The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give $15m to programmes this fiscal year covering Japanese politics and foreign policy in the US, in an effort to enhance Japan’s ‘soft power’ in the country. Georgetown University, Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be among the institutions selected to receive the funding, which will be mainly aimed at programmes in the areas of modern and contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy.

In the Japanese government’s new budget, one small item stands out: a $5 million grant to Columbia University in New York to fund a position for a professor of Japanese politics and foreign policy.