The Japan Foundation Awards honor individuals and organizations for significant contributions to "the enhancement of mutual understanding between Japan and other countries."
History Activities in an academic or cultural field have been presented by the Japan Foundation annually since 1973.Japan Foundation, About Awards and Special Prizes; retrieved 2011-05-23
In 1985, Eleanor Harz Jorden was the first woman to receive a Japan Foundation Award.
In 2020, the award selection that continued for 47 years was canceled for the first time due to COVID-19 pandemic. However, the nominated application for that year was carried over to the following year, and in 2021 four recipients were listed.
Description The awards help to further the mission of the foundation in language and culture.Ager, Dennis. (2001).
Two types of awards (the Japan Foundation Awards and the Japan Foundation Special Prizes) previously composed the Japan Foundation Awards. But these awards are integrated into “The Japan Foundation Awards” in three categories: "Arts and Culture", "Japanese Language", and "Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange" from 2008.
Recipients Japan Foundation Awards
Year Recipients Country 1973 Serge Elisseeff (Professor, Harvard University / Japanese Studies) U.S.A. The International House of Japan, Inc. Japan Japan Society U.S.A. Sophia University Japan 1974 James William Fulbright (Former Senator) U.S.A. Bernard Howell Leach (Potter) U.K. 1975 Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (Professor, Harvard University; Former Ambassador to Japan / Japanese Studies) U.S.A. Kojiro Yoshikawa (Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University; Chairman, The Institute of Eastern Culture) Japan 1976 * John Whitney Hall (Professor, Yale University / Modern Japanese History) U.S.A. Robert E. Ward (Professor, Stanford University / Politics) U.S.A. The Toyo Bunko Japan 1977 Ronald Philip Dore (Professor, University of Sussex) U.K. Choei Ishibashi (Chairman, International Medical Society of Japan / Pediatrics) Japan Meiji Newspapers and Magazine Library, the Faculty of Laws, the University of Tokyo Japan 1978 Frank James Daniels (Professor Emeritus, University of London / Japanese Language Teaching Methodology) U.K. James Lanius Stewart (Representative in Japan, The Asian Foundation) U.S.A. Yasaka Takagi (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo; Member, The Japan Academy / U.S. Political History) Japan 1979 Charles Burton Fahs (Former Minister at U.S. Embassy in Tokyo; Former Professor, Miami University) U.S.A. Robert Guillain (Journalist) France Shigeharu Matsumoto (Chairman, The International House of Japan, Inc.) Japan 1980 George Cyril Allen (Professor Emeritus, University of London / Japanese Studies) U.K. Hugh Borton (Senior Researcher, Asian Institute, Columbia University) U.S.A. Shinobu Iwamura (Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University / Eastern Studies) Japan 1981 Ungku Abdul Aziz (Vice Chancellor, University of Malaya / Economics)Japan Report, Volumes 24-33, Japan Information Center, Consulate General of Japan, 1978. p.8 Malaysia George Richard Storry (Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford / Japanese Studies) U.K. The Institute of Eastern Culture Japan 1982 Yoshitaro Amano (Honorary Director, The Museo Amano of Peru) Peru Marius Berthus Jansen (Professor, Princeton University / Japanese Studies) U.S.A. Akira Kurosawa (Film Director) Japan 1983 Donald Keene (Professor, Columbia University / Japanese Literature) U.S.A. René Sieffert (President, l'Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales [INALCO]) France Shin'ichi Suzuki (President & Director, Talent Education Institute) Japan 1984 Sir John Grenfell Crawford (Former Chancellor, Australian National University / Economics) Australia Yoichi Maeda (Managing Director, The International House of Japan, Inc.) Japan Edward George Seidensticker (Professor, Columbia University / Japanese Literature) U.S.A. 1985 Bernard Frank (Professor, College de France / Japanese Literature, Religious Thought) France Eleanor Harz Jorden (Professor, Cornell University / Linguistics, Japanese Language Teaching) U.S.A. 1986 Fosco Maraini (President, Italian Association for Japanese Studies / Anthropology) Italy The Japan Society of Northern California U.S.A. 1987 James William Morley (Professor, Columbia University / International Relations) U.S.A. Chie Nakane (Professor Emerita, University of Tokyo / Social Anthropology) Japan 1988 Seiji Ozawa (Music Director, Boston Symphony Orchestra) Japan Xia Yan (Vice-President, All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles) China 1989 David MacEachron (Advisor to the Board of Directors, the Japan Society (NY)) U.S.A. Alexander Slawik (Professor Emeritus, The University of Vienna / Ethnology, Asian Studies) Austria 1990 Wieslaw Roman Kotanski (Professor, The University of Warsaw / Japanese Studies) Poland Tadao Umesao (Director-General, National Museum of Ethnology) Japan 1991 Byong-sam Han (Director-General, National Museum of