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Overview:

An independent Federal agency created to support the relationship and cooperation between the United States and Japan, the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) provides grants to institutions that will promote scholarly, cultural, and public affairs exchanges between the two countries.

more
History:

Congress established the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) on October 20, 1975, with the passage of the Japan-United States Friendship Act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford. The act acknowledged the importance of the post-World War II friendship and partnership between Japan and the United States, with the specific purpose of providing aid for education and culture that will support and enhance interests between the two countries. 

 

To finance these ventures, the Act also established a Japan-United States Trust Fund within the Treasury of the United States. The endowment was in both yen and dollars, with a combined value of approximately $36 million at the exchange rate then in effect. The yen fund originated from a portion of the money paid by the Japanese government to compensate the United States for its post-World War II assistance, while the dollar fund was a portion of the money paid by the Japanese government for certain public facilities on Okinawa it received at the time of the reversion of the Ryukyu Islands to Japanese sovereignty, in 1972. The Commission was authorized to invest the funds and utilize the interest earnings, up to five percent annually of the principal of the Fund, to carry out the purposes of the Act. 

 

Among the activities the Act authorized the Fund to support: Studies in institutions of higher education, and scholarly research, in Japan and the United States, designed to foster mutual understanding between the countries; building collections of Japanese books and publications in libraries throughout the United States, and similar support for collections of American books and publications in libraries in Japan; programs in the arts in association with appropriate institutions in Japan and the United States; fellowships and scholarships at the graduate and faculty levels in Japan and the U.S.; and support for visiting professors and lecturers at colleges and universities in Japan and the United States.

 

As soon as Ronald Reagan became President of the United States, in 1981, the Office of Management and Budget proposed that the Japan-United States Trust Fund, as well as the entire Commission, be eliminated. But JUSFC members quickly mounted a national campaign appealing to the President, the Secretary of State, and other top administration and Congressional leaders, and, upon President Reagan’s direction, the proposal was dropped.

History of the Commission 1975-1995 (by Francis B. Tenny, JUSFC) (pdf)

more
What it Does:

The Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) is the U.S. government agency responsible for funding grants that promote and strengthen artistic, cultural, and educational awareness of Japan in the United States and of the United States in Japan.

 

It is made up of 18 board members comprised of nine private citizens, including the Chairman, and nine government officials, with two of those representatives from the Senate and two from the House of Representatives. The Commission board meets twice a year, usually in April and September, to consider grant proposals, which may be submitted in four areas:

  1. Japanese studies in American higher education
  2. Public Affairs/Education
  3. The Study of the United States in Japanese higher education
  4. The Arts

 

Among the entities to which recent grants were awarded for the Study of Japan in the United States:

Among recent entities to which grants were awarded for the Study of the United States in Japan:

 

To apply for a JUSFC grant, applicants must submit proposals in hard copy directly to the Commissioner’s Washington office, and use the Commission’s application form, which is available from the Commission office or on the agency web site. Proposals should include 25 three-hole punched copies of an application coversheet, budget page, and abbreviated CVs of the principal project participants. In addition, the applicant should include any necessary background and explanatory material, and submit an additional copy in Word as an e-mail attachment to grants@jusfc.gov.

 

The JUSFC also sponsors a Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship Program in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, and in association with the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, and the International House of Japan. Every year the program sends up to five American artists to live in, and perform in, Japan for five months. The artists who are chosen must be professional creative artists either already recognized for their artistic excellence, or for showing exceptional promise. Among those eligible to apply: architects, choreographers, composers, creative writers, designers, media artists, playwrights, visual artists, and solo theater artists who work with original material including puppeteers, storytellers, and performance artists, as well as artists who create original work in a multidisciplinary form. The application submission deadline is February 1 each year and the residency may begin anytime during the following calendar year.

