FOCUS: Former Japanese Female Diplomat Heads Japan House in L.A.

June 5, 2018

Los Angeles- A former Japanese female diplomat is promoting Japanese cultural strengths as head of Tokyo's strategic outlet in Los Angeles.

Yuko Kaifu initially turned down an offer from the Japanese government to serve as president of Japan House Los Angeles but eventually accepted the post.

"I couldn't remain a bystander when I took into consideration the significance of making it (the project) meaningful," Kaifu said.

The Japan House project aims to create hubs overseas to showcase and communicate Japan to the international community, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry. Japan House Los Angeles opened in December 2017, following the first such body in Sao Paulo in April the same year. The third Japan House is planned to open in London later this year.

Japan House Los Angeles has a shop for Japanese artifacts and refined articles of daily use as well as a gallery for exhibitions on the second floor of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which includes a theater used for the Academy Awards ceremony. It will open other facilities, including a Japanese restaurant, on the fifth floor this summer to enter full operations.

Kaifu was born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, and joined the ministry from university. Her assignments included the First North America Division and the Foreign Policy Bureau.

Fluent in English, Kaifu became the first female ministry official to work as an interpreter for Empress Michiko in 1989 and served in the role for more than 10 years.

In September 2001, immediately after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States by Islamic extremists, Kaifu was assigned to the post of consul in Los Angeles.

With a large number of Japanese-Americans in California having been interned after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941, Japan's relations with such people and their descendants had weakened. Kaifu worked particularly hard to deepen their understanding of Japan.

For example, she was involved in launching a program to invite Japanese-American leaders in politics, economy, education and many other fields from all parts of the United States to Japan.

Kaifu quit the ministry in 2007, accepting an invitation from the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to become its vice president. She then moved to a U.S. banking unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. <8306>.

Aimed at increasing the number of people friendly to Japan overseas, the Japan House project portrays Japan from a broad set of perspectives including "high culture," or artistic products and designs with aesthetic value, "subculture," represented by anime and manga, and the culture of daily life, such as food, fashion and standard necessities.

"Los Angeles has diversity and symbolizes the strength of the United States," Kaifu said. "Japan House here enables lots of people to meet each other and form partnerships in a variety of fields."

In addition, Japan House Los Angeles will help expand opportunities for business related to Japan and increase the number of visitors from the United States to rural areas in Japan, she said. Jiji Press