North America
Video Conference convened by The United States-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON)
May 22, 2014
- On May 20th (19th in the U.S. time), the United States-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) held a video conference with the participation of representatives from the governments, academia and private sector at each end of Tokyo and Washington D.C., co-chaired by the Japan Chair of CULCON, Mr. Minoru Makihara (Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Corporation), and the U.S. Chair of CULCON, Mr. Harry Hill (President and CEO, Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc.).
- The conference reviewed the status of CULCON’s ongoing activities, including those at Education Task Force and Arts Dialogue Committee. Referring to the April 25th joint statement of the Summit Meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama, the conference also welcomed that the goal of doubling the two-way student exchange by the year 2020 was shared by the two governments in the annex of the Japan-U.S. Joint Statement. Moreover, the conference talked about furthering the arts exchange between the two countries and the role of CULCON towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
- CULCON will reconvene in November, 2014 at Washington D.C. for its 26th Joint Plenary meeting, in which it will assess achievements over the past years and set forth a future direction for deepening the Japan-US relationship.