 

From the Web Site of JUSFC:

Creative Artists’ Profiles

Fellowship Program for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan

Frequently Asked Questions About Submitting Proposals to JUSFC

International House of Japan Program Activities

more
Former Directors:

Dr. Richard J. Samuels (2001-2007)

Dr. Richard J. Wood (1995-2001)

Dr. Kenneth B. Pyle (1992-1995)

Dr. John H. Makin (1989-1992)

Dr. W. Glenn Campbell (1983-1989)

Dr. Robert E. Ward (1980-1983)

Dr. John Whitney Hall (1975-1980)

more

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Founded: 1975
Annual Budget: $3 million (FY 2013 Estimate) The Commission is fully financed by the interest earnings of the Japan-United States Friendship Trust Fund, which is currently around $37 million.
Employees: 4 (FY 2013 Estimate)
Official Website: http://www.jusfc.gov
Japan-United States Friendship Commission
Hill, Harry
Chairman

Harry A. Hill, an American businessman with long experience working in Japan, was appointed to lead the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission in February 2014. Created in 1975, the Commission provides grants to institutions that promote scholarly, cultural, and public affairs exchanges between the two countries.

 

Hill was born July 22, 1963, and is from the New York City area. He attended the Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey and went on to Cornell University, where he graduated in 1985 with a B.A. in English literature.

 

He left shortly thereafter for Japan, where he worked for 3½ years as an English teacher in the Gifu prefecture schools. He later wrote that, “My interest in Japan grew after my freshman year at university in 1981 after I read a book called Japan as Number One, by Ezra Vogel. Around the same time, I started practicing a Japanese martial art called Shorinji Kempo, which increased my interest in Japan.”

 

Hill returned to New York briefly to work for Yamaichi Securities on Wall Street, but by 1990 was back in Japan as an entrepreneur. He ran a company that did sports marketing and cultural exchanges and in 1991 founded H&R Consultants with Robert Roche, which handled relocation and associated services in the Nagoya and Tokyo areas.

 

In 1997, Hill returned to the United States for a time but was back in Japan in 1999 as a call center manager for Oak Lawn Marketing, which was owned by Roche. Oak Lawn began to concentrate on infomercials and became the largest such brand in Japan. Hill was made director of direct response television for Oak Lawn in 2006 and the following year had one of the company’s biggest hits with the Billy’s Boot Camp exercise video. It was the first successful tape of its kind in Japan.

 

Oak Lawn was bought in 2009 by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Docomo, and Hill was named president-CEO of the division, the first non-Japanese to lead an NTT unit. In 2012, Hill was chosen to lead the Electronic Retailing Association, a Washington-based trade association. He was the first leader of a non-U.S. company to head the group.

 

Hill met his wife, Yumiko, in a dojo, and they married in June 1988. They have five children—Rina, Ken, Sean, Ellie and Mari—and live in Nagakute City. Rina played basketball for Louisiana State University and Ellie for Vanguard University in California. Hill is an avid practitioner of Nagakute branch of Shorinji Kempo and holds a fifth-degree black belt. He also participates in kickboxing tournaments.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

The JET Programme: A Great Way to Experience Japan (by Harry A. Hill, Government of Japan)

Entrepreneur Taps His Foreign Nature (by Minoru Matsutani, Japan Times)

Official Biography

more
Porté, Thierry
Previous Chairman

Thierry G. Porté, took over as chair of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission on January 9, 2008. Porté received a B.A. in Economics from Harvard in 1978, and graduated from Harvard’s Business School in 1982. He began his career at Chemical Bank in Paris, and then worked for Morgan Stanley for 22 years in a variety of arenas, including capital markets, corporate finance, and management, in London, New York, and Tokyo. When Porté left the company, he held the positions of Managing Director, and President, Representative Director, and Branch Manager of Morgan Stanley Japan. From 2000 to 2003 Porté was Vice President and Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Also from 2002 to 2003 he was a member of the Invest Japan Forum, a private sector committee that provided recommendations to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for the promotion of foreign direct investment in Japan. In November 2003, Porté joined Shinsei Bank, Limited, as Vice Chairman, and became Vice Chairman and Director in June 2004. In 2005 he moved up to President and CEO, which he remains today.