Korea / Anthropology) Korea Ian Nish (Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics, University of London / Anglo-Japanese relations) U.K. 1992 Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (Rector, Universitas Nasional / Literature) Indonesia Frits Vos (Professor Emeritus, Leiden University / Japanese Studies) Netherlands 1993 Josef Pittau, S.J. (President, The Pontifical Gregorian University) Italy Toru Takemitsu (Composer) Japan 1994 Toshio Kawatake (Professor Emeritus, Waseda University) Japan Heinrich Pfeiffer (Secretary General, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) Germany 1995 Donald Richie (Writer / Film Historian) U.S.A. Soshitsu Sen (Grand Master, Urasenke Tradition of Tea) Japan 1996 O-Young Lee (Chair Professor, Ewha Womans University) Korea Ezra Feivel Vogel (Director, Fairbank Center for East-Asia Research, Harvard University) U.S.A. 1997 Roger Goepper (Professor, University of Cologne) Germany Ping-hua Sun (President, The China-Japan Friendship Association) China 1998 Ikuma Dan (Composer, Member of the Art Academy of Japan) Japan Robert Anthony Scalapino (Robson Research Professor of Government Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley) U.S.A. 1999 Frank Bray Gibney (President, The Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College) U.S.A. Wolfgang Sawallisch (Conductor, Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Honorary Conductor Laureate of the NHK Symphony Orchestra) Germany 2000 Myong Kwan Chi (Director, Institute of Japanese Studies, Hallym University) Korea Yoneo Ishii (President, Kanda University of International Studies) Japan 2001 William G. Beasley (Emeritus Professor of the History of the Far East, University of London) U.K Ikuo Hirayama (Artist) Japan 2002 Gerald L. Curtis (Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University) U.S.A. Makoto Ooka (Poet) Japan 2003 Yoshiaki Ishizawa (Professor, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University) Japan Josef Kreiner (Director, Institute of Japanese Studies, The University of Bonn) Austria 2004 Toshiko Akiyoshi (Jazz Pianist, Jazz Music Composer) Japan 2005 Hayao Miyazaki (Animated Film Director) Japan 2006 Joe and Etsuko Price (Directors, The Shin'enKan Foundation) U.S.A. 2007 Royall Tyler (Former Professor and Head of the Japan Centre, Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University) Australia 2008 Arts and Culture: Marco Muller (Director of the Venice International Film Festival) Italy Japanese Language: Angela Hondru (Professor of Japanese Literature and Civilization, Hyperion University) Romania Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange: Kenneth B. Pyle (Professor, University of Washington) U.S.A. 2009 Arts and Culture: Boris Akunin (Writer) Russia Japanese Language: Alliance of Associations of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) U.S.A. Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange: Arthur Stockwin (Former director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford) U.K. 2010 Arts and Culture: Tadao Sato (Film Critic) Japan Japanese Language: Savitri Vishwanathan (Former Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Delhi) India Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange: Ben-Ami Shillony (Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Israel 2011 Arts and Culture: TAMBUCO Percussion Ensemble Mexico Japanese Language: Department of Japanese and Japanese Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University Egypt Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange: Augustin Berque (Retired Professor, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) France 2014 Charles David AllisDavid Allis, pioneer in epigenetics, to receive prestigious Japan Prize, Eurekalert.org, 28 January 2014 U.S.A. 2016 Cai Guo-QiangCai Guo-Qiang, Nobelprize.org China 2017 Alexandra Munroe (Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum)Alexandra Munroe (Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) U.S.A., Jpf.go.jp, 2017 U.S.A. 2018 Spanish-Japanese Cultural Center of the University of SalamancaJosé-Abel Flores Villarejo, The Japan Foundation Awards 2018 Spanish-Japanese Cultural Center of the University of Salamanca: Between the tradition and the future, Wochikochi.jp, October 2016 Spain Yoko TawadaYoko Tawada Receives the 2018 Japan Foundation Award, Waseda.jp, 2018 Japan 2019 Shuntaro Tanikawa (Poet) Japan Association of Indonesian Alumni From Japan (PERSADA) Indonesia Ewa Pałasz-Rutkowska (Professor, University of Warsaw) Poland 2021 Hirokazu KOREEDA (Fim Director) Japan Mayumi Miyata (Shō (Japanese wind instrument) performer) Japan Faculty of Japanese Language and Culture, University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) / Faculty of Japanese, Foreign Trade University / Department of Japanese Studies, Hanoi University Vietnam Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit Germany
Special Prizes From 1974 to 2007, Special Prizes have been conferred, supplementing the list of those recognized by the Foundation.