FOR GENERAL RELEASE                                                    MEDIA CONTACT:  Toshio Shono

                                                                   shono@fulbright.or.jp

Members of Japan GARIOA/Fulbright Alumni Association Contribute

$24,502 to Help Hurricane Katrina Victims

          Tokyo, Japan—On Oct. 28, Shigekoto Kaihara, chairman of the Japan GARIOA/Fulbright Alumni Association, presented the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo a check for ¥2,857,000 (US $24,502) for Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery.  The gift represents contributions by 351 Japan GARIOA/Fulbright Alumni Association members from Okinawa to Hokkaido.

          In the first week of September, media reports revealed the serious devastation in the region along the Gulf Coast as the worst disaster in American history.  A Tokyo Fulbright Association Board member, anxious about his friends and other people living in the region, proposed to Chairman Kaihara launching a campaign for contributions to help hurricane victims. 

          The Fulbright Program was created in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright, who believed the exchange of persons to be the most effective means of promoting world peace. Through the GARIOA/Fulbright Program between Japan and the United States, about 7,000 young Japanese graduate students and scholars have studied in the U.S. and about 2,300 Americans have studied in Japan since 1949.  For the past 60 years, many Japanese Fulbright alumni have contributed to Japan’s recovery and development in such fields as the Diet, judiciary, government, business, media, and higher education. 

          The Japan GARIOA/Fulbright Alumni Association was established in 1982 on the 30th anniversary of the Fulbright Program between Japan and the United States.  There are 11 regional associations from Okinawa to Hokkaido and in New York.  The members of the associations are engaged in a variety of volunteer activities to help American Fulbright grantees and make financial contributions to offer grants mostly to American students and scholars.

          In 2005, the centenary of Senator J. W. Fulbright’s birth, many commemorative events have been held around the world.  In Japan, Mrs. Harriet Mayor Fulbright made a speech on “The Legacy & Future of the Fulbright Vision” for members of the Tokyo Fulbright Association and met American Fulbright grantees at a welcome reception at the Hotel New Otani.  She then visited Kyoto and Osaka to attend meetings with alumni in those cities.

          On February 4, 2006, the Fulbright Concert will be held at Tsuda Hall in Tokyo.  The Association also continues to work on financial contributions by corporations with Crown Donations to invite more American Fulbright grantees to Japan.

View Cover Letter Presented to U.S. Embassy and List of Donors (PDF)

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