China had earned a great deal of soft power by hosting the high-level summit. Soft power, or the non-military influence that a country and its culture can have around the globe, has been a matter of focus in certain sections of the Chinese foreign policy establishment. 

The Japan Culture House opened to promote a cultural exchange between Japan and Myanmar and is sponsored by the Japan Foundation Asia Center and the Myanmar Association of Japan Alumni (MAJA). “We opened the culture house not only to people studying Japanese language, but for anyone interested to visit,” said Japan Culture House program officer Chinatsu Hyodo. 

Saudi Arabia is eager to become a gateway to Japan and its culture in the Middle East as it seeks to deepen economic relations between the two nations [...] In an interview, he unveiled a plan for the state-run Saudi Press Agency to launch a Japanese-language website in December to promote information exchange between the two countries.

Three rickshaw men from Tokyo will embark on a round-the-world trip on Monday, taking turns pulling a rickshaw over five continents in around three years. The men - Yuji Suzuki, 26; Ken Hirano, 26; and Keisuke Takahashi, 25 - are all hoping to inform those who do not have a chance to visit Japan about Japanese culture and the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo.

On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told an audience of African leaders at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Kenya’s capital Nairobi that his country will spend $30 billion on infrastructure development, healthcare and education projects in Africa over the next three years:

Tomorrow is the start of the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Nairobi, Kenya. Launched in 1993, TICAD is the key platform to drive Japan’s ongoing development initiatives in Africa. TICAD respects African ownership of its own development path, while tapping into multi-stakeholder partnerships to promote openness.