We are pleased to announce that application process for the 2012 Japan Travel Program for U.S. Future Leaders has begun. Students at full-member APSIA (Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs) schools with an interest in Japan are encouraged to go to their institution’s career office for information on how to apply.

January 11th-13th marked the final event for cohort one and the first event for cohort two of the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future participants. The final policy papers from the cohort one participants are available for download.

The retreat for Abe Fellows this year took place over Martin Luther King weekend from January 14th- 16th, 2012 in Amelia Island, FL. The retreat is designed to allow Abe Fellows to get to know each other in a relaxed environment, and to facilitate intellectual exchange among participants.

The Japan Foundation is organizing a tour of the culturally unique production of Hoichi the Earless, which will feature a Biwa player Akiko Sakurai, a Butoh dancer Kumotaro Mukai from Dairakudakan, and a Saz (Baglama) player Kiyoshi Ohira. The group will perform the ghostly story of the same name, which first appeared in the book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek born Irish writer who later became a Japanese citizen. Co-presented with Asia Society and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Be captivated by the romance, intrigue, and glamour of the world of traditional Japanese tales, legends, and histories. Speakers are John Carpenter, Sarah Thompson, and Melanie Trede. The event also features Akiko Sakurai who will perform selections from the great Japanese literary work, The Tale of the Heike. The event is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and introduced by curator Masako Watanabe.

Nashville based Blackbird Theater will stage Pacific Overtures by Stephan Sondheim at Lipscomb University’s Shamblin Theater. With the performance occurring only weeks before the anniversary of the 3/11 disasters, the story is a fitting tribute to the strength and the resilient spirit of the Japanese people.

This performance is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

A New Musical in which Noh meets Noir (Noh-oir). Japan. 1879. Isabella Archer, a young American war widow crosses an ocean in search of a lost love—and is about to cross a line from which she can never return. It’s a journey across the boundaries between pleasure and pain, art and artifice, the secrets of the flesh and the sins of the heart. When Isabella falls in love with a renowned Japanese tattoo artist, she enters a world of extreme beauty, becoming an object of unexpected desire—in a realm of unspeakable danger. Words and Music by Eric Schorr. Directed by Johanna McKeon.

This performance is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

As part of our JAILA (Japanese Arts in Latin America) Program, renowned taiko performers Kenny Endo and Miles Endo will be touring El Salvador and Belize for a series of concerts and workshops.

Mu Daiko celebrates 15 years of taiko with its biggest performance yet. During the second week of performances, Mu Daiko will share the stage with special guest HANAYUI and others.

This performance is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

Acclaimed recording artist Akiko Yano will perform at public celebration in conjunction with the opening of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s new Arts of Japan Gallery.

Ms. Yano’s performance is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

Music From Japan Festival 2012, 37th season will present three different programs to be performed.

This performance is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

This traveling exhibit on loan from The Japan Foundation to the Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University examines transformations in contemporary Japanese society and landscapes over recent decades by providing an overview of the diverse photographic expression that emerged during that time period.

“Poetic Pastimes: Japan and the Art of Leisure” brings to life the Japanese passion for play and it's long-held affinity with nature through more than 100 pieces of fine and decorative arts spanning the last two and a half centuries.

The publication for this exhibition is supported by The Japan Foundation through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

“The Art of Gaman” is an exhibition that showcases the arts and crafts made by Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II. It is a universally uplifting story for its celebration of the nobility of the human spirit in adversity.

This exhibition is held at The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum and is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

Lecture by printmaker and installation artist Ayomi Yoshida, in conjunction with the concurrent exhibition “Yoshida Hodaka and Post-World War II Japanese and American Artistic Exchange.” Open to the public.

This program is supported by The Japan Foundation, New York through its JFNY Grant for Arts and Culture.

The Japan Foundation and Doc Film are co-organizing "Naruse & Takamine - Of an Auteur and Actress." The program screens 9 films of Naruse's works that features Hideko Takamine, who died in age 86 at the end of 2010.