2012 Japan-America Grassroots Summit
TOMODACHI helped three groups of high school and middle school students from the disaster-affected cities of Minamisanriku, Kesennuma, and Ishinomaki attend the Japan-American Grassroots Summit in North Texas on August 28-September 3, 2012. This included working with star baseball pitcher Yu Darvish, the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, and Japanese online game company gloops INC. to provide funding for a youth baseball team from Ishinomaki to participate in the event. The Japan Foundation and the Tokyo Club separately sponsored the other student groups.
The Japan-America Grassroots Summit is an annual large-scale meeting of Japanese and American citizens, held alternately in Japan and America since 1991, which seeks to strengthen bilateral relations by fostering friendships between people of both countries. Each year, an average of 200 people travel across the Pacific to take part in the Summit, with more than 35,000 people having participated in this event since its inception. The event is hosted by the John Manjiro Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange (CIE).
The 2012 Summit gave students the chance to experience America through homestay and cultural exchange programs. This included intercultural workshops led by experts from the fields of art, science, academia, politics and business.
For more information, please visit CIE’s website for the Japan-America Grassroots Summit.
