The Campbell River Twinning Society hosted its annual Japanese Cultural Fair on Saturday, celebrating the 30th anniversary of being sister cities with Ishikari, Japan. On hand for the event at Spirit Square were the Uminari Taiko Drummers from Victoria, KAEDE Japanese Chorus singing group, martial arts demonstrations by the CR Judo Club, CR Aikido, Yo-Gi Jyuku Jujitsu and Araki Muninsai Ryu Iaido demonstrating swordsmanship.

The embassy of Japan in Nigeria is stepping up its ties with Nigeria through culinary diplomacy with a food fair in Abuja where Ambassador Ryuichi Shoji revealed his country's "great" respect for culture and its influence, especially through food.

Japan and South Korea hold top 10 spots for the number of students they have studying in the United States. However, when it comes to the number of U.S. students studying in Japan and South Korea, they take 14th and 23rd place respectively. As the United States increasingly turns its focus toward East Asia, how does international exchange affect the developing relationships?

The Foreign Ministry’s appointment of the robot cat Doraemon as a “cultural ambassador” in 2008 is one instance. Another, less well known, concerns water trucks sent by Japan to Iraq in 2004 as a contribution to reconstruction of the war-shattered nation. The trucks were marked not by the Japanese flag but by a national symbol deemed (rightly) more instantly recognizable abroad — manga and anime soccer hero Captain Tsubasa. Talk about soft power!

A Japanese contemporary art exhibition themed ‘Yayoi Kusama- Obsessions’ will be held at the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi from May 25-July 28 to mark Japan-Vietnam Friendship Year 2013.

With the aim of promoting Asian art and cultural exchange, the organizer also invited 16 local artists from different generations to present Macau art ecology’s “today and tomorrow” through a hundred artworks. At “Being Asia” about sixty artworks by thirty-five young Korean and Japanese artists have been selected from twenty reputable galleries to reflect the changing Asian societies and cultures.

The Japanese government’s failure to provide tuition-wavers for students attending pro-North Korean schools inside Japan “constitutes discrimination,” a UN committee has said in a new report.

The 30 universities would enter student exchange partnerships with overseas colleges, and would conduct more than half of their lectures in English. The government would support another 100 universities to develop “special education programs for practical English”, the newspaper reported.