New York is a beacon of hope for the free world. We are the beating heart, not just of the United States, but of the world and the global financial markets. The current moment defines our generation and the future world to come.

As Japan comes back from its Golden Week and Children’s Day, and here in America we’ve just celebrated Giving Tuesday as we joined with countless nonprofits across the world to promote the work we do, we are challenged to ask ourselves what we can do for today and future generations. At the Japan Society we can stay true to our mission of bringing the U.S. and Japan closer together — which we have been doing since 1907 — along with reimagining what that future will look like.

I sincerely believe that the U.S.-Japan relationship is going to come through this pandemic even stronger than before, and will be further defined by it. Just as 9/11 forever changed the way we travel, the way we think about security, making clear the trade-offs between privacy and security, the pandemic has already altered the way we think about our own health. We are interconnected to everyone else in a way that we have never been forced to consider before.