Music and politics in Japan have rarely been closer. From the government’s use of AKB48 member Haruka Shimazaki in a military recruitment advertising campaign to its funding of pop culture as a form of “soft power” through initiatives like Cool Japan, music has been used by the establishment to advance various goals. 

Netanyahu presented a color-coded world map and discussed Israel’s relations with a number of strategic states.  “First of all” he exclaimed, “there is a huge change.”  He pointed out that Israel is negotiating a free trade agreement with China, the second largest economy in the world. Israel’s exports to India increased by 30%, and with Japan, Israel has a defense and investment protection agreement.  

The Hà Nội Ensemble is a group of young artists and lecturers from the Việt Nam National Academy of Music, which was established in 2010. Members of the group have studied in Việt Nam and other prestigious conservatories of music around the world. They have won many reputable music awards, as well as participated in concerts, music festivals and cultural exchange programmes both domestically and internationally.
 

An event will take place this week to help students from South Korea and Japan better understand each other's culture through dancing. The organizers -- the Soorim Cultural Foundation and the Japan Global Cultural Exchange Foundation -- on Sunday said they will hold a cultural exchange program titled "Seoul-de Dance, Dance, Dance" from Thursday to Monday.

Nine students and two chaperones headed off July 12 for Miyoshi City, the official “sister city” of The Dalles. [...] The objective of the visits is “to build and sustain cross-cultural connections and mutual understanding with our sister cities and the larger global community,” read an excerpt from the mission statement of the Sister Cities website. 

Is Pokémon Go a game changer for the Japanese economy? Is it a sign that Silicon Valley-style innovation is reinvigorating corporate Japan’s notoriously insular management? Might this be the first big success story for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Cool Japan” initiative, a key element in the structural reforms promised but so far undelivered by Abenomics?

Changsha, capital city of central China's Hunan Province, has been awarded the title of the "2017 Culture City of East Asia" in a program established by China, Japan and South Korea in Beijing. [...] The three candidate cities were judged by an 11-member committee of experts in the fields of cultural exchange, cultural service system construction and intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance.

Fourteen talented students and teachers from the United States will travel to Tokyo, Japan for the third annual TOMODACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy, where they will team up with Japanese students and teachers. The week-long program is designed to foster closer ties between American and Japanese participants...