“Be careful with the scissors,” my grandma would remind me once more. The blistering heat of the Tokyo summer radiated through the living room mercilessly, temporarily distracting me from my task at hand. My eight-year-old hands, glistening with sweat, carefully cut through an empty plastic bottle. I would neatly cut through the grooves of the water bottle, making sure not to leave any sharp ridges, per my grandma’s instructions. After some additional modifications of my own, the mini-trash can was complete. This would be used in various places in my grandparents’ house from the bathroom to the kitchen sink, providing the plastic bottle with years of repurposed life. When I ask my grandma why she won’t simply buy a new plastic container for the same purpose, she would predictably respond: “Mottainai kara” (translation: Because that would be mottainai).

This word, mottainai, which most closely translates to “wasteful,” is a staple of Japanese culture. It is commonly used to express one’s sentiment of wastefulness. It can be used in various contexts from feeling wasteful about food being thrown away to the feeling of regret after wasting time. Awareness of mottainai has been a constant throughout my entire life. I recall my favorite childhood bedtime story being Mottainai Baasan—the story of a baasan, or grandma, who found creative ways to reduce and repurpose waste. Her simple yet riveting creativity ingrained into me an instinct of reducing waste from a young age. I would stuff old shirts into my pillow case to adjust my pillow height; tape pencils sharpened down to less than an inch to the back of a pen to be able to use them to the very end; water down almost empty tomato sauce cans and shake it with the lid closed to be able to use every last bit of the sauce—all were ideas inspired by Mottainai Baasan.

While I had always taken mottainai for granted, I never questioned why Japan as a society practices mottainai so diligently. Through Stanford’s Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), I was able to explore this familiar concept of mottainai through an academic and historical lens, recontextualizing a mindset I grew up with into what I now realize is a combination of Shinto principles and the result of Japan’s efforts to reconstruct the country following their loss in World War II.

This collective awareness of and desire for self-betterment and respect for one another casted mottainai in a brand-new light. Such realizations allow me to appreciate my family’s culture in a way that ties into grounded historical events.

In particular, books such as Edwin O. Reischauer and the American Discovery of Japan by George Packard explained questions I had long wondered about, specifically regarding key differences in Japanese and Korean culture. As it turns out, America learned from certain setbacks they faced when Westernizing Japan and reshaped its approach in Korea, resulting in many of the differences between Japanese and Korean culture we observe today.

Furthermore, having participated in public Japanese education for over a decade, the opportunity to study Japan under an American lens was incredibly insightful. Whether it be biases I began to realize between Japanese and American teachings or the different approaches to introducing topics involving both countries, connecting different perspectives began to feel like a four-dimensional puzzle spanning time and cultures. The opportunity to immediately discuss my thoughts with other students in RSP culminated into multiple “aha!” moments that have stuck with me since. These thoughtful discussions with my peers stood out as a central part of my experience in the program. For additional context, my experience with RSP coincided with the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite such distractions, RSP allowed me to learn in an engaging and captivating manner. Since the program was originally designed to be in an online setting long before COVID, a strong sense of community was already baked into the experience, and I was able to learn directly from my classmates around the world in an efficient and organized manner.

The opportunity to learn the context and history behind various aspects of Japanese culture that I grew up with and previously took for granted was a priceless experience. Being able to understand why certain cultural quirks exist as well as how they came to be and in what ways they impact modern Japanese society renewed my outlook while deepening my appreciation for Japan.

SPICE continues to expand its regional programs for high school students in Japan. This year marked the launch of the Stanford e-Kobe program, which joins the previously established programs, Stanford e-Hiroshima, Stanford e-Kawasaki, Stanford e-Oita, and Stanford e-Tottori.

These online courses are a collaboration between SPICE and local government and school officials in Japan and challenge students to think critically about global themes related to U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations.

All five courses have now finished their 2021–2022 term. This summer, two top students from each program will present their final research projects and be honored at a virtual event hosted by SPICE, Stanford University. Congratulations to the ten honorees below on their excellent academic achievement!

Stanford e-Hiroshima (Instructor Rylan Sekiguchi)

Student Honoree: Minori Imai
School: Hiroshima Prefectural Kuremitsuta High School
Project Title: All Lives Are Important

Student Honoree: Yui Miyake
School: Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima High School
Project Title: U.S. Prison System: How the Country’s History of Racial Inequality Drives the High Rate of Incarceration in America

Stanford e-Kawasaki (Instructor Maiko Tamagawa Bacha)

Student Honoree: Sayaka Kiyotomo
School: Kawasaki High School
Project Title: How Can We Improve Junior and Senior High School English Education in Japan?

