The Phila-Nipponica Project

Phila-Nipponica 2010: Japan in the 21 st Century
Now Accepting Applications!
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Please join us for our information session on Thursday, December 10 at 4:30PM.

Where: Arch Building, Crest Room
3601 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104

4:30 pm Registration, refreshments, and spectacular slide
show of Japan
5-6 pm Learn about Japan in the 21st Century

Please reserve your place by calling or e-mailing Nicole Riley, nriley@sas.upenn.edu or 215-573-4203.

Information Session Poster
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Preparing to teach about contemporary Japan - For educators in the Greater Philadelphia area

The University of Pennsylvania Center for East Asian Studies is pleased to announce that it will offer the 11th year in the Phila-Nipponica Project, a series that has helped over one hundred teachers in the Greater Philadelphia area enhance their classroom teaching about Japan and Asia through seminars, summer study tours, and curriculum development assistance devoted to Japan .

Japan in the 21 st Century is intended to educate “beginners” about Japan and will offer a broad base of history and culture. In addition, this project will have a new and compelling focus: participants will develop an understanding of 21 st century Japan —the internationally important changes taking place in Japanese politics, economics, and culture that Americans must understand to teach our next generation of citizens and leaders.

We are currently seeking applications from social studies and humanities teachers in middle and high schools who have a strong interest in developing or enhancing a Japan studies program.

Project activities include:

Twelve teachers will be selected to participate this year in the project.

All applications must be submitted to the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania . The deadline for submitting applications is January 22, 2010. All applicants will be notified whether or not they have been accepted to this project by February 5, 2010 .

Application Form

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General Information about the Project

For the last decade the University of Pennsylvania and the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia have partnered successfully with the US–Japan Foundation in the Phila-Nipponica Project, preparing educators in our area's schools to convey knowledge and understanding of Japan to their students and colleagues. We have prepared a total of 120 teachers in the introductory Phila-Nipponica projects: 20 teachers in each of six years intensively studied Japan during seminars conducted by Penn faculty and in faculty-led study-tours of Japan .

The results from these efforts over the course of the decade are both widespread and deep in impact. By a conservative calculation, the total number of students who have been taught about Japan in the Greater Philadelphia area as a result of the Phila-Nipponica Project is about 30,000. The depth of the outcome is measured in the classes, after-school clubs, and special inter-school projects that are now devoted to the study of Japan, and the on-going relationships that have been established between American and Japanese schools and students.

We are pleased to announce that the latest version of this program has received funding through 2010. It will be entitled Japan in the 21 st Century: Preparing to Teach about Contemporary Japan in the Greater Philadelphia Area

The goal of this project is the preparation of a new cohort of Philadelphia-area middle- and high school educators to teach about Japan , in three groups of 12, over the course of the years 2008, 2009, and 2010. We will recruit and select each year a group of highly qualified educators, through rigorous competition on the basis of proposals, recommendations, and commitment of support from their school principals.

The teacher preparation will encompass three periods throughout the year. In spring, the teachers will be given background education in three Preparation Seminars. In summer, the participants will engage in a Study Tour of Japan, and in fall, they will participate in three Curriculum Development Workshops.

We encourage teachers to sign up for our list serve, in order to receive information about Phila-Nipponica Project deadlines, as well as other opportunities offered by the Center for East Asian Studies.