The amount of Japanese cultural and educational activities conducted in Latin America has been flat or in decline over the last five years. The Japan Foundation, the largest Japanese nonprofit organization engaged in international cultural exchange, spent around 800 million yen on activities related to Latin America in 2001, but in 2004 this amount fell to 500 million yen, a drop of almost 40 percent.
There are several factors behind the Japan Foundation's drastic reduction in expenditure in Latin America over the past few years.
First of all, the downward trend reflects the declining involvement of Japanese intellectuals, journalists and artists in activities related to Latin America. (The number of Japanese citizens who stay abroad for more than three months, excluding Japanese emigrants, increased during 2004 in all regions of the world except Latin America, where the figure fell by 1.1 percent.)