Student Honoree: Anne Fukushima
School: Tachibana High School
Project Title: How Are Invisible Disorders Accepted in the United States and Japan?

Stanford e-Kobe (Instructor Alison Harsch)

Student Honoree: Nonoha Toji
School: Kobe University Secondary School
Project Title: How to Foster Entrepreneurship in School Days: Between U.S. and Japan

Student Honoree: Cullen Hiroki Morita
School: Kobe Municipal Fukiai High School
Project Title: The Different Work-Life Balance in Japan and America

Stanford e-Oita (Instructor Kasumi Yamashita)

Student Honoree: Rina Imai
School: Usa High School
Project Title: Learn About War and Peace Through the Naval Air Base Bunkers in Oita

Student Honoree: Yuki Nojiri
School: Hofu High School
Project Title: I Want to Live in the Second House of the Three Little Pigs

Stanford e-Tottori (Instructor Jonas Edman)

Student Honoree: Sakurako Kano
School: Tottori Keiai High School
Project Title: Being Proactive

Student Honoree: Yuki Yamane
School: Tottori Nishi High School
Project Title: The Effect of Collectivism and Individualism on Education

The SPICE staff is looking forward to honoring these ten students in a virtual ceremony on August 9, 2022 (August 10 in Japan). Each student will be given the opportunity to make a formal presentation to members of the Stanford community, the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, and the Japanese community in the San Francisco Bay Area.

SPICE also offers online courses to U.S. high school students on Japan (Reischauer Scholars Program), China (China Scholars Program), and Korea (Sejong Korea Scholars Program), and online courses to Chinese high school students on the United States (Stanford e-China) and to Japanese high school students on the United States and U.S.–Japan relations (Stanford e-Japan).

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Sponsored by Stanford Global Studies, the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) Community College Faculty Fellowship program brings together a cohort of community college faculty and academic staff from various disciplines to work collaboratively with Stanford staff for one academic year (August–May). Each EPIC Fellow designs a project that aims to internationalize curricula and develop global competencies among community college students. Jonas Edman worked with four of the nine 2021–22 EPIC Fellows throughout the academic year. The fellowship culminated with the EPIC Symposium, “Integrating Global Topics into Community College Curricula,” which was held on May 22, 2022 and featured panels of current and past EPIC Fellows. The four EPIC Fellows with whom Edman worked are listed below. Each gave an overview of their project to an audience of Stanford faculty and staff, EPIC alumni, and other community college faculty.

Lauren M. Blanchard, Faculty, Political Science, Monterey Peninsula College
Project: Hands-on Migration: Service-Learning Curriculum in Global Studies

• The goal of this project is to introduce migration studies to Monterey Peninsula College. Crafting a service-learning curriculum will provide students the opportunity to dedicate a semester to the comparative study of internal and international migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries, alongside the chance to gain hands-on experience working with the diverse immigrant communities of Monterey County. This curriculum will provide insight into the international agreements and values that have shaped government responses to immigration in the past and will shape responses to migration in the 21st century.
   

Miloni Gandhi, Faculty, Global Studies and Workforce, Foothill College
Project: Virtual Study Abroad

• Virtual Study Abroad is a way to bridge equity gaps in international education at the community college. Study abroad is a unique experience to explore other cultures and traditions firsthand. However, it is often limited to those with the ability to leave their current situations for long periods of time or those with the financial ability to cover the opportunity cost of being away from home. Virtual Study Abroad allows for all students to have firsthand experiences exploring other cultures through meaningful curated content and authentic relationship-building with people in other countries without having to physically be abroad.
   

Tomasz B. Stanek, Associate Professor, History, Victor Valley College
Project: Global Ethnic Studies Course Proposal

• The Global Ethnic Studies Course Proposal involves the construction of a new global or hemispheric ethnic studies course with major emphasis on paradigmatic discoveries, environmental and indigenous ideas, transnational issues, climatology, human behavior, a trauma of conflict, and modern philosophy, all encapsulated into one community college course bound from the 1500s to the present. The idea of this course is to create an interdisciplinary discussion space and a comparative analysis beyond national borderlands and local marginality.
   

