinkyō” [View of Japan by Japanese Americans: The new bridges fourthand fifth generations make between Japan and the United States], Nikkei Business
Online, May 24, 2010, 		http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/world/20100521/214549/?r
t=3Dnocnt (accessed October 4, 2015).
22 Glen S. Fukushima, “Don’t Be a Bridge, Be a Player!,” 5 (remarks at the CGP
symposium in San Francisco, California, July 24, 2006). Cited with permission.
23 Numata Sadaaki (as Japanese Ambassador to Canada),“Forging Cooperation with
Nikkei People” (speech at the COPANI [Convention of Pan-American Nikkei] XIII
lunch, July 7, 2005, Vancouver, Canada). Cited with permission.
24 Quoted in Fukushima, “Don’t Be a Bridge, Be a Player!,” 5–6. Before his death,
Inouye made this story public in talks at several symposia that I attended.
25 Andrew L. Aoki and Okiyoshi Takeda, Asian American Politics (Cambridge, UK:
Polity, 2009), 30.
26 Masako Iino, “‘Nihon tataki’ to Nikkei oyobi Azia kei Amerika jin” [“Japan bashing”
and Japanese and Asian Americans], in Nichibei Kankei ni Okeru Ethnicity no Yōso
[Ethnicity in the History of the U.S.-Japan Relationship], ed , Sōgō Kenkyū Kaihatsu
Kikō (Tokyo: Sōgō Kenkyū Kaihatsu Kikō, 1995), 87–97 (see 89 and 87, respectively).
27 Irene Hirano Inouye, phone interview with the author, June 9, 2011.
28 Kaz Maniwa, phone interview with the author, August 24, 2011.
29 Tanaka Hitoshi, interview with the author, Tokyo, August 22, 2011.
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Maniwa, interview with the author; Tanaka, interview with the author.
Maniwa, interview with the author.
32 USJC, “2000 Japanese American Leadership Delegation,” http://www.usjapan​
council.org/2000_jald (accessed October 4, 2015).
33 However, because the Japanese fiscal year runs from April 1 through March 31, the2002 delegation was funded by MOFA’s budget for fiscal year 2001. Because thesubsequent delegations visited Japan in March, there was no yearly discontinuity ofdelegations when counted by fiscal years. MOFA official A, interview with the author,
Tokyo, May 18, 2011.
34 Irene Hirano married Senator Daniel Inouye in May 2008 and changed her name to
Irene Hirano Inouye.
35 Hirano Inouye, interview with the author; former MOFA official, phone interview
with the author, January 19, 2012.
36 Hirano Inouye, interview with the author; former MOFA official, interview with theauthor.
37 Glen S. Fukushima, interview with the author, Tokyo, June 10, 2011. Later in 2012,
Fukushima returned to the United States and became a Senior Fellow at the Center for
American Progress in Washington, DC. The meeting with Japanese Americans in Tokyo
is now organized by a business executive Paul Yonamine.
38 The itineraries of the delegations 2004–2009 can be found in the CGP reports.
39 The itineraries of the delegations 2010–2015 can be found in the USJC’s JALD
reports.
40 USJC, “2016 Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan: 16th Delegation,” 1,
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/usjc/pages/35/attachments/original/​
1440092062/2016_JALD_FACT_SHEET.pdf?1440092062 (accessed August 26, 2015).
41 MOFA, “Hōdō Happyō: Zaibei nikkeijin shidōsya no rainichi” [Press release: The
visit to Japan by Japanese American leaders], March 5, 2015, http://www.mofa.go.jp/
mofaj/press/release/press4_001868.html (accessed October 5, 2015).
42 MOFA official B, phone interview with the author, May 24, 2011; Hirano Inouye,interview with the author.
43 MOFA official B, interview with the author; Hirano Inouye, interview with theauthor.
44 MOFA official C, interview with the author, Tokyo, June 6, 2011.
45 Given the purpose of JALD to foster US-Japan relations, it became desirable to havedelegates selected from the Detroit and Nashville areas, where many Japanese automobile
company employees and their families live. From the Detroit area, Toshiki Masaki ofFord Motors was chosen in 2015 for the first time. USJC, “2015 Japanese American
Leadership Delegation,” http://www.usjapancouncil.org/2015_jald (accessed October 5,2015). No JALD member has been elected from the Nashville Consulate-General
30
31

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jurisdiction, probably because of the small number of Japanese Americans there.
