Participating Organization: U.S.-Japan International Exchange and Tourism Symposium 2023 Rebuilding and Strengthening Exchange and Tourism Between the U.S. and Japan Post-COVID

Press Release
For Immediate Release: February 15, 2023

U.S.-Japan International Exchange and Tourism Symposium 2023
Rebuilding and Strengthening Exchange and Tourism Between the U.S. and Japan Post-COVID

An Official Participating Event
Thursday, March 23, 2023 3pm-6pm (EST) Reception to Follow
Willard InterContinental Hotel, Washington D.C.
& Held Virtually in English and Japanese

Outline
Relations between the U.S. and Japan have been supported by multi-layered and extensive people-to- people exchanges, including business, academic, cultural, educational, and tourism activities, with diplomacy and national security at the forefront. However, these people-to-people exchanges were severely constrained by the pandemic.

In addition, including recent events of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and China’s hegemonic movements, such as its aggressive maritime expansion, the international situation has changed rapidly, making it vital to develop and evolve U.S.-Japan relations. Last December, we held the first JTTRI-JITTI Global Seminar “The Rapidly Changing Post-Pandemic World Order and the New Japan-U.S. Relations Hereafter,” inviting former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Ambassador Richard Armitage and former Japan’s Secretary General of National Security Secretariat Shotaro Yachi, both of whom are prominent experts on diplomacy and national security from the U.S. and Japan, connecting the two countries online.

Therefore, as a continuation of the Global Seminar, our symposium theme is multilayered and extensive people-to-people exchanges, which is an important perspective for building a new dimension of U.S.-Japan relations. The seminar aims to reconsider the significance of, and rebuild and strengthen, U.S.-Japan people-to-people exchanges to a new and higher dimension post- COVID. This hybrid symposium will be held virtually and in-person in Washington D.C., and has invited speakers who are knowledgeable about U.S.-Japan relations, international people-to-people exchange, and tourism.

Program
Opening Remarks

•  Masafumi Shukuri, Chairman, JTTRI Greetings by Guest of Honor
•  Koji Tomita, Ambassador of Japan to the U.S. Keynote Speech

Recent Changes in International Situations and the Importance of U.S.-Japan Relations

• Thomas Schieffer, former Ambassador of the U.S.A. to Japan
• Takashi Shiraishi, President, Kumamoto Prefectural University

Lecture
The Importance of International Exchange from the Perspective of Diplomatic Relations and the Future of Tourism

• Kent Calder, Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
• Satoshi Seino, President, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)

Panel Discussion
The Significance of People-to-People Exchanges and its Strengthening and Rebuilding

Moderator: Kent Calder, Director, Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Panelists:

• • Mark Keam, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism Policy and Analysis, US Department of Commerce
  • Koichi Ai, Minister, Embassy of Japan in the U.S. (General Affairs, Public Information and Culture)
  • Kazuyo Kato, Executive Director, Japan Center for International Exchange, USA (JCIE USA)

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