Back in 1990, an overly excited Gavin Owen, along with his San Mateo Little League teammates, hopped on an airplane and traveled to Toyonaka, Japan as part of a Sister Cities cultural exchange program.
At that time, the program was in its 23rd year of introducing young boys to the Japanese culture using the power of baseball as a means to this introduction.

According to a press release, the International MANGA Award, as part of the active use of pop culture in public diplomacy, was established to share Japanese pop culture and to help promote understanding of Japan among overseas cartoonists.

As part of the active use of pop culture in public diplomacy, the International MANGA Award was established to share Japanese pop culture and to help promote understanding of Japan among overseas cartoonists.

Tokyo's announcement over the weekend that it will bid for the 2020 Olympics is intended to show the world it can recover and stage a successful Games after the devastation caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Twice in the past 40 years, French oyster farmers were saved by their colleagues on Japan's northern Pacific coast. After the March 11 tsunami, they decided it was time to return the favour. This week they kicked off an aid effort to help oyster growers who lost everything when the seabed quake sent a massive tsunami barrelling into Japan's north-east, destroying entire towns - and their livelihoods.

Between humanitarian tours of the Pacific Rim and South Pacific, as well as natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes, such a fleet of vessels wouldn’t be idle. The service they could provide the Japanese people, and the goodwill they could generate abroad, could be of far greater value than resources spent on military power.

The U.S. should also increase its public diplomacy efforts to convince the Japanese and Okinawan legislators, media, and public that the U.S. military presence is critical to the security of Japan and regional stability.

Sushi’s rise to globalism has attracted a lot of attention in recent years...Both documentaries offer a penetrating introduction to the workings of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, the world’s largest, as well as the growing “local” character of sushi in the West.