 
Porté is also Chairman of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), a bi-national advisory panel to the U.S. and Japanese governments. In addition, he’s a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the American School in Japan; President of the Harvard Club in Japan; a member of the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee, and Harvard’s Council on University Resources; a member of the international Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy; a member of the Japan-U.S. Business Council; and a Board Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York.
Porté contributed to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign.
 
more
Bookmark and Share
Overview:

An independent Federal agency created to support the relationship and cooperation between the United States and Japan, the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) provides grants to institutions that will promote scholarly, cultural, and public affairs exchanges between the two countries.

more
History:

Congress established the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) on October 20, 1975, with the passage of the Japan-United States Friendship Act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford. The act acknowledged the importance of the post-World War II friendship and partnership between Japan and the United States, with the specific purpose of providing aid for education and culture that will support and enhance interests between the two countries. 

 

To finance these ventures, the Act also established a Japan-United States Trust Fund within the Treasury of the United States. The endowment was in both yen and dollars, with a combined value of approximately $36 million at the exchange rate then in effect. The yen fund originated from a portion of the money paid by the Japanese government to compensate the United States for its post-World War II assistance, while the dollar fund was a portion of the money paid by the Japanese government for certain public facilities on Okinawa it received at the time of the reversion of the Ryukyu Islands to Japanese sovereignty, in 1972. The Commission was authorized to invest the funds and utilize the interest earnings, up to five percent annually of the principal of the Fund, to carry out the purposes of the Act. 

 

Among the activities the Act authorized the Fund to support: Studies in institutions of higher education, and scholarly research, in Japan and the United States, designed to foster mutual understanding between the countries; building collections of Japanese books and publications in libraries throughout the United States, and similar support for collections of American books and publications in libraries in Japan; programs in the arts in association with appropriate institutions in Japan and the United States; fellowships and scholarships at the graduate and faculty levels in Japan and the U.S.; and support for visiting professors and lecturers at colleges and universities in Japan and the United States.

 

As soon as Ronald Reagan became President of the United States, in 1981, the Office of Management and Budget proposed that the Japan-United States Trust Fund, as well as the entire Commission, be eliminated. But JUSFC members quickly mounted a national campaign appealing to the President, the Secretary of State, and other top administration and Congressional leaders, and, upon President Reagan’s direction, the proposal was dropped.

History of the Commission 1975-1995 (by Francis B. Tenny, JUSFC) (pdf)

more
What it Does:

The Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) is the U.S. government agency responsible for funding grants that promote and strengthen artistic, cultural, and educational awareness of Japan in the United States and of the United States in Japan.

 

It is made up of 18 board members comprised of nine private citizens, including the Chairman, and nine government officials, with two of those representatives from the Senate and two from the House of Representatives. The Commission board meets twice a year, usually in April and September, to consider grant proposals, which may be submitted in four areas:

  1. Japanese studies in American higher education
  2. Public Affairs/Education
  3. The Study of the United States in Japanese higher education
  4. The Arts

 

Among the entities to which recent grants were awarded for the Study of Japan in the United States:

Among recent entities to which grants were awarded for the Study of the United States in Japan:

 

To apply for a JUSFC grant, applicants must submit proposals in hard copy directly to the Commissioner’s Washington office, and use the Commission’s application form, which is available from the Commission office or on the agency web site. Proposals should include 25 three-hole punched copies of an application coversheet, budget page, and abbreviated CVs of the principal project participants. In addition, the applicant should include any necessary background and explanatory material, and submit an additional copy in Word as an e-mail attachment to grants@jusfc.gov.

 

The JUSFC also sponsors a Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship Program in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, and in association with the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, and the International House of Japan. Every year the program sends up to five American artists to live in, and perform in, Japan for five months. The artists who are chosen must be professional creative artists either already recognized for their artistic excellence, or for showing exceptional promise. Among those eligible to apply: architects, choreographers, composers, creative writers, designers, media artists, playwrights, visual artists, and solo theater artists who work with original material including puppeteers, storytellers, and performance artists, as well as artists who create original work in a multidisciplinary form. The application submission deadline is February 1 each year and the residency may begin anytime during the following calendar year.

