Helping To Create a "TOMODACHI Generation"

Feb. 6 - U.S. Ambassador John Roos hosted an event at his residence on Feb. 3, 2012 to announce a number of educational exchange programs under the TOMODACHI initiative.

With the support of private companies such as SoftBank, Coca-Cola, and General Electric, TOMODACHI is pleased to launch a series of programs that will provide over 450 students from the Tohoku region (and elsewhere in Japan) with the opportunity to participate in educational exchange programs in a variety of locations in the United States.

Featured speakers at the event included U.S.-Japan Council President Irene Hirano Inouye, SOFTBANK CORP. Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son, Representative Director & President Coca-Cola (Japan) Company, Limited Daniel H. Sayre, and GE Japan President & CEO Mark Norbom. Each speaker highlighted the importance of educational exchanges in further developing and sustaining the U.S.-Japan relationship, as well as the continuing need to support the Tohoku region as it recovers and rebuilds from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

In his remarks to the audience, Ambassador Roos said, "It is our hope that the TOMODACHI initiative that we have put into place will help ensure that our two countries - and more specifically, our two peoples - remain close for generations to come. With the broad help of the private sector, our goal is to greatly expand these exchanges to more young people in Tohoku and throughout Japan in the years to come, and to bring young Americans to Japan as well. I look forward to meeting with all of the young people after their TOMODACHI experiences, and to stay closely connected with them as they become the new TOMODACHI generation."

For more information about TOMODACHI, please visit http://usjapantomodachi.org.