The Nippon Foundation

The Nippon Foundation 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, particularly in whitewashing Japanese war crimes committed in World War II. 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. 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.Read More