The Japan Media Communication Center (JAMCO) promotes international cooperation through outstanding television programs with the aims of furthering mutual understanding between Japan and other countries and making contributions to both broadcasting and social progress in the developing world. JAMCO has, as one of its core activities, organized international conferences on diverse media, international cooperation and other related themes almost yearly since its establishment in 1991.

This year, for the 31st JAMCO International Symposium, we have chosen the theme of Thinking about the Meaning of Life in a Time of Global Crises. There will be online reports and discussions by researchers, other specialists, and people engaged directly in media, educational and corporate fields, and we also look forward to receiving everyone’s feedback and opinions about these.

JAMCO’s core activity is the selection of television programs broadcast in Japan that are suitable for sharing with the people of developing countries, and production of their international versions translated into English, Spanish, French and other languages. As of 2022, our center held 1,836 international versions of programs in its extensive library across a broad range of genres from drama to children’s and educational programs and documentaries. We had supplied 14,067 programs to 100 countries in regions including Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe, Central and South America and other regions as of March, 2022, and the number continues to grow. Depending on the country, some of these international versions have been translated again for broadcast in the local language, or used as teaching materials at universities and other institutions.

The world in 2023 is confronted by a number of major crises that threaten people’s ways of life and are producing growing anxiety everywhere. They include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the food and energy crises and consumer price inflation triggered by it, and also still the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which has now entered its fourth year. Countries in the developed and developing worlds alike are cooperating to tackle these special challenges. At the present symposium, we shall hear a broad selection of reports researched and written against this shared background of global crises on topics that range from international cooperation for the democratization of media services to support for refugees in schools and job creation activity in the developing world, all of which I am sure will be of great utility. I am hopeful, too, that this symposium will contribute much to JAMCO’s own future activities, and for this I depend on everyone’s continuing support.