Alexandria White, Professor, English, Sacramento City College
Project: Black Atlantic Explorations

• The purpose of Black Atlantic Explorations is to provide a comparative approach to understanding the intersectionalities and divergences among Black Atlantic identities and experiences. Juxtaposing the diverse experiences of Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Caribbeans, and Afro-Americans through literature, art, and history will not only be provocative and inspiring, but will also plants seeds in our collective imaginations about the possibilities of Black Atlantic futures rooted in liberation and rooted in the “profoundest creativity to throw bridges across chasms, to open an architecture of space within closed worlds of race and culture (Guyanese writer, Wilson Harris).”

Following the panels, the EPIC Fellows received certificates from SGS upon their successful completion of the Fellowship. With the formal close of the Fellowship, they are now invited to join the Global Educators Network (GEN), which in partnership with Stanford Global Studies (SGS) seeks to inform, inspire, engage, and empower community college educators—and their students—to more deeply engage with global themes and learning resources, as well as international dialogue, research, and pedagogical strategies.

Reflecting on the EPIC Symposium, Edman noted, “Not only was it rewarding to observe the 2021–22 EPIC Fellows giving their impressive presentations after a year-long preparation, but it was also gratifying to see EPIC alumni from many cohorts interacting with this year’s cohort and encouraging them to join GEN. Importantly, I am most grateful to Kristyn Hara for expertly facilitating the EPIC Program over the past year and for planning and implementing this year’s EPIC Symposium.”

The EPIC Community College Faculty Fellowship program is made possible through the support of Department of Education Title VI funding. Pitches of all of the nine 2021–22 EPIC Fellows can be found here.

The following is Part 8 of a multiple-part series. To read previous installments in this series, please visit the following articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7.

Since December 8, 2020, SPICE has posted seven articles that highlight reflections from 57 students on the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” Part 8 features eight additional reflections.

The free educational website “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” offers six lessons on immigration, civic engagement, leadership, civil liberties & equity, justice & reconciliation, and U.S.–Japan relations. The lessons encourage critical thinking through class activities and discussions. On March 24, 2021, SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi was honored by the Association for Asian Studies for his authorship of the lessons that are featured on the website, which was developed by the Mineta Legacy Project in partnership with SPICE.

Since the website launched in September 2020, SPICE has invited students to review and share their reflections on the lessons. Below are the reflections of eight students. I am grateful to Dr. Ignacio Ornelas, Teacher, Willow Glen High School, San Jose, California, and Aya Shehata, Hilo High School, Hawai’i, for their support with this edition. The reflections below do not necessarily reflect those of the SPICE staff.

Renn Guard, North Carolina
Americans often have the privilege of being a part of many communities that help define themselves as complex, unique individuals. The past few years have demonstrated that our communities define America, a prospect that can be both concerning and hopeful. After the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting, many questioned what “Asian American” has meant and what it could mean. I observed the Asian American community connect over both their pain and frustration with the current state of the country and their hopes for a brighter future. Outside the Asian American community, many other groups, both intersecting and not, also came to sit in solidarity, reminding me that American values are rooted in communities that uphold understanding, inclusivity, and respect.

Emi Hiroshima, California
By many, America is known as the “Land of Opportunity.” Certainly, this is what my great grandparents thought when they immigrated to the U.S. from Japan in the early 1900s. Although some may say it’s a less than ideal place to live, I think it provides more opportunities than other countries for those willing to try. In some countries, it is difficult for a woman to pursue certain careers or even to receive an education. They aren’t given the opportunity to even try. I believe America has a long way to go in terms of gender equality or equality for all, but women are surrounded with more chances because of others who pushed for women’s rights throughout history. In America, we are not guaranteed success, but we are provided the opportunity to always try.

Keona Marie Matsui, Hawai’i
To me, being American means being free. I am free to embrace my Japanese and Filipino heritage. I am free to learn and celebrate other cultures. I am free to express myself through my physical appearance and my words. I am free to speak another language and learn many more. I am free to take advantage of the opportunities in America. But being an Asian American means that I’m stuck between identities. I was born in America, half Filipino and half Japanese, but I wasn’t born in either country. I don’t speak Tagalog or Japanese fluently; I speak English. I’m not blonde-haired or blue-eyed. I grew up in Hawai’i, surrounded by people with similar situations. Our unique experiences and identities are what make up America—and what makes us American.

