JUSFC Marks 15th Anniversary of the Triple Disaster, Reaffirms Commitment to the U.S.-Japan Partnership

March 11, 2026

In its 50th year of strengthening the U.S.-Japan partnership, the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) acknowledges today, March 11, to mark the 15th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. JUSFC joins the people of Japan and the global community in remembering the lives lost and the communities forever, changed. It is a day that reminds us that resilience is at the very heart of the U.S.-Japan relationship. This partnership is one of the most consequential in the world, and one of the most resilient. For decades it has adapted and grown stronger through changing circumstances, shared challenges, and new opportunities. That resilience is not only strategic, it is personal. It lives in the personal and professional connections between researchers, educators, business leaders, artists, Members of Congress and local communities.

On the eve of this anniversary, JUSFC dedicated Looking, After the Fire - Tower of Resilience, a sculpture created through the JUSFC-NEA U.S.-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship Program. A binational team of artists, Daniel B. Spiegel, Megumi Aihara, Tamotsu Teshima and company spent nearly a year learning from one another and building this work together. The sculpture was originally displayed at the U.S. Pavilion at the Expo 2025 in Osaka and has now found a home at the MacArthur House - the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Tokyo. "This tower reminds us that the U.S.-Japan alliance is not only strategic-it is deeply human, rooted in how our two nations support each other through loss and recovery," said Executive Director Paige Cottingham-Streater. Congress established JUSFC in 1975 with a clear mandate: to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship through educational, cultural, and intellectual exchange.

As the agency celebrates its 50th anniversary and the United States prepares to mark its 250th, JUSFC reflects on a half century of consistent, targeted investments in people and partnerships that have made vital contributions to promoting U.S. interests, peace, prosperity, and security in the Indo-Pacific, and to sustaining the people-to-people ties that give the U.S.-Japan Alliance its enduring strength.

Through its partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), JUSFC has supported more than 200 American artists in residencies across Japan. The same fellowship program that produced the Tower of Resilience also supported filmmaker Regge Life in creating the documentary , chronicling the life of Taylor Anderson, a JET Programme participant and Assistant Language Teacher in Ishinomaki who lost her life on March 11, 2011.

Last month, the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON) convened in Okinawa, where messages from President Trump and Prime Minister Takaichi affirmed the vital role that cultural and educational exchange plays in strengthening the U.S.-Japan partnership.

Today, as we remember the events of 15 years ago, we do so with a renewed commitment to the future and to the next generation of leaders and artists who will carry this partnership forward.