Staff writer

U.S.-Japan relations may hinge on grand strategic and economic issues, but for members of Japan-America Societies in both countries, often assimilating into each other's cultures and creating programs to facilitate this absorption remain the priorities.

That was the consensus of many participants in the international symposium of Japan-America Societies in Fukuoka earlier this month. The three-day symposium was the second time ever that society representatives from across the United States and Japan gathered in such a setting, after initially meeting in Hawaii in 1995.