PRESS RELEASE: March 17, 2013 – Vol. VIII, No. 5

Five JAVA Officials Invited to Meet Prime Minister Abe and Foreign Minister Kishida

Washington, DC. During a recent visit to Washington, DC, for high level discussions, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida engaged in US-Japan exchanges, including with members of the Japanese American community, at the Crystal Room of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Washington, DC, on February 22, 2013.

L-R: Dr. Craig Uchida, former Chairman of the Board of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation; Grant Ichikawa; Bob Nakamoto, immediate past president of JAVA; Prime Minister Abe; Terry Shima, Gerald Yamada, President of JAVA; and Floyd Mori, immediate past National Executive Director of JACL. Photo by Bruce Hollywood.

The Japanese American Veterans Association, or JAVA, was well represented by JAVA President Gerald Yamada, Executive Director Col Bruce Hollywood, USAF (Ret), immediate past JAVA president Bob Nakamoto, and members Grant Ichikawa and Terry Shima. The JAVA delegation told the Prime Minister that, as Americans, they were also proud of their Japanese heritage. JAVA is supportive of the Japanese government’s efforts to maintain a strong, sound relationship between Japan and the Nikkei population.

During the morning, Premier Abe visited Arlington National Cemetery. That was followed by a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss a wide range of issues such as US-Japan regional security and economic issues. Following this discussion, Abe delivered a policy speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the future of Japan’s foreign policy, US-Japan relations, and Japan’s relations with China and other regional powers. Later, a press conference followed.

On the same day, February 22, Foreign Minister Kishida held an approximately one hour long meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry. They discussed a broad range of issues such as US – Japan relations (space and cyber cooperation, youth exchanges, etc.); the Asia-Pacific situation (Japan’s relations with China and North Korea, etc.), and global issues (Mid-East peace process, Syria, etc.).

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