Nippon Foundation

This article is about a non-governmental organisation. For the unrelated, semi-governmental organisation, see Japan Foundation.

The Nippon Foundation
Founded1 October 1962 (1962-10-01)[1]
Founder
FocusEducation, healthcare, maritime industry
Location
Area served
Global
MethodDonations and Grants
Key people
Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman
Takeju Ogata, President
Revenue
30,938,893,000JPY (FY2012)[2]
Employees
94 (2012)[3]
Websitewww.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/
Nippon Foundation headquarters in Akasaka, Tokyo

The Nippon Foundation (日本財団, Nipponzaidan) of Tokyo, Japan, is a private, non-profit grant-making organization. It was established in 1962 by Ryoichi Sasakawa. The foundation's mission is to direct Japanese motorboat racing revenue into philanthropic activities, it uses this money to pursue global maritime development and assistance for humanitarian work, both at home and abroad. In the humanitarian field, it focuses on such fields as social welfare, public health, and education. The foundation has also been criticized for promoting Japanese historical revisionism,[4] particularly in whitewashing Japanese war crimes committed in World War II.

In 2001, the Peruvian Congress determined that the foundation financed forced sterilizations in that country (1990-1999).

Since 2003 the foundation has promoted sign language with the aim of allowing deaf people to fully participate in society, in this way, they created scholarships for deaf people at Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) of USA.[5]

The current chairman is Yohei Sasakawa, World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for National Reconciliation in Myanmar, and the son of the foundation's founder, Ryoichi Sasakawa.

  1. ^ The Nippon Foundation Library, accessed 14 March 2013
  2. ^ "Nippon Foundation financial statements ,"
  3. ^ Nippon Foundation – Careers (Japanese), accessed 14 March 2013
  4. ^ "History on Trial: French Nippon Foundation Sues Scholar for Libel to Protect the Honor of Sasakawa Ryōichi—— •French, Japanese documents available".
  5. ^ "Nippon Foundation Scholars". Gallaudet University. Retrieved 22 June 2022.