United States-Japan Foundation

The United States-Japan Foundation "is committed to promoting stronger ties between Americans and Japanese by supporting projects that foster mutual knowledge and education, deepen understanding, create effective channels of communication, and address common concerns in an increasingly interdependent world." 


 * "The United States-Japan Foundation, incorporated under United States law in 1980, was founded with a grant of $44.8 million from the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation (now known as the Nippon Foundation). Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawa (1899-1995), Chairman of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, had the foresight to understand the great importance of the relationship between the United States and Japan to the two countries themselves and to the rest of the world. He thus established the Foundation to improve understanding between our two countries. The United States-Japan Foundation is the only private independent American grantmaking foundation dedicated to the mutual interests of the American and Japanese people."

"The United States-Japan Foundation grew out of the visionand generosity of Ryoichi Sasakawa (1899-1995), who conceivedan entirely independent foundation dedicated to strengtheningcooperation and understanding between the two countries.Originally endowed by what is now The Nippon Foundation, USJF was founded on October 21, 1980, and is governed by a board of prominent Japanese and American private citizens. It is the onlyprivate American grant-making foundation dedicated to the mutual interests of the American and Japanese people." 

"The United States-Japan Foundation (USJF), incorporated under New York state law in 1980, was founded with a grant of $44.8 million from The Nippon Foundation." 

"By November 1980, the United States-Japan Foundation was incorporated in New York as a non-profit organization, and early in 1981 it was recognized as a 501-C-3 charitable foundation.  Its purposes were “exclusively educational, charitable, literary and scientific” and “to promote understanding of each other’s society, culture, educational system, economy, government and international relations….and to promote cooperation between the citizens of the two nations…” 	"Angie and Robin Duke  gathered a group of eminent American leaders to advise the Foundation. The group included former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; Jack Howard of Scripps Howard Publications; former Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman; Robert S. Sarnoff, former Chairman of RCA; Terry Sanford, former Governor of North Carolina; Dr. John C. Sawhill, former Deputy Energy Secretary; Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation; Henry Walter, Jr., Chairman of International Flavors and Fragrances Inc.; Robert U. Brown, Publisher of Editor and Publisher;  Anthony Drexel Duke, Executive Chairman of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy;  William Mellon Eaton, attorney; William Pickens III, President of Bill Pickens Associates; and Jerome Holland, former Ambassador to Sweden. Important Japanese advisors at this time, in addition to Sasakawa, included Seiji Kaya, former President of Tokyo University; Kazuo Iwata, Chairman of the Toshiba Group; Nobuhiko Ushiba,  a former Ambassador to the United States, and Akio Matsumura, a UN advisor on planned parenthood."


 * Hononary Advisor - Hon. Jimmy Carter - Former President of the United States

"Promoting Democracy"
In 2002 the Foundation gave a $25,000 grant to the NED "To organize a working conference in Tokyo to discuss the possibility of creating a democracy assistance foundation in Japan and move to create a Japanese Working Group to formulate a concrete proposal on the establishment of such a foundation." 

Other Interesting Grantees

 * Institute for International Economics (2006)

Trustees
Source
 * Chairman- Mr. Thomas S. Johnson - Retired Chairman and CEO of GreenPoint Financial Corp.
 * Vice Chairman - Mr. Shinji Fukukawa - Chairman, TEPIA, Machine Industry Memorial Foundation
 * Board Secretary - Mr. Yusuke Saraya - President, Saraya Co., Ltd.
 * President - Dr. George R. Packard - Dean Emeritus, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
 * John Brademas - President Emeritus, New York University; President, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center
 * Gerald L. Curtis - Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
 * Robin Chandler Duke - Former U.S. Ambassador to Norway
 * Thomas S. Foley - Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan; Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
 * Yotaro Kobayashi - Chief Corporate Advisor, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
 * Akira Kojima - Special Editorial Advisor, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
 * T. Timothy Ryan, Jr. - Vice Chairman, Financial Institutions and Governments, J.P. Morgan and Co., Inc.
 * Yohei Sasakawa - Chairman, The Nippon Foundation
 * Thomas W. Strauss - Managing Member, Ramius HVB Partners, LLC
 * Takeo Takuma - Vice President, United States-Japan Foundation

U.S.-Japan Leadership Program - Advisory Board
"Japan Society established the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program in 1984 to help overcome the serious shortage of American leaders familiar with Japan. In 1996, after nine successful cycles, the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program evolved into two separate fellowships: the Japan Society Local Government and Public Policy Fellowship and the United States-Japan Foundation Media Fellows Program." 

"Support for the United States-Japan Media Fellows Program is provided by the United States-Japan Foundation."

Honorary Co-Chairmen of the Program's Advisory Board
 * Hon. Thomas S. Foley - U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1997-2001), Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
 * Shoichiro Toyoda - Honorary Chairman and Member of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation

Members of the Advisory Board Source 2004
 * John Creighton - Former Chairman & CEO, UAL Corp. and United Airlines, Former CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company
 * Yoichi Funabashi - Chief Diplomatic Correspondent and Columnist Asahi Shimbun
 * Nagayo Homma - Professor Emeritus Tokyo University
 * Yotaro Kobayashi - ChairmanFuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
 * Minoru Makihara - Chairman Mitsubishi Corporation
 * Hon. Walter Mondale - U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1993-1996), Partner, Dorsey & Whitney, LLP
 * Scott Oki - Chairman & CEOOki Development, Inc.
 * William Ruckelshaus - Former Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency
 * John Whitehead - Chairman, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Former Deputy Secretary of State Former Chairman, Goldman Sachs and Company
 * Tadashi Yamamoto - President, Japan Center for International Exchange and Special Advisor to the Program

Related SourceWatch

 * Julia Chang Bloch - Former president and CEO 1996-98
 * Stephen W. Bosworth - Former president
 * Phillips Talbot - Former Trustee
 * Dr. Ronald Aqua, Vice President in 1994 at least
 * Akira Oguir, Senior Program Officer, U.S.-Japan Foundation in 1994 at least
 * Gregory A. Plotnikoff

Contact

 * Web: http://www.us-jf.org