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Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership grants $900,000 to IU’s SGIS

For Immediate Release Apr 19, 2018

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University’s School of Global and International Studies has announced a $900,000 grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership to establish the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative in the school’s renowned Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. The five-year award counts toward the $3 billion For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign.

“We are very grateful to the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership for this generous and forward-looking grant,” IU President Michael A. McRobbie said. “Through this new initiative, Indiana University and its School of Global and International Studies will promote deeper understanding of contemporary Japanese society and politics in a state that has a longstanding relationship with the government of Japan and the country’s private sector.”

Among all U.S. states, Indiana has the largest Japanese investment per capita, with more than 280 business facilities across the state employing more than 58,000 Hoosiers, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Global and International Studies Building
The Global and International Studies Building, home of the School of Global and International Studies on the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

In the fall, McRobbie and a university delegation traveled to Japan to pursue the expanded exchange of students and faculty between Japanese and U.S. universities. They met with IU alumni as well as leaders in education, government, technology, culture and business. McRobbie also met with U.S. Ambassador to Japan William F. Hagerty IV, and the delegation met with representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, as well as the Japan Foundation, to discuss ways to increase student and faculty mobility between the U.S. and Japan.

“Congratulations to department chair Scott O’Bryan, EALC assistant professor Adam Liff, and to their colleagues in the department and school, for their successful efforts to secure this significant grant,” said School of Global and International Studies Dean Lee Feinstein. “This initiative will add significant new dimensions to our venerable Japanese-studies program in society, history, culture and language. This grant comes at a time of dynamic change in East Asia aimed, especially, at enhancing the department’s study and teaching of politics, social change and Japan’s relations with the United States and the rest of the world. Understanding Japan’s domestic and international politics is increasingly important to our ability to grasp 21st-century global challenges and the rise of the East Asian region.”

The School of Global and International Studies promotes greater understanding of contemporary and global issues, informed by a deep knowledge of history, culture and language. Established in 2012, the school has grown to become one of the largest schools of global affairs in the United States, recently adding 25 new faculty members, in an architecturally distinctive, LEED-certified building, inaugurated by then-Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015.

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, now nearing its 60th year, is one of the oldest at a public university in the nation. The department’s current dynamic growth in research breadth and in the number of students it teaches is strengthening its already storied national reputation.

For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign is taking place on all IU-administered campuses including IU Bloomington, IUPUI, IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU South Bend and IU Southeast. The campaign will conclude in June 2020 to coincide with IU’s bicentennial year celebration. To learn more about the campaign, its impact and how to participate, visit forall.iu.edu.

Founded in 1936, the Indiana University Foundation maximizes private support for Indiana University by fostering lifelong relationships with key stakeholders and providing advancement leadership and fundraising services for campuses and units across the university. Today, the IU Foundation oversees one of the largest public university endowments in the country, with a market value in excess of $2 billion. IU is consistently ranked among the top four of Big Ten universities in annual voluntary support.

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