WASHINGTON — When current participants in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program gather, the discussion often focuses on English teaching methods. When the program's U.S. alumni get together, however, talk often turns to a weightier subject: U.S. foreign policy toward Japan.

Since the program was established in 1987, it has brought tens of thousands of young Americans to Japan for cultural exchanges with a focus on teaching English.

Although the program has an uneven track record when it comes to improving Japanese students' English, it has quietly and unexpectedly become a powerful tool for achieving another objective: grooming the next generation of American leadership in U.S.-Japan relations.