Jyoti Souza, Hawai’i
That is a complicated question. Some glorify being American because they immigrated from impoverished home countries. Others are ignorant to this country’s history and its current situation, or they simply do not care. For me, this country acted as a home for my grandparents who immigrated from poverty in South America. Though I am grateful for America’s seemingly open arms, it has changed vastly or never changed at all. More people are fighting against laws and bias in our government. The LGBTQ+ community asks for more freedom, African Americans demand justice, and people opposed to an election attack the White House. Some people call themselves American because of their skin color and label any others as outsiders or invaders. On the surface, being American seems like freedom and justice for all, but deep inside, it’s anything but.

Sharika Thaploo, Ohio
Growing up as a first-generation immigrant in America, the idea that America was built on the great enlightenment ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was drilled into me. But to me, America meant assimilation through what I had learned from my experience in this country. I initially believed that to succeed and prosper socially I would have to discard parts of my identity that were essential to my culture. I spent time adjusting to what I believed it meant to be American. But gradually, I saw the way my identity as an Indian American affected all my decisions and my worldview. To me, being an American is bringing ideas and cultural identities into this country to make yourself and the people around you better.

Taelynn Thomas, California
I view the term “American” as an identity. American is a label that represents that you are proud of what America is as a whole and that you stand with this country. A part of identifying as American means being aware that America, as a country, is not perfect and there are still challenges people face based on their race, social status, and more. This is not to say that we don’t try to fix issues in our society. There are programs that provide help for people with lower income. So, no, America isn’t perfect. But the American people can help change it in a positive way. So, when someone asks me what it means to be American, I say an American is a person who is proud of this country but still understands that we need change and is not afraid to help change this country for the better.

Hector Vela, California
Being American is a title but, to me, it’s an idea. In our history, many ethnicities from across the world came to the “land of the free,” but at times weren’t treated that way. So, we changed our mindset to include many ethnicities and make it an ideal place for anyone. We evolved because people recognized the flaws and we fixed them. It is up to us to expand the acceptance of different cultures and make a safe place for future generations. What will we do to shape America into something we can be proud and happy of? To say, “I am a proud American,” we must embrace our differences and use them to make America an ideal and safe place for everyone now and in the future.

Katherine Xu, Ohio
For me, the inherent beauty and ongoing question of being an American is embodied in our country’s motto: E pluribus unum (out of many, one). We are a group of individual “I’s” who have agreed to band together as a “we.” However, the issue has been to constantly question who is (or is not) included in that “we,” and how we redefine and reimagine it. Overall, we’ve succeeded in developing a better comprehensive knowledge of ourselves and acceptance of one another. However, we have historically wavered and are now at a crossroads: will we progress toward a broader meaning of “we” or will we regress to a narrower one? That is essentially the question—with all of its aspirations and fears—at the core of what it means to be an American, both personally and collectively.

 

Mayor Norihiko Fukuda of Kawasaki City—the sixth most populous city in Japan—spoke during the closing ceremony of Stanford e-Kawasaki on March 29, 2022. The ceremony marked the end of the third-year offering of Stanford e-Kawasaki, which is taught by Instructor Maiko Tamagawa Bacha. Nineteen students representing Kawasaki High School and Tachibana High School successfully completed the course and each received a certificate from Mayor Fukuda as Bacha announced each student’s name.

Stanford e-Kawasaki focuses on two themes, entrepreneurship and diversity. In Mayor Fukuda’s comments to students, he noted that with people coming from across and outside of Japan to Kawasaki, the city has developed to become a city of 1.54 million people and one of the most diverse cities in Japan. Given this, Fukuda underscored the importance of having students value diversity, and stated, “I want young people in Kawasaki to appreciate this core value.” He continued,

This year’s course featured a diverse group of speakers, including a panel of Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program alumni who spoke about diversity in the United States. The panelists included Jeffrey Fleischman, Cerell Rivera, and Kai Wiesner-Hanks, who spoke on topics such as ethnic diversity, gender equality and identity, religious diversity, and cultural diversity. Bacha is a former Advisor for Educational Affairs at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco and one of her major responsibilities was overseeing the JET Program. She commented, “It was particularly gratifying for me to provide a platform for JET alumni to continue to offer their support to students in Japan.” Other sessions were led by Dr. Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu who addressed the central question, “What is diversity?,” and also discussed diversity issues in Japan, and Stanford graduate student Alinea Tucker, who spoke on “Black Lives Matter.”

In the area of entrepreneurship, Miwa Seki, General Partner, M Power Partners, provided perspectives as an investor, and Sukemasa Kabayama, Founder and CEO of Uplift Labs, shared his journey as an entrepreneur in Japan and in the United States.

