Sixteen Regional Leaders and Regional Mentors, all alumni of various TOMODACHI programs - with support from the U.S. Embassy and Consulates across Japan - will lead the TOMODACHI Generation by creating opportunities for alumni to connect in each region and tackle various challenges together. The TOMODACHI Generation Regional Framework will support alumni engagement by furthering opportunities for alumni to connect with, empower, and inspire one another in their respective regions across Japan. 
Check out their bios and more information about the TOMODACHI Alumni Regional Framework on the TOMODACHI Alumni Website.  
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On January 27, 2019, around ten alumni came together for the TOMODACHI Alumni Regional Framework Chubu-Hokuriku Region’s theme event titled “Living by accepting ‘differences,’” held in Nagano City, Nagano Prefecture. Many of today’s youth continue to face the challenge of who they should become, though the topic of diversity is more commonly discussed nowadays. The goal of the event was to help participants learn to accept others and themselves by sharing their life stories, and to gain insights into living well by learning from one another’s differences. 
One of the participants commented, “The attendees’ backgrounds varied from one to another, and it made me realize that there are as many ways of living as there are people in the world. I thought it was truly important for each one of us to be exposed to different ideas in order to advance diversity in Japan.” Read More>>

Applications Open for the 2019 TOMODACHI-Mitsui & Co. Leadership Program!

Entering its seventh year, this exchange program provides participants with unique access to leaders in the U.S.-Japan arena, and the opportunity to broaden their perspectives to enhance work or initiatives in their professional fields. Ten American and ten Japanese young professionals will travel to one another’s countries for one week to engage as a group and meet with established and up-and-coming leaders from business and government.

Application Deadline:
April 4, 2019 (for American applicants)
April 18, 2019 (for Japanese applicants)
For more information and to apply: click here.

Applications Open for the TOMODACHI Summer 2019 SoftBank Leadership Program!

Launched in 2012, this program is now entering its eighth year. The program will take place from July 19, 2019 to August 9, 2019 (dates are tentative), sending 100 Japanese high school students from the disaster affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima to the University of California, Berkeley, for an intensive three-week workshop focused on community-based projects and leadership development.
 
Application Deadline: March 31, 2019　
For more information and to apply: click here.

Applications Open for the 8th TOMODACHI MUFG International Exchange Program!

This program was established in 2012 with the goal of deepening the mutual understanding between the United States and Japan and investing in the next generation of leaders. This is the eighth year of this exchange program, in which students from both countries are sent to the United States and Japan alternately. For this year’s program, students enrolled in high schools in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, or River Side Counties will be eligible to participate in the 8th TOMODACHI MUFG International Exchange Program. This program will send selected students to Japan for a two-week program from Saturday, June 22 to Sunday, July 7, 2019.

Deadline: Monday, March 18, 2019, 5:00pm (PDT)
For more information and to apply: click here.

The TOMODACHI J&J Disaster Nursing Training Program aims for participants to help strengthen disaster nursing in Japan overall, by sharing what they learn with each of their respective regions. Through the approximately six months of training, participants are expected to acquire the skills and knowledge to respond to disasters and emergency situations, and play an active role in their respective regions as future leaders in the field of disaster nursing.
This program was launched in 2015, initially open to nursing students from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures. Starting from 2019, participation will not only be limited to nursing students from the Tohoku region, but will be open to nursing students from all over Japan.

Deadline: March 10, 2019 at 23:59 Japan Standard Time
For more information and to apply: click here.

This intensive four-month disability leadership and advocacy training takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. The goal of the program is to train young Japanese people with disabilities to become leaders of the next generation.

In this program, trainees set individual training goals in their field of interest based on disability-related questions or issues. The trainees engage in an individualized internship with a disability-focused government or community organization as part of the project.

Applications Deadline: March 10, 2019
For more information and to apply: click here

Applications Now Open for the TOMODACHI Honda Global Leadership Program!

High school students with Japanese nationality from all over Japan are eligible to apply. During this year’s program, selected students will have the opportunity to travel for approximately two weeks to Torrance, California and Marysville, Ohio, where Honda’s headquarters in the United States and manufacturing base are located. Through exposure to American society and culture through interactions with local high school students and homestays, the Japanese students and the Americans they meet will deepen their mutual understanding of one another. 
 
Application Deadline:
March 20, 2019 (Mail applications)
March 22, 2019 (Online applications)
For more information and to apply: click here.

TOMODACHI-UNIQLO Fellowship is a scholarship program managed by the U.S.-Japan Council TOMODACHI Initiative. This scholarship program supports those who aspire to be globally-oriented business executives or fashion designers in the future as they study abroad at graduate design schools in the United States. 

Eligible applicants are those with Japanese nationality who have been accepted to either the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), State University of New York, or Parsons The New School for Design, School of Fashion (Parsons). The scholarship provides up to $90,000 for FIT, and up to $150,000 for Parsons.

Application guidelines are available through each school, and please apply directly to the respective school.
For more details and inquiries, please click here.