2025 Second Quarter

This project aims to strengthen the national JET alumni network and achieve institutional sustainability. Objectives include fortifying the database for data-driven outreach, successfully expanding membership past 4,000 alumni, and diversifying funding sources via corporate sponsorships and donation drives. The project also enhanced professional resources, like the centralized job board, and tailored programming to boost alumni engagement.

Location: Washington, D.C.
Grant Awarded: $44,425

This film examines 153 years of U.S.-Japan relations through baseball, from its 1872 introduction to the 2023 World Baseball Classic. It highlights figures like Babe Ruth, Masanori Murakami, and Ichiro Suzuki, exploring how the sport became Japan’s national pastime and a metaphor for complex historical layers, including racism and cultural misunderstandings. It ultimately shows how a bat and ball forged a bond between the two nations. (This emergency grant provides bridge funding following the recent rescission of an already secured NEH award, due to federal budget cuts.)

Location: Newton, MA
Grant Awarded: $30,000

The I Am Abundant Project, led by Aisha Fukushima, centers on African American and Japanese mixed heritage to inspire belonging, solidarity, and healing. It challenges limiting terms like "hafu" by creating poetry inspired by historical research and community engagement. The initiative includes writing residencies in Japan and the U.S. (New York) to explore underrepresented stories of Black-Japanese resilience. The project culminates in the publication of a poetry collection designed to foster cross-cultural dialogue and redefine belonging. (Photo credit: Amanda Thomsen Photography)

Location: Oakland, CA
Grant Awarded: $30,000

This project by NPO WELgee aims to enhance the quality of refugee career support through networking and mutual learning between practitioners in Japan and the United States. It combines career development programmes in Japan—such as language and employment support—with exchanges in the U.S., including study visits and workshops with leading NGOs. By building networks and sharing best practices, WELgee seeks to create a sustainable, mutual-learning model of refugee empowerment that benefits both societies.

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Grants Awarded: ¥6,000,000

International Student Conferences, Inc. (ISC) proposes to strengthen the Japan-America Student Conference (JASC), the oldest student-led U.S.-Japan student exchange, by preserving its 90-year legacy. The project will redevelop the ISC website to create a comprehensive digital archive of past JASC conferences, improving recruitment and historical understanding. It will also develop a strategic plan to reconnect and engage JASC's 3,000+ alumni, leveraging their influence to further U.S.-Japan relations and foster future leaders in diplomacy.

Location: Washington, D.C.
Grant Awarded: $25,000

The project will establish a "Japan Policy Commons" (JPC), in collaboration with a network of scholars across universities in the United States. Led by the University of Washington, the JPC aims to revitalise policy-relevant scholarship on Japan's politics, economics, and security by sustaining and disseminating academic work. It will foster dialogue between academics and practitioners, build a pipeline for junior Japan experts, and raise the visibility of Japan-related scholarship, awards, and conferences through a digital platform.

Location: Seattle, WA
Grant Awarded: $25,000

The Global Impact Investing Network, Inc. (GIIN) is a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing to solve systemic problems facing people and the planet. The GIIN proposes to stimulate the growth of impact investing in Japan by establishing a Japan Working Group in 2025. The project will convene international investors to share concepts and resources, while showcasing Japan’s impact investing experience globally. It seeks to develop Japan's emerging impact investing ecosystem.

Location: New York, NY
Grants Awarded: $50,000

The Global Talk program aims to cultivate the next generation of Japanese youth with intercultural competence and communication skills. Through a nine-month online collaborative learning platform, Japanese students and Japanese learners in the U.S. foster mutual understanding and strong interpersonal relationships. The program also provides broader opportunities for international exchange to Japanese students, while enhancing Japanese language education in the U.S. and addressing the decline in Japanese language teachers.

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Grant Awarded: ¥2,600,000

The 2025 U.S.-Japan Sister Cities Summit, themed "Celebrating Our Legacies, Empowering Our Future," aims to enhance enduring U.S.-Japan partnerships by strengthening cultural and economic ties and reactivating relationships paused by COVID. Hosted in Izumisano, Japan, it will gather 600-800 participants for discussions on bilateral trade, women's empowerment, and democratic processes. The summit includes a visit to the Osaka World Expo, fostering the next generation of citizen diplomats.

Location: Washington, D.C.
Grants Awarded: $100,000

“Japanese War Brides: Across A Wide Divide,” the traveling exhibition produced by The War Bride Experience, the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, documents the lives of Japanese women who married U.S. servicemen —the first major wave of post-WWII Asian immigrants. The project seeks funding for community engagement and family storytelling through early 2027 as part of the exhibition. Programming includes screenings of the documentary Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight, conducting oral history workshops, and collecting community audio stories to embed these crucial narratives in the U.S. immigration dialogue.

Location: Bethesda, MD
Grant Awarded: $15,000

Ka Piko o Ka Honua is a pilot project by Leeward Community College, University of Hawai‘i, addressing shared challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the US and Japan. It will facilitate a first-time cultural exchange involving Native Hawaiian, Native American, and Ainu students, including a visit to the Ainu community in Hokkaido in June 2025. The project aims to foster mutual understanding, document cultural practices, revitalise languages, and ultimately establish an International Conference for Indigenous Students to empower communities and promote self-determination.

Location: Honolulu, HI
Grant Awarded: $18,500