46 Fukushima, interview with the author.
47 It has become customary to take a group photo of the delegation on the stairs of the
JANM and use it on the USJC website and in USJC e-newsletters. See the 2010–2015
archives of USJC, “Japanese American Leadership Delegation,” http://www.usjapan​
council.org/jald.
48 USJC, “2016 Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan: 16th Delegation,” 2.
49 Fukushima, interview with the author.
50 Former MOFA official, interview with the author.
51 USJC, “2016 Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan: 16th Delegation,” 3.
52 Ibid.
53 2015 USJC’s JALD report, 31.
54 2012 USJC’s JALD report, 48.
55 2015 USJC’s JALD report, 23.
56 Iino Masako, “Nikkei jin kōryū jigyō no igi” [The significance of the JapaneseAmerican fellowship program], CGP, COLUMNS 8 (January–February 2008), 3.
57 2008 CGP report, 92.
58 2014 USJC’s JALD report, 51.
59 2008 CGP report, 100.
60 MOFA official C, interview with the author.
61 Irene Hirano Inouye, “Japanese American Leadership Delegation 2000–2010”(PowerPoint presentation at the CGP symposium “Leadership: Values in Career,Community and Culture,” Tokyo, March 3, 2010). Cited with permission.
62 MOFA official A, interview with the author; MOFA official B, interview with theauthor; former MOFA official, interview with the author.
63 2015 USJC’s JALD report, 17.
64 2010 USJC’s JALD report, 35.
65 Kaifu Yūko, “Nikkei America jin hōnichi syōhei program (JALD) dōsōkai kaigi”[Japanese American Leadership Delegation program reunion conference], CGP,
COLUMNS 8 (January –February 2008), 2.
66 Hirano Inouye met Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko on October 22, 2011, and Prime
Minister Abe Shinzō on May 30, 2014. Asahi Shimbun, “Shushō dōsei” [Daily scheduleof the prime minister], the following dates of the meetings.
67 MOFA official A, interview with the author.
68 The cost of the 2015 delegation (fiscal year 2014) was 4 million yen. Most of thecost, 3.4 million yen, was paid to the USJC for selection, orientation, and travel. MOFA,“Gyōsei Review, Sesaku I-2, Hokubei Chiiki Gaiko” [Administration Review, Policy I-2,
Diplomacy in North America area], 		http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/ms/fa/page22_​001496.html (accessed August 27, 2015).

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Fukushima, interview with the author. In Fukushima’s view, it would be nicer if thedelegation met a more diverse group of people—whether in schools or factories—asopposed to meeting people in conference rooms.
70 2014 USJC’s JALD report, 48.
71 MOFA, “Heisei 20 nendo gaimushō seisaku hyokashō” [Evaluations of MOFA
policies in fiscal year 2008], 47, http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/annai/shocho/hyouka/
pdfs/h20_jj.pdf (accessed October 11, 2015).
72 MOFA official B, interview with the author.
73 Asahi Shimbun, “Shushō dōsei,” various years. Prime Minister Hatoyama was so
enthusiastic about meeting with the delegation that he took the unusual step of going out
to the entrance of his office building to see them off. Asahi Shimbun, “Shushō dōsei,”
March 4, 2010; 2010 USJC’s JALD report, 8. The 2011 delegation had an appointment
with Prime Minister Kan Naoto on the evening of March 11, but it was cancelled becauseof the great earthquake that hit eastern Japan in the afternoon on that day.
74 This is compared with Japan after its military advance into Manchuria in 1931, when
nisei were expected to serve the national interests of Japan as its agents working to
improve American opinion about Japan. Azuma Eiichirō, “Nisei no nihon ryūgaku nohikari to kage: Nikkei Amerika jin no ekkyō kyōiku no rinen to mujyun” [The bright anddark sides of nisei study in Japan: The ideals and contradictions of transnational educationof Japanese Americans], in Amerika Nihon jin Imin no Ekkyō Kyōiku Shi [A History ofTransnational Education of the Japanese Immigrants in the U.S.], ed., Yoshida Ryō(Tokyo: Nihon Tosyo Center, 2005), 221–49 (see 227).
