Free Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program by David L. McConnell Page B

government entity
would include a sum to cover salary, transportation, and conferences for
JET Program participants. In effect, Home Affairs created a program at the
national level but presented it to the Finance Ministry as a local initiative.
    Yet we are still left wondering why the Finance Ministry would agree to
use taxpayer money to fund what looked like a multimillion-dollar giveaway to foreign college graduates. The answer is that a strong argument
could be made for the JET Program as an investment in the Japanese economy. The program would provide additional revenues for Japan Airlines
(on whose flights many of the JET participants are booked), Daiichi
Kangyo Bank (which is entrusted with the operating budget for the program), and Kintetsu Travel Agency (which arranges travel for the JET participants and accommodations at the Tokyo orientation and other conferences). In addition, roughly 8o percent of the JET participants' salaries
ultimately stays in Japan and is recycled into the local economy. Thus the
JET Program is not only a generous gift to the youth of participating countries but also a massive public works program.9
    Moreover, Ministry of Home Affairs officials had an inside track in appropriating funding. Unlike the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, it had dozens of "old boys" in the Diet. And as we will see, Home Affairs had the blessing of the Nakasone administration on this proposal.
Virtually without effort, it was able to acquire funding for the program.
    Once the major hurdle of funding JET participants' salaries was cleared,
the next problem was to finance the program's administration. While small
grants have been obtained from the Japan Lottery Association and from
the Motor Car Racing Association, the bulk of the funding has come from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), which agreed to assist with funding
for the Tokyo orientation, the midyear and renewers' conferences, and the
production of training manuals and teaching resources. The SPF's financial
support in fiscal year 199o stood at roughly $1.27 million dollars.10 Support from the SPF has certainly raised some eyebrows, as its founder,
Sasakawa Ryoichi, is renowned in Japan for both his philanthropy and his
alleged links to underworld crime. Scheduled to be hanged for war crimes
in 1948, Sasakawa received a last-minute pardon, and he has gone on to become one of Japan's most generous and visible private promoters of cultural exchange and peacemaking activities. Nevertheless, his conduct during the war years, his sympathy for right-wing causes, and his rumored
earlier connections with the underworld continue to shadow his foundation. Though officials in the Council of Local Authorities for International
Relations were often reluctant in public to discuss the background of
Sasakawa, I found no indication that the SPF influenced program policy.
According to one Home Affairs official, "They're a real pain about making
sure we publicly acknowledge their assistance, but they've never interfered
in decision making about program content."

    CULTURAL EXCHANGE AS DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY:
THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
    Once a viable plan for financing the program had been formulated, the
next step was to secure the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in recruiting JET participants through its overseas consulates. Nose recalls:
    After my proposal was adopted by our ministry we took it to Foreign
Affairs. That was the year when the Maekawa Report was written due
to the severe economic conflict between Japan and the United States.
My counterpart there was Mr. Sato. I believe he was director of general
affairs at the time. Anyway, I remember that he was the person who actually acted on the idea. He approved the idea as soon as he heard about
it and asked me if it would be all right to present the plan at the
Reagan-Nakasone summit.... I believe Nakasone ended up telling
Reagan about it directly.]]
    As