A Report on US-Japan Intellectual Exchange

National Institute for Research Advancement, Tokyo
February 1991

This final report by the US-Japan Intellectual Exchange Study Group of the National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) follows an interim report made in early August 1990. As a result of the failure of the United States and Japan to forge an effective and immediate response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait at about that time, the study group visited the United States to exchange views with leading figures in government, private foundations, research institutes, and universities and later interviewed many American and Japanese leaders in various fields. This final report was used as a discussion paper for the international symposium held in Tokyo on February 21 and 22, 1991, on the theme “Challenges and Opportunities of US-Japan Exchange in the New Era.” The symposium was sponsored by the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership in cooperation with NIRA and the Japan Center for International Exchange.

The study group found many areas ripe for improvement in intellectual exchange and made a number of specific proposals designed to rectify the problems it perceived. Among them were establishing a fund to act as a grant-making institution to assist research into the area; establishing a joint committee to foster intellectual exchange between the countries; establishing a Japanese liaison office with functions similar to the Ford Foundation’s former Tokyo office; jointly sponsoring research and academic research projects; and strengthening the infrastructure of Japan-US intellectual exchange.

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background to the Increased Need for the Promotion of Intellectual Exchange
  3. Major Constraints on US-Japan Intellectual Exchange
  4. Proposals to Dramatically Expand US-Japan Intellectual Exchange
Copyright © 1991 National Institute for Research Advancement, Tokyo. All Rights Reserved.