75 MOFA official B, interview with the author.
76 MOFA official C, interview with the author.
77 E-mail communication with Fukushima, Dec. 11, 2015. Cited with permission.
78 USJC, “USJC Management and Staff,” http://www.usjapancouncil.org/usjc_
management_and_staff (accessed October 1, 2015).
79 USJC,“TOMODACHI Initiative,” http://www.usjapancouncil.org/tomodachi_
initiative (accessed September 29, 2015).
80 USJC, “TOMODACHI Initiative 2014 Annual Report,” 3, http://usjapantomodachi.
org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/TOMODACHI-Initiative-2014-Annual-Report_E.
pdf (accessed September 29, 2015).
81 In 2014, donations for the TOMODACHI Initiative to USJC (US) from corporations
were US$ 269 million, accounting for more than 99% of the total of US$270 million.
Donations to USJC (Japan) from corporations were 489 million yen, accounting for
more than 99% of the total of 490 million yen in donations. “US–Japan Council,“TOMODACHI Initiative 2014 Annual Report,” 20.
82 USJC staff member, e-mail interview with the author, October 19, 2015.
83 US-Japan Council, “TOMODACHI Inouye Scholars Program,” http://www.usjapan​
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council.org/tomodachi_inouye_scholars_program (accessed September 29, 2015).
84 USJC staff member, interview with the author.
85 2013 USJC’s JALD report, 24.
86 Kōno Tarō, “Gomame no hagishiri” [Futile resistance], August 27, 2007, http://
www.taro.org/2007/08/post_268.php (accessed October 1, 2015): December 4, 2008,
http://www.taro.org/2008/12/post_479.php (accessed October 1, 2015): February 7,
2011, http://www.taro.org/2011/02/post_919.php (accessed October 1, 2015).
87 MOFA, “Address by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a Joint Meeting of the U.S.
Congress,” http://www.mofa.go.jp/na/na1/us/page4e_000241.html (accessed October 1,2015).
88 MOFA, “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Visit to the United States of America,” http://
www.mofa.go.jp/na/na1/us/page3e_000341.html (accessed October 1, 2015); Asahi
Shimbun, “Shushō dōsei,” May 3 and 4, 2015.
89 2008 CGP report, 88.
90 The list of media contacts made by the delegates can be found in Appendix B of the2011 USJC’s JALD report, 89–92.
91 USJC, “US-Japan Council Earthquake Relief Fund, Summary Report,” 2, https://
d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/usjc/pages/77/attachments/original/1403562659/
EQRF_Report_WEB.pdf?1403562659 (accessed September. 30, 2012). This report has
a list of organizations and projects that received relief funds.
92 Nichi Bei Times, May 18, 2004.
93 Nichi Bei Times, June 3, 2004.
94 Fukushima argues that although many Japanese Americans want to be “bridges”
between the two countries, they are not thinking deeply about what they mean when they
use that word. In Fukushima’s view, “[a] bridge is a vehicle or infrastructure that is built
to allow others to walk over or benefit from. On the contrary, Japanese Americans should
strive to be players, actors, and decision makers in the relationship,” Fukushima, “Don’t
Be a Bridge, Be a Player!,” 8–9; Fukushima, interview with the author.
95 Nichi Bei Times, July 2, 2004.
96 Nichi Bei Times, July 30, 2005. I thank Moritō Keiko of the Japan Foundation forbringing the above four Nichi Bei Times articles to my attention.
97 Hirano Inouye, interview with the author.
98 USJC, “2014 Annual Report-English,” 30,		 http://www.usjapancouncil.org/annual_reports (accessed October 11, 2015).
99 One aspect of the JALD program that may need to be improved is increasing its
familiarity within Japan. The CGP symposia in regional cities are often reported in local
newspapers, but the delegation is not well known at the national level. Numata Sadaaki,
Executive Director of CGP, interview with the author, Tokyo, March 25, 2010.