In 1990, the Japanese Political Science Association (JPSA) and the APSA initiated a formal exchange program. Every year, the JPSA invites APSA representatives to attend our annual meeting—where they have a joint session with Japanese members—and sends two JPSA representatives to the APSA Annual Meeting. In 2004, APSA President Margaret Levi (University of Washington) and Ian Shapiro (Yale University) attended the JPSA meeting in Sapporo; the JPSA exchange participants in the APSA Annual Meeting in Chicago were Ryosuke Amiya (Kobe University) and Kensuke Takayasu (Hokkaido University).

In the early years of the exchanges, APSA members tended to present on American politics, while JPSA members would present papers on Japanese politics. This is still a natural and very productive process of academic exchange which surely increases mutual understanding of the respective countries' politics and political science. But as academic communications between Japan and the U.S. dramatically increased in the 1990s in various forms, including international conferences and joint research projects outside of this formal exchange, we began promoting wider participation: not just scholars in American and Japanese politics but also in such fields as comparative politics, political theory, and international relations. For instance, this year Professor Shapiro presented a paper on democratic settlements in South Africa, the Middle East and Northern Ireland, while Professor Amiya presented on EU integration. We think this is a very positive development that contributes to Japanese political science, and strongly hope our academic exchanges will flourish further in the coming years.