THE FIRST 50 YEARS
In 1970, the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) was established in Tokyo as one of the first independent international affairs institutes in Japan. Its sister organization, JCIE/USA, was launched in New York five years later as an American nonprofit organization.
At the time in Japan, the concept of a nongovernmental institution independent of government or business control becoming active in foreign policy and international political exchange was considered revolutionary. The organization was founded by 34-year old Tadashi Yamamoto, who earlier, during his studies in the United States, had been inspired by the activism and call to duty of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and sought to bring that sense of hope for a more peaceful international order to Japan’s relations with the United States and the world. Yamamoto led JCIE until his death in 2012, growing it into one of the country’s most prominent international affairs institutes. Read More…