Since 1987, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program has recruited thousands of young college graduates from more than sixty countries, including the United States, to work in Japan for up to five years. Now, thirty years after the program’s founding, there are more than 60,000 JET Program alumni worldwide, more than half of them hailing from the United States. The JET Program and the US–Japan Relationship: Goodwill Goldmine argues that JET functions as much more than an opportunity for young people to spend a year or more teaching in Japanese schools or working in municipal offices across the Japanese archipelago. This study examines the JET program as a form of public diplomacy and soft power. Through original survey data and extensive interviews with alumni, the author provides a quantitative analysis of the program’s effects and argues that it has been highly useful in shaping interactions between Japan and the United States.

The most important bilateral relationship in Asia since the end of World War II is assuredly between the United States and Japan. Despite the geographical and cultural differences between these two nations, as well as the bitterness leftover from the war, an amicable and prosperous relationship has developed between the two countries boasting the world's largest economies. As the 21st century progresses, the continuing goodwill between the U.S. and Japan is of the utmost importance, as the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific depends on their cooperation and efforts to contain destabilizing factors in the area. The A to Z of United States-Japan Relations traces this 150 year relationship through a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, a bibliography, and cross-referenced dictionary entries on key persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations. Covering everything from Walt Whitman's poem, "A Broadway Pageant," commemorating the visit of the Shogun's Embassy to the U.S. in 1860, to zaibatsu, this ready reference is an excellent starting point for the study of Japan's dealings with the U.S.

The Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan Relations traces this one hundred and fifty year relationship through a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, a bibliography, and cross-referenced dictionary entries on key persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations. Covering everything from Walt Whitman's poem, A Broadway Pageant, commemorating the visit of the Shogun's Embassy to the U.S. in 1860, to zaibatsu, this ready reference is an excellent starting point for the study of Japan's dealings with the U.S.

The term "soft power" describes a country's ability to get what it wants by attracting rather than coercing others - by engaging hearts and minds through cultural and political values and foreign policies that other countries see as legitimate and conducive to their own interests.This book analyzes the soft power assets of the United States and Japan, and how they contributed to one of the most successful, if unlikely, bilateral relationships of the twentieth century. Sponsored by the U.S. Social Science Research Council and the Japan Foundation's Center for Global Partnership, the book brings together anthropologists, political scientists, historians, economists, diplomats, and others to explore the multiple axes of soft power that operate in the U.S.-Japanese relationship, and between the United States and Japan and other regions of the world.The contributors move beyond an "either-or" concept of hard versus soft power to a more dynamic interpretation, and demonstrate the important role of non-state actors in wielding soft power. They show how public diplomacy on both sides of the Pacific - bolstered by less formal influences such as popular cultural icons, product brands, martial arts, baseball, and educational exchanges - has led to a vibrant U.S.-Japanese relationship since World War II despite formidable challenges. Emphasizing the essentially interactive nature of persuasion, the book highlights an approach to soft power that has many implications for the world today.

Since 1987, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program has recruited thousands of young college graduates from more than sixty countries, including the United States, to work in Japan for up to five years. Now, thirty years after the program's founding, there are more than 60,000 JET Program alumni worldwide, more than half of them hailing from the United States. The JET Program and the US-Japan Relationship: Goodwill Goldmine argues that JET functions as much more than an opportunity for young people to spend a year or more teaching in Japanese schools or working in municipal offices across the Japanese archipelago. This study examines the JET program as a form of public diplomacy and soft power. Through original survey data and extensive interviews with alumni, the author provides a quantitative analysis of the program's effects and argues that it has been highly useful in shaping interactions between Japan and the United States.

"Japan's official efforts at internationalization have been painful to witness. . . . The government's JET program is easily the most ambitious and its history and on-the-ground problems offer significant insights into Japan's struggle to open up to the outside. David McConnell's book provides a most interesting analysis of why this process has been so complex and difficult. It tells us much about Japanese society and education at this critical point in time."—Thomas P. Rohlen, author of For Harmony and Strength "In this superb and insightful book, David McConnell explores perhaps the greatest (certainly the biggest) education program in humankind's history, offering patient, balanced analysis of its workings, problems, and accomplishments. McConnell's confucian equanimity and multifaceted perspectives lend the book a depth seldom found in contemporary writing on Japan."—Robert Juppe, First ALT Advisor for the JET Program "This is a very astute, thorough, and personal account of the JET program as a case study of how a program can both change a system and provoke defenses against any change. With his fine ethnographic and analytic material, McConnell reveals the faultlines of "internationalization" in Japan. This is a great contribution to the study of organizations, marginality, and shifts in global and national identity."—Merry White, author of Japanese Families: It Takes a Nation

Recommends practical ways in which the United States and Japan can support democratic development in countries that are emerging from autocratic regimes and those that have achieved a measure of democracy, but are in danger of regressing.