News

The website of the Tokyo Foundation has undergone a major renewal, making the articles offering expert analyses and views of Japanese society and politics much easier to read and to find.

Joint Concert featuring the Juilliard School Classical Quartet and APU Graduate Toshie Suzuki on the Shamisen will be held on November 3 at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU).

Environmental consultant Chikako Fujita has been chosen to participate in Acumen Fund's groundbreaking global leadership development program with the support of the Tokyo Foundation. She will join a select but diverse group in learning the skills and concepts of social entrepreneurship from some of the leading lights in this emerging field.

The Tokyo Foundation supports the activities of Sylff Fellows as part of its program of nurturing the next generation of leaders around the world. Here, we introduce two Fellows who were recognized for outstanding achievements in their respective genres in 2009.

The two first-prize winners of the Tokyo Foundation Japanese Essay Competition arrived in Japan and the award ceremony was held in Tokyo on January 25. Present at the ceremony were the guests of honor representing the two countries of the winners, H.E. Mr. Alistair Murray McLean OAM, The Australian Ambassador to Japan, and H.E. Mr. Ian Kennedy, The New Zealand Ambassador to Japan, and other distinguished guests involved with Japanese language education.

The Tokyo Foundation organized the Japanese Essay Competition in order to provide undergraduate students of Japanese at NF-JLEP universities with the opportunity to enhance their language skills and to learn more about Japan. We are now pleased to announce the prize winners.

The Sylff endowment has been awarded to Japan’s Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University with high hopes that this will bring the perspectives of Japan and Asia into the global Sylff program.

Hideki Kato, chairman of the Tokyo Foundation and president of Japan Initiative, has recently assumed the position of secretary-general of the Government Revitalization Unit, newly established within the Cabinet Office.

Distressed by the enormous suffering of many people in Manila following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Ondoy, which hit Metro Manila on September 26, a group of Sylff fellows at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, who are past or current recipients of fellowships under the scholarship fund program administered by the Tokyo Foundation, is playing a central role in relief activities for the victims. They are also calling upon Sylff fellows around the globe for cooperation through donations.

Developing Policy. Investing in People. Transforming Society.

The "watershed election" of August 30 lived up to its billing as the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept the Liberal Democrats from power in an unprecedented reversal. Unprecedented reversal also implies the challenges facing a relatively young and inexperienced party as DPJ navigates a perilous transition and attempts to bring the bureaucracy to heel.