In the one hundred years since its inception, the Japan Society of New York has played an active role in promoting understanding between the people of the United States and Japan. Japan Society: Celebrating a Century, 1907-2007, published for the centennial anniversary of the organization, explores the central role that cultural exchange has played in the bilateral relationship.

By recounting the people, times, and events that shaped the Society’s vision through periods of peace and war, Japan Society shows how unofficial contacts between Japan and America continually expanded throughout the 20th century. During these years, the Japan Society of New York also served as a venue through which both governments, as well as leading thinkers, corporations, and activists, could publicize issues of importance and seek to build common understanding not often available in the formal political sphere. This evocatively told history traces a unique success story in the evolution of global society.