A highlight of the closing ceremony was the announcement of the two honorees of Stanford e-Kawasaki. They are Sayaka Kiyotomo from Kawasaki High School and Anne Fukushima from Tachibana High School.

Reflecting on the three years of teaching the course, Bacha noted, “Since the inception of Stanford e-Kawasaki, Mayor Fukuda’s unwavering commitment has without a doubt contributed greatly to the success of the course. The students and I have always felt his support.” After the ceremony, Mayor Fukuda brought the students to one of his meeting rooms and engaged them in informal discussions. His formal and informal comments were very inspirational to the students.

I am most grateful to Mayor Norihiko Fukuda for his vision and for making this course possible. I would also like to express my appreciation to Mr. Nihei and Mr. Katsurayama from the Kawasaki Board of Education; and Mr. Abe, Mr. Tanaka, Mr. Kawato, and especially Mr. Inoue from Kawasaki City for their unwavering support. Importantly, I would like to express my appreciation to Principal Iwaki and his staff of Kawasaki High School and Principal Takai and his staff from Tachibana High School for their engagement with Stanford e-Kawasaki. An article in Japanese about the closing ceremony that was published by Kawasaki City can be found here.

For 25 years, Education About Asia Editor Dr. Lucien Ellington has interviewed the winners of the Franklin R. Buchanan Prize, awarded annually to recognize an outstanding pedagogical, instructional, or curriculum publication on Asia designed for K–12 and college undergraduate instructors and students. The 2021 winner was SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi for the online curriculum package What Does It Mean to Be an American? This was the third time that Sekiguchi has won the Prize.

Developed by the Mineta Legacy Project in partnership with SPICE, this free educational curriculum offers six lessons for educators, high school students, and college students to examine what it means to be American. The six lessons focus on immigration, civil liberties & equity, civic engagement, justice & reconciliation, leadership, and U.S.–Japan relations.

The six standards-aligned lessons use primary source materials, interactive exercises, and personal videos that connect to students’ lives and showcase a diverse range of American voices—from young adults to former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, whose replies to “What does it mean to be an American?” are highlighted here.

The full interview can be found here.

Through the droning mumble of a crowd, I heard the faint sound of a shamisen. A loud smack followed by excited shouts distracted me; a sumo wrestler meandered away from the scene. The unfamiliar talking robots, bunraku puppet theater performances, and sumo wrestling that I first encountered at the “Bridges to Japan” cultural exhibit at the Indiana State Fair fostered a general interest in East Asia, which later evolved into a passion for Japan, U.S.–Japan relations, and international affairs.

Entering high school, I read every book on Japan in my local library and developed a passion for Shingon Buddhism. Joining the Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), an online program for U.S. high school students nationwide to learn about Japan and U.S.–Japan relations, gave me the opportunity to turn my passion into a career.

Across the program’s 13 units, I learned about Japan’s modern history, culture, politics, and society. Along the way, I developed an interest in the program’s namesake—U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer. Lectures from national renowned scholars on U.S.–Japan relations and conversations with Japanese students in the RSP’s sister program, e-Japan, let me compare the public education systems of the U.S. and Japan and better understand my background as a homeschooler from the American Midwest. As I presented my end-of-course research for the RSP to former Consul General Jun Yamada and Ambassador (Ret.) Michael Armacost, I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to U.S.–Japan relations, driving me to pursue a career in international affairs inspired by Ambassador Reischauer’s legacy.

I have drawn from what I learned in the RSP every day since completing the program. Majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, the RSP provided me with a strong foundation to study and research the political and economic environment of East Asia. Working at U.S. Embassy Tokyo, I used my knowledge of U.S.–Japan trade relations when writing one pagers and daily action reports for the Embassy’s Economic Section. At the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), I directly contributed to the sustainment of Amb. Reischauer’s legacy by conducting research on East Asian political economy and technology policy with the center’s director—the last PhD student of Amb. Reischauer. I never would have known about these opportunities without the RSP.

As I begin working with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Japanese Affairs this coming summer, I will try to continue honoring the Reischauer legacy through my work. The RSP fundamentally changed the course of my life and set me on the path I walk today. It gave me the tools and knowledge I needed to succeed and gave me exposure to Japan during my high school studies that wouldn’t have been possible in-person in my home state of Indiana. For any high school student interested in East Asia, there is no better way to learn about Japan, U.S.–Japan relations, and East Asia.

Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998 “as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together. Seeking to understand this dynamic, he recognized the historical Silk Road as a model for cultural collaboration—for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders. In a groundbreaking experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a new artistic idiom: a musical language founded in difference, a metaphor for the benefits of a more connected world.”[1] The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education has been collaborating with Silkroad since 2002.

On April 6, 2022, Silkroad will be performing at Stanford University. Silkroad Ensemble: Home Within will feature Syrian-born clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh and Syrian Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad. Azmeh’s and Mourad’s bios on the Silkroad website read in part:

Hailed as a “virtuoso, intensely soulful” by The New York Times and “spellbinding” by The New Yorker. Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based genre-bending composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh has been touring the globe with great acclaim as a soloist, composer and improviser… He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, the Damascus High Institute of Music, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Kinan holds a doctorate in music from the City University of New York.

Kevork Mourad was born in Kamechli, Syria. Of Armenian origin, he received an MFA from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts and now lives and works in New York. His past and current projects include the Cirène project with members of Brooklyn Rider at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the multimedia play Lost Spring (2015) with Anaïs Alexandra Tekerian, at the MuCEM, Gilgamesh (2003) and Home Within (2013) with Kinan Azmeh in Damascus and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others…

In 2016, SPICE developed a study guide to accompany Art in a Time of Crisis, a conversation between Kinan Azmeh and Yo-Yo Ma about what it means to create art in the face of crisis and violence at home. The interview and study guide are recommended for music, social studies, and language arts courses at the high school level and above. Please note that neither the interview nor study guide delves into the specifics of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 and the Syrian Civil War.

The focusing questions in the study guide are:

• What is the meaning of “crisis”?
• What are some examples of times of crisis?
• What are some ways to deal with crisis?
• What role can art play during times of crisis?
• What can an individual do to help facilitate change?
   

I believe that comments from Kinan Azmeh and Yo-Yo Ma can inspire youth to consider the importance of these questions in their lives and the relevance of these questions to the events unfolding in the world today and to consider art as a form of soft power. I admire how they seek to empower and offer youth hope. During a segment of the interview, Yo-Yo Ma asks,

Kinan Azmeh replied, “Absolutely. But... the first thing on your mind is not ‘Let me create beauty.’ I think creating beauty or whatever moves people [is] the side effect of you being passionately involved in doing what you’re doing.” After students view the interview, I wonder how they might reply to Yo-Yo Ma’s question.

On March 22, 2022, APARC's Japan Program welcomed a delegation from the Embassy of Japan in the United States and the Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco, including Ambassador Koji Tomita and Consul-General Hiroshi Kawamura, who met with a joint panel of scholars and administrators from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley for a discussion about fostering a greater understanding of Japan studies in the United States.

APARC Deputy Director and Japan Program Director Kiyoteru Tsutsui presented data on enrollment and employment statistics for Japanese studies in higher education. According to the report, Japanese studies have been in a slow state of decline since the late 1980s, when many in the United States viewed Japan as an economic threat and the country was not as well-understood as it is today. Despite this decline, students today are still very interested in studying Japan and are eager to visit the country.

Naomi Funahashi, Manager of the Reischauer Scholars Program and Teacher Professional Development at the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), presented outcomes from SPICE's outreach efforts and promotion of Japanese studies in the K-14 context. Funahashi indicated strong interest in and engagement with SPICE curricular units focused on Japan and with its local student programs in six regions, one university, and two high schools in Japan.

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Professor Junko Habu, Chair of the Center for Japanese Studies (CJS) and Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, along with Kumi Sawada Hadler, Program Director of CJS, described logistical challenges Japan scholars have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the inability to access the country under lockdown, and indicated that, across the board, universities are not providing as much support for Japanese studies as they used to, especially in terms of endowed faculty positions and departmental "slots" specifically for Japan specialists.

Ambassador Tomita and Consul-General Kawamura agreed that more support was needed to bolster scholarships of Japan. Ambassador Tomita stated that over his long career, he has seen the theoretical focus of Japan studies in the United States shift away from bilateral relations between the two countries toward the region at large. He noted that the public discussion is increasingly directed at Japan as part of a broader complex of nations in East Asia. Consul-General Kawamura indicated that the pandemic has posed a host of challenges for his office but that Japan will continue to open its doors to scholars in the future. 

The meeting concluded with a reaffirmation of the longstanding and crucial relationship between the two nations and of the importance of Japan studies in the United States in fostering fruitful collaboration between the two nations.