Tomodachi program to drum up friendship with concert

In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, the U.S. military and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces launched Operation Tomodachi, which means “friendship,” to provide immediate humanitarian relief.

After the immediate relief work, the Tomodachi Initiative was formed to continue cooperation between the two countries. The initiative is led by the U.S.Japan Council and the U.S. Embassy Tokyo and is supported by Japan’s government and corporations, organizations and individuals from the U.S. and Japan.

In keeping with this spirit of friendship, the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania, headquartered Downtown, is hosting 12 Japanese high school students for a week of musical exchange with Pittsburgh students and Pittsburgh Taiko, the region’s Japanese drumming group.

The visit will begin Aug. 8 and conclude with a free concert at 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, or CAPA, Downtown.

The Japanese exchange students are members of Nihon Fukushi Daigaku High School’s award-winning Taiko drumming ensemble. Partnering with them will be students from CAPA and Pittsburgh Allderdice High School.

This exchange is part of the initiative enabled by the U.S.-Japan Council and the National Association of Japan-America Societies.

Students will practice drumming together and visit and learn from arts organizations around Pittsburgh.

“When students have that experience with other cultures, it really makes them think about the wider world out there,” said Amy Boots, executive director of the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania. “They can connect with other people who bring a different way of looking at the world and

still have a very rewarding and meaningful relationship.”

Established in 1986, the society is one of 36 across the U.S.

Originally business-oriented, the society now offers a variety of programs, including Japan in the Schools, which is an educational program that reaches 3,000 students a year in grades K-12; an annual high school speech contest; cultural programs; and a lecture series.

Brenda Jordan, director of the Pittsburgh National Site for the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia at the University of Pittsburgh, has been a board member since 2001.

“There’s always more that can be done to help Americans understand other cultures and get along better,” she said. “It’s a global economy and it’s a global world.”

She said interest in Japan has heightened in Western Pennsylvania, particularly among high school and college students drawn to Japanese popular culture. Japanese is the second-largest language major at the University of Pittsburgh; Spanish is the first.

Although the permanent Japanese-American population in the area is not large, she said the strong presence of Japanese companies in the region can mean jobs for students who are fluent in the language and can work with both countries.

Doug Cardiff of Mt. Lebanon was an international businessman and joined the society 20 years ago because of its networking connections and to learn more about Japanese culture.

He serves on the program committee and said one of his roles within the society is to communicate cultural changes in Japan that affect the business community.

He said some recent changes include the country’s shift away from being a male-oriented society; the diversification of Japanese businesses that now buy and sell from other trade groups as opposed to only their own affiliates; and the incentives from the Japanese government for companies to be less autocratic and represent all stakeholders.

Although business between the U.S. and Japan is as robust as ever, society member Sam Kidder said the number of Japanese students studying in the U.S. has dropped in the past decade.

The pressure in Japanese society to obtain the right job and get a career underway means that time abroad can be useful but disruptive, he said.

A retired diplomat, Mr. Kidder spent eight years as the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo before relocating to Mt. Lebanon earlier this year.

While he said Americans and Japanese are interested in many aspects of each other’s culture, language and cultural differences have created a need for methods of outreach.

“The one thing that has become more important in recent years is the need on both sides for intensified person-to-person exchanges,” he said.

To help bridge this gap, the society offers a variety of events and activities that enrich both cultures, he said, and ultimately strengthen the bond that was established over four years ago with a simple act of tomodachi.

Information: www.us-japan.org.