 

From the Web Site of JUSFC:

Creative Artists’ Profiles

Fellowship Program for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan

Frequently Asked Questions About Submitting Proposals to JUSFC

International House of Japan Program Activities

more
Former Directors:

Dr. Richard J. Samuels (2001-2007)

Dr. Richard J. Wood (1995-2001)

Dr. Kenneth B. Pyle (1992-1995)

Dr. John H. Makin (1989-1992)

Dr. W. Glenn Campbell (1983-1989)

Dr. Robert E. Ward (1980-1983)

Dr. John Whitney Hall (1975-1980)

more

Comments

Leave a comment

Founded: 1975
Annual Budget: $3 million (FY 2013 Estimate) The Commission is fully financed by the interest earnings of the Japan-United States Friendship Trust Fund, which is currently around $37 million.
Employees: 4 (FY 2013 Estimate)
Official Website: http://www.jusfc.gov
Japan-United States Friendship Commission
Hill, Harry
Chairman

Harry A. Hill, an American businessman with long experience working in Japan, was appointed to lead the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission in February 2014. Created in 1975, the Commission provides grants to institutions that promote scholarly, cultural, and public affairs exchanges between the two countries.

 

Hill was born July 22, 1963, and is from the New York City area. He attended the Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey and went on to Cornell University, where he graduated in 1985 with a B.A. in English literature.

 

He left shortly thereafter for Japan, where he worked for 3½ years as an English teacher in the Gifu prefecture schools. He later wrote that, “My interest in Japan grew after my freshman year at university in 1981 after I read a book called Japan as Number One, by Ezra Vogel. Around the same time, I started practicing a Japanese martial art called Shorinji Kempo, which increased my interest in Japan.”

 

Hill returned to New York briefly to work for Yamaichi Securities on Wall Street, but by 1990 was back in Japan as an entrepreneur. He ran a company that did sports marketing and cultural exchanges and in 1991 founded H&R Consultants with Robert Roche, which handled relocation and associated services in the Nagoya and Tokyo areas.

 

In 1997, Hill returned to the United States for a time but was back in Japan in 1999 as a call center manager for Oak Lawn Marketing, which was owned by Roche. Oak Lawn began to concentrate on infomercials and became the largest such brand in Japan. Hill was made director of direct response television for Oak Lawn in 2006 and the following year had one of the company’s biggest hits with the Billy’s Boot Camp exercise video. It was the first successful tape of its kind in Japan.

 

Oak Lawn was bought in 2009 by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Docomo, and Hill was named president-CEO of the division, the first non-Japanese to lead an NTT unit. In 2012, Hill was chosen to lead the Electronic Retailing Association, a Washington-based trade association. He was the first leader of a non-U.S. company to head the group.

 

Hill met his wife, Yumiko, in a dojo, and they married in June 1988. They have five children—Rina, Ken, Sean, Ellie and Mari—and live in Nagakute City. Rina played basketball for Louisiana State University and Ellie for Vanguard University in California. Hill is an avid practitioner of Nagakute branch of Shorinji Kempo and holds a fifth-degree black belt. He also participates in kickboxing tournaments.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

The JET Programme: A Great Way to Experience Japan (by Harry A. Hill, Government of Japan)

Entrepreneur Taps His Foreign Nature (by Minoru Matsutani, Japan Times)

Official Biography

more
Porté, Thierry
Previous Chairman

Thierry G. Porté, took over as chair of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission on January 9, 2008. Porté received a B.A. in Economics from Harvard in 1978, and graduated from Harvard’s Business School in 1982. He began his career at Chemical Bank in Paris, and then worked for Morgan Stanley for 22 years in a variety of arenas, including capital markets, corporate finance, and management, in London, New York, and Tokyo. When Porté left the company, he held the positions of Managing Director, and President, Representative Director, and Branch Manager of Morgan Stanley Japan. From 2000 to 2003 Porté was Vice President and Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Also from 2002 to 2003 he was a member of the Invest Japan Forum, a private sector committee that provided recommendations to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for the promotion of foreign direct investment in Japan. In November 2003, Porté joined Shinsei Bank, Limited, as Vice Chairman, and became Vice Chairman and Director in June 2004. In 2005 he moved up to President and CEO, which he remains today.

 
Porté is also Chairman of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), a bi-national advisory panel to the U.S. and Japanese governments. In addition, he’s a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the American School in Japan; President of the Harvard Club in Japan; a member of the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee, and Harvard’s Council on University Resources; a member of the international Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy; a member of the Japan-U.S. Business Council; and a Board Member of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York.
Porté contributed to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign.
 
more