The 66th Japan-America Student Conference Comes to a Successful Close in Washington, DC
The American and Japanese delegates of the 66th Japan-America Student Conference (JASC) began their meeting in Des Moines, Iowa where they learned about the caucus system in the US politics, agriculture and sustainability at the World Food Prize and indigenous culture through a visit to a Native American settlement. The delegates then moved on to San Francisco, California where JASCers visited businesses, attended a reception, held a symposium, and had a short homestay with local families.
“After JASC was kicked off, I have experienced many situations that I have never been and those will be my unforgettable memories in the future. Experiencing the discussion and networking with alumni who work in various fields was one of them.”
– Kasumi Kanetaka
The third city they visited was New York, where activities included a tour of the 9-11 Memorial Museum, a career panel, and a panel on post WWII US-Japan relations.
The program concluded with the Final Forum on August 20, 2014 in Washington, D.C., where the delegates summarized their experiences from the conference and gave reports from their roundtable discussions covering seven distinct topics – Art and Identity, Environmental Initiative, Immigration, Historical Education, Technology, Morality and Justice, Smart Power, and Technological Advancements and Society.
Following the Final Forum, delegates attended a reception hosted by the Embassy of Japan. Deputy Chief of Mission Hiroyasu Izumi gave words of welcome and former DCM Kurt Tong (US Embassy in Tokyo) gave a toast. The US and Japan Executive Committee Chairs spoke about the takeaways from the conference and what they hoped delegates learned through their participation in the conference. An overwhelming feature of the delegates comments were that even though it was at times challenging to work in this cross-cultural group setting, they learned a lot about themselves and their group member and have made friendships that will last well into the future. The 2014 JASC program was partially supported by a grant from the TOMODACHI Initiative.
- View entries from Iowa, San Francisco and New York on their program blog here
- Student reflections blog can be found here
- For more photos, click here