The Program on U.S.-Japan Relations enables outstanding scholars and practitioners to conduct independent research on topics in contemporary bilateral relations and to participate in an ongoing dialogue on those topics with other members of Harvard University and the greater Cambridge and Boston communities. The program was founded in 1980 on the belief that the United States and Japan have become so interdependent that the problems they face urgently require cooperation. The program’s intellectual mandate has been broad since its inception and has included: U.S.-Japan security and economic relations; contemporary Japanese politics, economy, society, and culture; common problems of advanced capitalist democracies; international relations of East Asia; the globalization of Japan’s popular culture; the rise of civil society in Asia; and global governance of trade, environment, and public health issues.
Each year, the program hosts academics, government officials, business people, and journalists, and awards a few advanced research fellowships to scholarly applicants who have outstanding research credentials. While in residence at Harvard for the academic year, associates take part in the seminars, roundtables, and other functions of the program; attend classes and other activities in the Harvard community; present the results of their research in public panels; and prepare research reports that are published as the Occasional Papers of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. Although most associates are from either Japan or the United States, the program has also included individuals from a variety of East Asian and European countries.