A Japan-U.S. joint scholarship program for Okinawan students and researchers, named for the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, will be opened on Friday, Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine said Monday.
The Obuchi Okinawa Education and Research Program will enable graduate students and scholars in the prefecture to study at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
U.S. President Bill Clinton announced a plan to create the scholarship program when he delivered a speech at a war memorial in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, during his visit to the prefecture in July for the Group of Eight summit.
Under the program, aimed at promoting bilateral friendship and understanding, the United States has secured $200,000 for three Okinawan graduate students to study at the University of Hawaii via the center in the current U.S. fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, Inamine said.
Japan will utilize funds at the government-linked Japan Foundation for international cultural exchanges to dispatch three Okinawa-based researchers to the center, he said.