日米主要文書ー文化交流関係｜About THE USA

日米関係

日米主要文書ー文化交流関係

Cultural Relations – Major Documents

The US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) has its origins in meetings held in Washington in 1961 between President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda. In their joint communiqué of June 22, 1961, they agreed to the establishment of a United States-Japan Committee to study expanded cultural and educational cooperation between the two countries.

Since its first meeting in Tokyo in January, 1962, CULCON, has served to focus official and public attention in both the United States and Japan on the vital cultural and educational underpinnings of our relationship.

CULCON has taken up a wide agenda in its meetings. It has worked to encourage more translation, to improve the respective images of the two countries in each other’s textbooks and media, to promote sharing of museum exhibits and documents, and to stimulate exchanges of educators, journalists and artists. In so doing, it has helped lay the foundation of friendship and trust that now bears the enormous weight of the economic and political relationship that the United States shares with Japan.

In the Tokyo Declaration, the result of the 1992 meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Miyazawa, specific mention is made of CULCON as a means to continue exploring cultural and educational issues between Japan and the United States.

In 1991, permanent secretariats were established in Tokyo and Washington to provide continuity to CULCON activities. The US CULCON panel secretariat is housed at the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, an independent federal agency. The US CULCON secretariat is supported by funds from the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

At its April, 1993 plenary session, and again at its January, 1995 and May, 1997 plenary sessions, CULCON called for an effort to “significantly increase the number of American undergraduates studying in Japan in order to build better understanding and closer relations between the two countries.” CULCON has actively worked toward its goals in undergraduate educational exchange in addition to activities in media cooperation and information access between the two countries.

CULCON XIX, a plenary session held in Okinawa, Japan in February, 1999, provided the opportunity to review activities to date and to recommend a new joint initiative in digital archiving. Since then, the work of the Digital Culture Working Group has been the highest priority of CULCON, helping it harness the power of the Internet to its mission of improving educational and cultural relations between the two countries.

US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON)

2016

2015